Working Committee Meeting
Feb. 21, 2004 

A meeting of the CUSCAA Working Committee was held at the residence of Tarak and Shikha Bhar on Saturday,  February 21st , 2-5 p.m.   The attendees were:

Tarak/Shikha Bhar
Tapas Pradhan
Dilip Som
Ranjan Gupta
Kaushik/Sheela Ray
Parthasarathi Mitra  

The agenda items discussed included:
1. Revisiting the topics discussed in the last Annual meeting. 

It was decided that the Membership Fee of CUSCAA would be set at $10.00.  This fee would be waived for temporary residents.  Also, a new form of "live membership" would be introduced for a one-time fee of $100.  Live members would not have to pay the annual dues but would be expected to pay the on-site fees charged for picnics/socials, etc. 

2. Fixing the date and agenda for Picnic (Note: Sanskriti Picnic is set for June 19)

The date of the Annual Picnic was set for Saturday, July 17, 2004. 

The venue suggested was Black Hill Regional Park.  Free park benches may be available at this regional park, on a first come first serve basis.  If free benches are available, the picnic goers would be notified in advance to meet at a specific shelter from where they would be directed to the spot chosen for the day.  Kaushik Ray and Dilip Som will investigate further regarding availability of space.

Partha Mukherjee and Dilip Som will draft flyers and post at the CUSCAA website.  CUSCAA members will be notified far in advance by email and these flyers will also be mailed to the members 3 weeks prior to the picnic. 

Parthasarathi Mitra will provide all mailing addresses to Utpal Dasgupta, who will then print out adhesive mailing labels and send to Ranjan Gupta.  Ranjan will download the online flyer, make copies and mail them out by the last week of June. 

Kaushik will be in charge of the entertainment activities (such as sports for children and adults)

Food will be managed by Aparna Pradhan, Sheela Ray and Shikha Bhar. 

3. Hosting CUSCAA-sponsored Calcutta University Reunion at Banga Sammelan 2004. The cost will be about  $100. This would provide an opportunity to meet number of alumni from all around the US and Canada, and also to showcase CUSCAA activities.

It was decided that CUSCAA would sponsor a Calcutta University Reunion at Banga Sanmelan 2004.  The format preferred would be to host a half-hour or one-hour mixer/reception in a specific room designated by the Sanmelan organizers.  Dilip Som will check with the Sanmelan organizers regarding the possibility of displaying a poster announcement for this mixer in the hallway, in order to get maximum attention of the Sanmelan attendees.

4. CUSCAA Annual Meeting will be held on Saturday, November 6, 2004.  Kaushik Ray will organize the Cultural Program.

5. Miscellaneous: The Working Committee also discussed the possibility of opening CUSCAA to all CU alumni.  Dilip will send out an email to all CUSCAA members to solicit comments on this item. 

Minutes of the Sixth CUSCAA Meeting
December 8, 2001

The sixth annual Calcutta University Science College Alumni Association (CUSCAA) meeting was held on December 8, 2001 at Robert Frost Middle School, Rockville, MD. In spite of inclement weather, the turnout was an overwhelming one and the event was a grand success. We had more than 60 people at the meeting.

The meeting was followed by a nice cultural program performed by Pritwish Dasgupta (disciple of Debabrata Biswas) and Mandira Sarkar (disciple of Chabi Banerjee). Enayet Rajjak played Tabla with both of them.

Dinner was served afterward. Both the cultural program and dinner was enjoyed by the members.

Topics discussed in the meeting:

• Remembering late Ranjit Dasgupta and his contributions to CUSCAA.

• Allocating $200/$250 from the CUSCAA fund to buy books for the Physics Dept, Science College in the memory of Ranjit Dasgupta. We can also raise money from individuals to add to this fund to make a bigger contribution.

• Raise fund to contribute to the new Technology Campus of Calcutta University. Since CUSCAA is not a non-profit organization, our contributions will not be tax deductible. An idea came about that if we can redirect the money through Sanskriti, our local Bengali organization which happens to a non-profit organization. We need to find out if we can do this and still CUSCAA is recognized by the CU as the donor.

• An Issue was raised whether to send any contribution for the new Tech Campus until we find out the actual status of the project. There has been some skepticism that after we send our contribution, the money might not be used in the near future.

Dilip Som
on behalf of the CUSCAA Executive Committee

Minutes of the Second CUSCAA Meeting
November 8, 1997 

The second annual Calcutta University Science College Alumni Association (CUSCAA) meeting was held on November 8, 1997 at Briggs Chanev Middle School, Silver Spring, MD. In spite of inclement weather, the turnout was an overwhelming one and the event was a grand success.

Tarak Bhar welcomed the members with his opening remarks about the association's eventful success and the fruitful achievement so far. He remarked that CUSCAA already sent two books to the library of the Physics Dept· and some software programs to the Computer Center of the University, of Calcutta. He also reminded the members about the finalization of the CUSCAA brochure, the first beautiful publication of the newsletter and the creation of CUSCAA homepage.

Ranjit Dasgupta discussed that currently all our members are from the greater Washington area and we drastically need the out of area membership drive. He proposed $10 out of area membership fee and reduction of current $20 annual fee for local members in order to encourage the membership drive. However, after some discussions from the floor, it was decided to keep the annual membership fee at $20 per person for all members.

Jagadish Sharma discussed in details the guidelines of CUSCAA academic excellence award to the first year Science College students of the University of Calcutta. Manoj Banerjee raised an issue that the award should also be considered for the students of other universities too. After some discussions from the floor, it was suggested that 1) the award for the time being will be based on the highest scores in the B.Sc. (Hons.) Exam of the Calcutta University students 2) the amount of each award will be $100.00 3) the current fields under consideration are Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Zoology, Botany, Psychology, Physiology, and Statistics 4) the number of award to be given in a particular year will be determined at the annual CUSCAA meeting of the preceding year 5) the proposed award is due to start from 1998.

Tarak Bhar announced that the CUSCAA newsletter will be published at least once a year. He suggested that while the members are visiting Calcutta, they try to contact the respective departments and if possible, other departments too, to get some feedback from the Calcutta University staff. He urged all members to participate fully to make our organization a better and successful one.

We are extremely pleased that three members a) Deb Chatterjee (301-251-4732) b) Kalisankar Mallick (410-252-4865) and Utpal Mukhopadhyay (703-319-7710) agreed to serve in the present working committee.

The general meeting was followed by an exciting and truly enjoyable cultural programs like Rabindra Sangeet by Pramita Chattejee, recitation by Arun Chakrabarti, Nazrulgeeti and Bhajan by Namita Kundu, modern Hindi and Bengali songs by Mitali Saha and last but not least, Mime by Kamanashis Chakravorty and Jayanta Sarkar.

Finally, all the attendees enjoyed a very palatable and delicious dinner with varieties of foods and sweets. It was really an enjoyable and successful night to remember.

Tapas Pradhan, on behalf of the CUSCAA Working Committee