The Annual General Meeting of the Josephian-Peterite Alumni Association of Canada (JPAA Canada) was held on Friday, April 8, 2016, at Markham Rugby Club in Unionville.
JPAA President Upali Obeyesekere presided at the AGM. The Minutes of the AGM were taken by 1) Jerome Fernandez for outgoing committee and 2) Philip Navaratne for incoming committee.
JPAA President Upali Obeyesekere presented the 2015 Annual Report. He said:
JPAA Canada is a unique organization. It is the only joint organization for St. Peter's College & St. Joseph's College in the whole world. The term of a president is two years and alternates between the two schools (SJC & SPC). In the history of the association, there were two exceptions to the term in office – noted below. Reason being there was no member willing to take up the office of president.
- Christy Joseph (SJC) served as president in 2010, 2011 and 2012 for an extended 3-year term;
- Upali Obeyesekere (SPC) served as president in 2013, 2014 and 2015 for an extended 3-year term;
Upali Obeyesekere said the focus for 2015 was to give the members their monies worth and as a result he kept the ticket prices for both the Membership Nite & Annual Dinner Dance to a minimum. He said it was a lean and mean year for the 31-year old association and there were many fiscal constraints that were enforced to cut down operational costs in cricket that used up a lot of funds as both the Big Match and Saints Quadrangular are hevaily sibsidized. A match fee of $10 per player is charged which hardly meets the cost of the grounds. In addition, some players are enlisted to play in both Masters and the Main game and only one match fee is charged in this instance.
During the 2015 fiscal year, JPAA had two members who performed the duties of Hony. Treasurer. First was IPP-Christy Joseph who helped the ex-co out for a few months and then Ranier De Lambert took over in the last few months. JPAA Canada President thanked Christy and Ranier for for their due diligence in maintaing the finances of JPAA. Following odf document displays the audited Financial Statements prepared by Auditor Chris Serpanchy.
2015 Financial Statements duly audited JPAA 2015 FS
The following activities took place in 2015.
- In April, the 2015 Annual General Meeting took place;
- In June 2015, the " Membership Nite" was staged at J&J Banquet Hall – Tickets were priced at $25/person and the event was an unqualified success;
- The 31st Annual Josephian-Peterite Big Match was staged in two formats – Main Game and Masters Game – Match Fee of $10 per player was charged;
- JPAA Canada fielded two teams in the Annual "Saints Quadrangular" T20 Cricket Tournament played at Ajax Cricket Club Grounds – 1) Josephian team and 2) Peterite team;
- The Annual Dinner Dance held in November at the Markham Convention Centre provided the patrons an excellent fare. Internationally acclaimed pop star Alston Koch was guest artiste while DJ-Pradeep Thomas provided super dance music. Ticket prices were kept at $50/person (lowest in town) to ensure that the members, well wishers got a good deal.
The 2016 AGM was attended by the following:
| Upali Obeyesekere | Srinath Wijeyeratne | Christy Joseph | Larry Landersz |
| Jerome Fernandez | Ranier De Lambert | Chris Serpanchy | Aubrey Atton |
| Bhanu Wijeyesekere | Rehan Goonetilleke | Rod Diaz | Anton Perera |
| Tag Theagarajah | Shirley Perera | Lyall Bakelmun | Philip Navaratne |
| Arvind Kandappah | Rajive Benedict | Milan Gunawardena | Glen Ragell |
| Peter Ragell | Valentine Balasingham | Nihal Jayawardena | P. Ravishankar |
| Victor Santhiapillai | Avinash Wijeweera | Angelina Wijeweera | Hazmee Hameed |
| Jerome de Kauwe | Member 30 | Member 31 | Member 32 |
Excerpt from JPAA Annual Report 2015 presented by JPAA President Upali Obeyesekere
At this year's AGM – Christy Joseph was ushered back again as president of the association for two-year term (2016 + 2017). Some new blood was infused into the committee with Philip Navaratne having been elected General Secretary and Aubrey Atton as Assistant General Secretary. This augurs well for JPAA Canada.
The outgoing president of JPAA Canada, Upali Obeyesekere said a donation of $2,000 (Canadian) was made by JPAA Canada to Rev.Fr. Travis Gabriel, Rector of St. Joseph's College in May 2015. At a special presentation in Colombo in March 2016, at the rector's office, President Upali Obeyesekere and Immediate Past-President Christy Joseph met with Fr. Travis and presented $2,000. for infrastructure development work at St. Joseph's College.
The "Trust Account" of JPAA Canada for 2015/2016 was managed by Upali Obeyesekere (SPC) and Jeevan Pragasam (SJC).
