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Dear Melkoniants Brothers & Sisters, I have today faxed to Mr Setrakian the following letter regarding our Meeting with him last Tuesday. This is only a formal request for his confirmation on the pronouncements that he made at the meeting. I know there are a lot of "if"s and "but"s and loose ends, but I believe these are the topics that he mainly dwelt on. Please treat this as information only! Sincerely, GARO KASSABIAN, California Melkonian Alumni ============================================================ Monday, October 27, 2003 Mr Berge Setrakian, President, AGBU Central Board of Directors, 55 East, 59th Street, NEY YORK, NY 10022-1112.
Dear Mr Setrakian, Every member of the California Melkonian Alumni Board greatly appreciated your kind gesture of postponing your departure from Los Angeles so that you could meet with us last Tuesday afternoon, October 21, 2003, at the AGBU Center in Pasadena, CA., to share the anticipated fate of the Melkonian Educational Institute which has been a deserving symbol of one major mission of AGBU for the past 77 years: the continuation of educated Armenian generations in the diaspora. For the benefit of all the Alumni members who were not present to hear you, I would like to outline the main points you made at this meeting where Mr Yenovk Balikian, and Mr & Mrs Karnig Karayan were also present. While we had a formal written agenda for said meeting, we did not follow it point by point. But you covered most of them, if not all. However, if it is not against the AGBU policy, we would like to find out in some detail the budget of Melkonian for the past 5 years. We should be much obliged if you would provide us with details about the budget deficit and an income and expense statement. We believe that this information may serve MEI Alumni members to better appreciate AGBU's considerations and may motivate them to participate with their active support, moral as well as financial. If a membership requirement is needed to acquire this information, we have such members. Another topic on the agenda was the Joint Melkonian Alumni Declaration which was e-mailed to you on October 9, 2003. Kindly note that said Declaration is the _expression of a deep feeling of denial against the possibility of closure or sale of an educational institution which has been a lighthouse for several generations of Armenian youth in the Diaspora. Therefore it should not be construed as a war cry against the AGBU, our respected and loved Organization. The following points are comments we believe you made. We should greatly appreciate if you would go over them and make changes if they are incorrect: 1. AGBU is in the process of preparing a booklet to be published in December, 2003, depicting the past, the present and the future plans of Melkonian Institute in Cyprus. 2. No decision is made at this time regarding the sale or closure of the Institute. 3. Sale of Melkonian is out of the question. There is no such thing. 4. The MEI "saga" has been on the agenda of the AGBU Central Board of Directors for 25 out of 27 years that you have been on the Board. But the sale of the Institute has never been considered. 5. The rumors of pending sale of MEI started based on articles that had appeared in the Armenian press early this year, which were inflamatory and incorrect. 6. Gordon Anderson is a financial and management advisor who has tremendous experience in the field of educational institutions. Because of his qualifications, he was hired by AGBU to look into not only MEI but also American University of Armenia and other schools. His findings will result in advising the Board to improve the operation of the institutions in question. 7. A Committee which will include respected Melkonian Alumni members will decide, among other things, about the "Boarding School" status of MEI. If it is decided to discontinue, the "Boarding School" will be phased out. 8. Presently, out of 205 to 208 students (mainly non-paying), 25% is from Armenia - all non-paying. AGBU does not want to encourage students from Armenia to attend MEI. The major function of MEI is to save the diaspora Armenians from loosing their national identity. It goes without saying that Armenians in Armenia do not fall in that category. 9. A Melkonian "town" complex in Armenia could provide a means of bringing up to 500 diaspora youth to Armenia for a total immersion into our culture and language. This is just one possibility one could consider. 10. The MEI budget deficit is not a major concern of AGBU, since the combined deficit of all AGBU schools is about $5 million. 11. The AGBU is financially in good shape and total assets exceed $300 million with new major bequests being added all the time. This year alone a $12 million donation and also some other major donations were made to the AGBU. The operational budget is in good standing, and rumors to the contrary are false. 12. As long as AGBU exists, Melkonian Educational Institute or Melkonian Brothers' mission will perpetuate. We would greatly appreciate your earliest response. Also please let us know if we could release this information to all the Alumni members through the Alumni Website or in the form of e-mail, and/or press communication. With best regards from us all. Sincerely, GARO KASSABIAN Chairman, California Melkonian Alumni |