Remarks by Madeline Ziniak, Chairperson, Canadian Ethnic Media Association, at its BGM, held on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2006, in the boardroom of OMNI-TV, 545 Lakeshore Blvd. West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Below we have pictures of the meeting, including a picture of two new board members.
EXCERPTS FROM HER REMARKS:
This year, we decided upon a name more reflective of our inclusiveness we became CEMA and this change has been reflected in much wider interest in membership.With Bill Yancoff as events chair, we found a wonderful venue for our seasons dinner which gave us the most successful event of its kind, enhanced by his auctioneering skills enabling us to give you a quality dinner with wine at an amazingly low cost. Similarly, this years awards gala was a fantastic success for which we thank Rogers Communications not only for providing us with a free venue but also allowing us the use of the spectacular patio for our post-show reception. I would like to add that our policy of having entries evaluated by an independent board of judges preserves our integrity as media, which are often under fire these days for lack of objectivity. We do not bestow plaques just because of long membership. As well as awards in four categories we present the Sierhey Khmara Ziniak Award in honour of the founder.It is awarded to the professional who through his/her example has best advanced the cause of multiculturalism. This years winner Jack Jedwab of the Association For Canadian Studies earned he award for creating the quarterly journal Diversity/Diversit.As Treasurer Irene Chu will show you in her treasurers report we are in good financial shape and once again able to enter a new CEMA year without raising membership fees. Click here to read her report. For our first Thursday gatherings we attracted a number of distinguished speakers and panellists, all or whom helped us fill this room to capacity. Some of the subjects deal with included the relevance of the monarchy, the new immigration agreement signed by Ontario and the federal government, the growing appeal of ethnic media to the mainstream advertiser and a members plan to create a shrine to multiculturalism at the Hummingbird Centre.After a great deal of deliberation and trial and error we finally settled on an ID card that is acceptable to a majority of members and plan on early delivery each year as soon as fees are paid.We have great expectations for the twelve months ahead and intend to intensify our campaign to create greater awareness among all Canadians of the important role ethnic media play in orientation of newcomers, assisting in settlement and keeping all of us in touch with our countries of origin.
In conclusion, I wish to thank my fellow board members and our general membership which has supported us so well during the past two years.
Two new board members, Anil Shringi and Kiu Rezvanifar. Kiu has two Farsi (Iranian) programs on OMNI-TV for many years. Anil has his own radio show, musicIndia.
The members present elected the following to the CEMA Executive and to the Board.
Chair, Madeline Ziniak;
President, Ben Viccari;
Treasurer, Irene Chu;
First Vice-President and Secretary, Ace Alvarez;
Second Vice-President, Jules Elder;
Events Chair, Bill Yancoff;
Webmaster and editor, CEMA News, Zuhair (Kash) Kashmeri.
Board members:
Vera K Plawuszczak,
Hyo Kim,
Rolf Latka,
Dat Nguyen,
Kati Rekai,
Hasanat Ahmad Syed,
Elena Zolotko,
Anil Shringi’
and Kiu Rezvanifar.
Some of the participants at the BGM…
…Mingling over refreshments at the conclusion of CEMA’s 2006 BGM…
Bill Yancoff and Madeline Ziniak drawing tickets for lucky prize winners
