Executive Committee
President: Venkat Kodali 414-732-0059
Vice President: Kumar Iyer 262-794-0674
Secretary: Anoop Dhingra 262-252-7185
Treasurer: Suneeti Joshi 262-784-7796
Board Members
Dr. Kishore Acharya 262-389-5684
Mr. Anand Adavi 414-529-2746
Ms. Anu Bansal 262-250-0331
Dr. Lakshmi Bharardwaj 414-964-5751
Dr. Anoop Dhingra 262-252-7185
Dr. Kumar Iyer 262-794-0674
Ms. Suneeti Joshi 262-784-7796
Mr. Laxman Kailas 920-251-1093
Mr. Venkat Kodali 414-732-0059
Mr. Surinder Makhija 262-790-9484
Dr. Sadanand Manoli 414-228-0440
Mr. Prabhakar Rao 414-282-8480
Mr. Dinesh Sanghavi 414-228-7327
Mr. Sarit Singhal 262-227-4300
Ms. Vasundhara Sekhar 262-786-5572
Dr. Ramgopal Tumuluri 262-827-2959
Mr. Yash Wadhwa 414-352-9427
President Venkat Kodali's New Year Message
Dear Devotees:
I would like to begin by extending my New Year’s Wishes to the entire Indian community served by the Hindu Temple of Wisconsin. May the Almighty Lord continue to shower His grace upon all of us in the coming year. A full-day of festivities is planned at the Temple for January 1st and I would like to invite all of you to participate in these events and usher in the New Year in a spiritual way.
I am very pleased to inform you that Ananda Adavi, Kumar Iyer, Laxman Kailash, Dinesh Sanghavi, and Dr. Ram Tumuluri will be joining the Board of Directors. The energetic individuals bring a wealth of experience and ideas to the table and are looking forward to working on behalf of the Temple in the coming year.
As a new Executive Committee (myself, Kumar Iyer, Suneeti Joshi and Anoop Dhingra) and new/continuing Board of Directors accept responsibility for day-to-day operations of the Temple, I would like thank outgoing President Kumud Ji for his tireless service to the Temple over the last nine years including the past two years as the Temple President. He started, championed, and brought to fruition many initiatives during his service to the Temple. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank outgoing Board members, Amrit Patel, Dr. Anil Doniparthi, Dr. Sanat Gandhi and Ramesh Shah for their selfless service to the Indian community and the Temple.
While we recognize the immense responsibility that has been placed upon us and the challenges that lie ahead, we are really looking to serving the community and help the Temple reach even newer heights in the coming years. I am very fortunate to be working with a very talented and experienced group of individuals who share my vision on the steps we need to take so that Temple provides a rich and spiritually uplifting experience for each and every devotee who walks in through the Temple doors.
We have identified many areas that we would like to get started on right away in 2010. These include improving the customer service, enhancing devotee satisfaction, hiring new/retaining Temple priest(s), strengthening educational offerings for young children, improving the communication with the devotees and expanding cafeteria offerings.
Customer service: This is the most important item of all. We plan to place lot more emphasis on providing better customer service through the office managers helping the devotees schedule the pujas, the interaction of priests with the devotees, as well as the board of directors and executive committee planning and organizing more functions and services requested by the devotees.
Devotee Satisfaction: HTW should cater to the spiritual needs of the devotees by increasing their participation in various pujas. Towards this end, increasing children’s participation in the pujas is a must. We will work with the priests to bring this to fruition. Our vision also includes making available to each devotee, a complete text of the puja / bhajans, to enhance their participation during all the major religious events.
Priest Hiring: We are working on hiring at least one or possibly two more priests in the very near future. Priest Balram Ji and Shastree Ji have been doing an admirable job to fill the gap left by Priest Namboddri’s departure, but to address increasing demands from the devotees for Priest services, we are in the process of interviewing suitable candidates to fill open priest position(s) as soon as possible.
Youth/Children Education: It is of paramount importance that the Temple educate our kids about the Hindu religion and our culture. Bal Shiksha has done a wonderful job, but we need to find ways to enhance it further. One of the options we plan to look into is a more structured children’s education program, like the Balvihar classes offered by Chinmaya Mission. We will also look into hiring a new priest whose sole focus would be on educating our children. Children should also be encouraged to volunteer for various tasks at the temple during special events. This would help them become more familiar with our traditions and rituals.
Better communications: Temple events will be communicated better via frequent emails to our devotees. These events will also be publicized using our patrika as well as the temple web site. We will also work on adding more useful content on our new website. We request all of our devotees to register your email as well as your home address in the temple. This will enable us to improve our communication with you.
Cafeteria We will work on expanding cafeteria offerings such that the cafeteria is open on both Saturdays as well Sundays. The cafeteria committee would like to invite various community groups to adopt days in the year where they would like to volunteer their services in the kitchen.
This list is by no-means complete. We are planning a grand celebration during the summer for the tenth anniversary of our temple. We also have several capital expansion, improvement projects on the drawing board and would very much appreciate community input on these ideas, as well as other suggestions to enhance a devotee’s experience when they visit the Temple. Toward this end, I plan to hold a community feedback forum within the next two months. I and my fellow Board members do really want to hear from you about your vision of Temple’s future.
The Temple belongs to the community and I humbly accept the responsibility to lead it in the coming year. I am relying on your support in this endeavor. Working together and with the Grace of the Almighty Lord, we can help this Temple achieve even greater heights.
