11/22/2022
Salaam All:
BTA and Shikor have decided to participate in the upcoming Victory Day (Bijoy Dibosh) celebration of 2022 organized by Bangladesh Association of Phoenix (BAP) on December 10, recognizing the leadership of BAP and supporting the effort to unite the community. BAP is elected from the community members to represent all Bangladeshis of Phoenix/Arizona and holds a place above all other organizations (including BTA, Shikor). Therefore, BTA is, and will continue in, providing support to BAP in successful ex*****on of their programs and will refrain from creating any conflicting programs.
Due to the ever-evolving nature of the community, some history of the Bijoy Dibosh program may be of relevance. In 2013, few organizations (BAP, BTA, IBA, BSA, and AABEA) came together as founding members to form a Bijoy Dibosh Committee to celebrate it over a 2-day period with full transparency to the Committee and to the greater community. All organizations except the students (BSA) contributed towards the expenses of the program while different coordinators (for example, Toru, Palash, Vashkar, and others) were assigned to plan and execute different parts of the event (Spelling Bee, Cultural program, Art, Bangladesh Bee, Venue, Guest speaker, Food, etc.). While the formation of this Committee was completely voluntary, this Committee approach ran successfully until 2018.
During 2019-2021, some individuals from the past committee resorted to their own selection process. Unfortunately, BTA/Shikor was not invited to participate in this effort as an “organizer”. Particularly, in 2021 there was an effort by BAP to revive the Committee approach to represent all the founding organizations as well as new ones, but it fell short due to the lack of willingness of members of some organizations to meet and execute as a Committee with full transparency (as originally intended). BTA decided to refrain from adding its name as “organizer” since there was no Committee supporting that model and decisions were being taken based on individual preferences. In the interest of community, Shikor kids volunteered to participate in few short performances.
In early 2022, BAP, the umbrella organization in the valley where all Bangladeshis are members, expressed the intention to address the concern of fairness and transparency regarding celebration of Bangladeshi national events and suggested that these should be organized by BAP. Once the new BAP Executive Committee was elected in 2022, they took the initiative forward and adopted the policy to organize all Bangladeshi national events. This was done in a Town Hall meeting with leaders of the Bangladeshi community. In May 2022, BAP published a roadmap which included the celebration of Bijoy Dibosh 2022. As expected from BAP, they have invited all relevant organizations to participate in forming a Bijoy Dibosh Committee 2022 like in the past (2013-2018) and the meeting was concluded with all attendees agreeing to abide by a set of policies. Unfortunately, the policies were later questioned by one of the attending organizations to which BAP provided a response in disagreement to the concern(s) as well as the alternate proposal(s). BTA continues to stay united with BAP decisions and finds it imperative to acknowledge such effort. Hence BTA is committed to support in making this program successful on Dec 10 as communicated by BAP under the title “Bijoy Mela and Pitha Utshob”.
We encourage all BTA members, Shikor parents, and the greater community to assist BTA-Shikor in a successful participation of “Bijoy Mela and Pitha Utshob on Dec 10” organized by BAP. Please feel free to reach out to BTA/Shikor leadership for any further clarification.
Thanks.
Arif
(on behalf of BTA/Shikor)
