IAGB Organizes a Panel Discussion about how to Get Involved in your Town Governance

As Tip O’Neill famously said, “All Politics is local”. IAGB brings you a panel discussion involving some of our very own local Indian Americans who are working tirelessly to serve their respective local community.

Have you ever wondered where are your town’s capital expenses going? Are your tax dollars being put to right use? Have you ever wondered how your town will look like in 5 years or that your child deserves to have an Indian cultural assimilation in school itself?  If you have ever wondered about similar issues, it’s time to think about ways to get these questions answered and if you can play an active role in your town governance.  IAGB is organizing an informational seminar on engaging in your civic duty. Join a panel session with members of our community who serve on various governance positions in their respective towns. The panel session is on May 18^th, 2019 at Burlington Public Library from 1.30 to 2.30pm.

Panelists:

Jayashree Voruganti:

Jayashree Voruganti, our very own past president from 2015-2017, has taken a much larger role in public space lately to support and create awareness of civic duties and responsibilities within Indian American community in Burlington and surrounding areas.

She is currently serving as a member of the Burlington Town's Ways and Means (W&M) Committee, also known as Finance Committee, whose responsibility is to approve Town’s budget involving town affairs (approximately $150 Million Dollars).  She also represents W&M Committee on the School subcommittee.  She recently contested for the Town Meeting Member for precinct 1.  

She also held a similar event for local town governance to introduce town candidates contesting for various town positions such as Selectman, Library Trustees, School Committee trustees, planning board, Constables, etc. 

Jayashree hopes that one day we could build a platform where Indian community can show the “power in number” and get the visibility we deserve at local, state and national levels.   

K G Narayanan:

KG Narayanan has been a very active member of local community in Ashland and Metro West Area. He started his engagement in civic matters as a member of Ashland Cultural committee for the period of 6 years (2 term member), along with member of the charter review committee for 2 years.

He is currently an elected member of the Board of Health serving in that capacity for 5 years.  Some of work done in the committee includes:

·         Develops policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.

·         Diagnoses and investigates health problems and health hazards in the community.

·         Enforces laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.

·         Informs, educates and empowers people about health issues.

·         Links people with needed personal health services and assures the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.

·         Mobilizes community partnerships to identify and solve health problems.

·         Monitors health status to identify community health problems.

He is also an appointed member of Conservation commission serving in that capacity in 5th year and recently has become a part of member of Dementia friendly committee for over a year. 

Ravish Kumar :

Ravish is a Town Meeting Member- Precinct 7 for Town of Lexington since 2015.

Ravish has also been actively involved with structuring and strengthening iGIG (Indian Americans Getting Involved Group), a volunteer organization with a mission to actively reach, educate and encourage Lexington Indian Americans to participate in the governance of the Town of Lexington and its committees. He currently serves as the First Vice- President of iGIG

Since 2017, Ravish has served as the Co-president of IAL (Indian Americans of Lexington), a volunteer civic organization with its mission to celebrate and share the diverse Indian culture, heritage and values to benefit the community.

Ravish is part of the prestigious Lions White Tricorne Hat 2019 Selection Committee. Each year, since 1954, the White Tricorne Hat award has honored an outstanding resident of the town of Lexington on Patriots Day.

About IAGB:

IAGB strives to engage in a delicate balancing act. On one hand, we recognize the need to provide opportunities to our members to treasure and celebrate the native traditions and cultures while simultaneously encouraging them to blend in to become a single larger community with common goals and objectives in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. To that end, be it honoring the Indian Americans in Civic Services or getting the visa camp to our area or taking the voice of first ever Indian American primary congressional candidate to community, IAGB has worked diligently to create a visible presence for community in state and give the platform to Indian American community in Civic Services area.   

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