8th AGM and Dinner Dance

The 8th Annual General Meeting and Dinner Dance of the Association of Professional Sri Lankans in the UK (APSL) was held at the Grange City Hotel in Lond on on 12 th May 2012.

It was a well-attended meeting chaired by Mr Rohan De Alwis, the President of the Association. In his welcome speech he mentioned that the past year was very significant as APSL received charity status in February 2012.

Mr Ranjan Perera, the outgoing General Secretary presented the report for the year 2011-2012. In his report, he mentioned that during the year under review APSL had organised two very important events in the United Kingdom. “We Sri Lanka” event on 1st October 2011, where the aim was to promote and encourage reconciliation between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities living in the UK. The other major event was the “APSL Research Symposium” – 3rd APSL Convention held on 19th November 2011. Several researchers based in the UK presented papers and awards were given to the best research paper presented at the Symposium. In addition, the General Secretary also reported of the APSL essay competition held in Sri Lanka for Sri Lankan students under the topic “How to develop the country through the younger generation’s eye”. The response was tremendous and awards were given to the best essays in Sinhalese, Tamil and English at a function held at the Institute of Fundamental Studies in Kandy, Sri Lanka.

Mr Suraj Wijendra, the Treasurer thereafter presented the Annual Statement of Accounts for year 2011-2012. The following were elected to the executive committee for the year 2012 – 2013.