Dear SUTA Members
The following is a summary progress report for SUTA Board of Directors during 2019-2020
- Board held twenty monthly meetings during 2019 and 2020 for planning, decision making, organization and coordination of ongoing projects, and approvals of board decisions. Minutes of these reports are available for all members on SUTA website www.suta.org.
- Registration of SUTA as a non-profit organization in the state of California was renewed.
- With assistance from our accountant Federal and State taxes for 2018 and 2019 were paid and past due taxes were taken care of. We are now current with all Federal and State taxes.
- Over $6000 was raised from donations provided by SUTA members in the US.
- Quarterly Financial Reports were prepared. These reports are available for members on SUTA website www.suta.org
- Membership increased by 40% during 2019-2020 period.
- Board coordinated the start of a new SUTA chapter in Germany and re-start of activities for Vancouver and Northern California Chapters. Other active chapters include Toronto, Sweden, Washington DC and Seattle.
- A virtual ceremony was held on Zoom for celebration of 20th Anniversary of SUTA for SUTA members, and SUT alumni and faculty. This program is available on YouTube.
- SUTA Awards ceremony was held in October to recognize notable alumni, faculty and staff of our university. Awards Committee include: Dr. Jalil Kamali, Dr. Bahram Zahir, Dr. Elahe Enssani, and Farrokh Malihi.
- A new project was initiated to support graduate students with financial aid and travel expenses to attend professional and scientific meetings.
- A proposal by Dr. Fariba Aria former SUTA president and her team for future programs of SUTA was submitted and approved by the board. This proposal included ideas and programs for mentorship to help younger members.
- Documents for operating procedures for SUTA elections and roles and responsibilities of board executives was prepared by SUTA advisers and sent to the Election Board.
- Educational programs including five webinars were held on Zoom during 2020. Guest speakers include: Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis (CEO, Contour Crafting Corp., Professor USC, Dr. Farrokh Mohamadi, CEO Tialinx Ltd, Dr. Elahe Enssani, Professor California State University, and Dr. Masoud Olfat (Director, Federated Wireless Co.). Our Final speaker of this year was Dr. Mehdi Zarghamee, Sr. Principal SGH Inc., and former Chancellor of Sharif University (SUT). These presentations were attended by many SUTA members, SUT faculty and alumni and are available on YouTube.
- Three quarterly Newsletters were published which cover news and events from our board, SUTA chapters and articles of interest to our members
- SUTA website www.suta.org was improved and new sections were added to include educational programs and webinars, SUTA Awards, and introduction of notable SUT alumni
- SUTA presence was expanded in professional and social media. SUTA Linkedin group currently has over 2400 members and is dedicated to news and events from SUTA and Sharif University and sharing of informative articles and videos. Currently two Telegram groups (SUTA Telegram Network, and SUTA members) are approved and are active providing a forum to connect over 1100 SUTA members and Sharif University alumni worldwide.
- Planning and coordination of elections for the upcoming SUTA board was completed in December 2020.
Best regards,
Farrokh Malihi, President SUTA Board of Directors
December 2020
