Year In Review and Report to the Community

A Year in Review 2006

Dear Friends,

We began our second year of operations with goals to expand the organization and to continue to identify initiatives to better serve the Turkish-American community in Orange County. While organizing events, fundraisers, and projects during our second year, we made every effort to stay consistent with the mission and objectives as well as the specific goals we established for the organization in 2006. I am proud to present the key accomplishments we realized together during 2006. 

The most significant initiative and contribution to our community this year was the development of the Orange County Turkish School in Irvine. We were able to offer one children’s and two adult (beginner and intermediate) classes servicing 33 students aged from 4 years old to 50 . Under the dynamic leadership of Aysu Tazebay, the Educational & Cultural Committee members (Cenap Biyikli, Beyhan Arslan, Merve Karslioglu, and Sebnem Eler) work diligently to create a “model community school” to provide Turkish language and cultural classes to our members and to the general public. Our objective was to create a positive, fun, and interactive learning environment where the Turkish-American children can learn about their culture and heritage. We are very proud of our dedicated teachers Sebnem Eler, Hande Can, Asli Ozguz, Merve Karslioglu, and Funda Forghani for their efforts and contributions to improve our service to our students. We provided the OC Turkish School with a start up of fund of $2200. This is by far the greatest accomplishment of our organization and our community in 2006. We encourage you to visit the school and take part in this amazing experience. For more information and photos from our school, please visit the school page at http://www.octurkishschool.org.

While we were focusing on the creation of the Turkish school, we also organized 15 social, cultural, and educational events in Orange County. We successfully represented our culture and heritage at the Global Village Festival and through media at a joint Turkish film event with Irvine Multicultural Association. We were captivated by the music of virtuosic percussionist Burhan Ocal at his concert. We cried and laughed together at the Turkish cinema events. We celebrated our national holidays with our community at picnic and bonfire events. We cheered for our favorite soccer teams at gatherings at GG’s Café. We reached out to communities in our local communities and in our homeland Turkiye. With your generous contributions, we donated $1500 to the Baba Beni Okula Gonder (Dad, Send Me to School) girls’ educational project jointly organized by Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi and Milliyet Newspaper. We collected private donations, proceeds from our Turkish cinema events as well as the fundraiser event we held in May introducing the book Tales from the Expat Harem by the talented authors Anastasia Ashman and Jennifer Eaton-Gokmen. 

In April, we participated in the ArrowDaze Soccer Tournament organized by the ladies of Pi Beta Phi at UC Irvine. We donated $200 towards to this event supporting philanthropic efforts called “Links to Literacy” benefiting a local educational project to promote literacy amongst youth and adults in our communities. Under the skilled coaching of Cenap Biyikli, OCTAA’s soccer team came in 2nd place at this tournament. Cenap’s Team also won the championship at the Turkcup 2006, 1st Turkish soccer tournament organized in Southern California by our sister organization ATASC-San Diego chapter.

One of our goals this year was to grow our membership by 25%. Unfortunately, we were unable to meet this goal. Instead of gaining new members, we lost 23% of our existing members who did not renew their membership in 2006. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of you supporting this organization by joining OCTAA or renewing your membership. The more our organization grows, the more we can give back to our community by organizing new charitable projects and social and cultural events that you all will enjoy. With your contributions, we can participate in educational and cultural programs to represent Turkey and Turks to the greater community. These projects are important toward presenting a positive and lasting impression of the Turkish Culture to the greater Southern California community.

As the first elected President of this young and dynamic chapter organization of ATASC, I had the honor of working with the following dedicated and talented team of leaders who built a strong foundation for our organization: Aydin Aksoy, Keith Aleckson, Volkan Alemdar, Ahmet Atahan, Cemal Balat, Irfan Bilgin, Cenap Biyikli, William Daystrom, Michelle Deniz Drousé, Sebnem Eler, John Gülşen, Burcu Kayiran, Nilufer Komili, Rasim Oztekin, and Aysu Tazebay. On behalf of our community and from the bottom of my heart, I thank all of you for your support, passion, and commitment to the ideals of OCTAA. More than anything, I am very happy to gain your life-long friendship. 

I congratulate the Board members Ahmet Atahan, Cenk Acar, Michelle Deniz Drousé, John Gülşen, and Rasim Oztekin and the Executive Committee Members: Executive Vice President Beyhan Arslan, Social Chair Hande Can, Membership Chair Asli Ozguz, Executive Secretary Emrah Ozkaya, and Treasurer Keith Aleckson who will be led by our new President Sebnem Eler. We look forward to your leadership and positive contributions to the community in the upcoming years. I am certain that the community will give you the same support and encouragement I received during my terms.

As we leave behind a successful year, it is time to move ahead and further the goals of our organization. With our new team of dynamic and talented leaders, volunteers, and sponsors, our organization will continue to grow and flourish and become an exemplary non-profit cultural organization respected and supported by our community. I believe that the organization is in good hands and on an upward course. Our new leaders will take OCTAA to new heights of service to the community. However, this can only be accomplished with the community’s support. We need to continue to demonstrate that Turkish Americans can come together, celebrate our great heritage, and become one body and voice in Orange County. We owe this to the new and future generations of Turkish-Americans living in our area and to our homeland Turkey. I challenge all of you to grow this organization by taking a leadership role, by volunteering your time, by becoming a member, by renewing your membership, and by sponsoring events. Any level of support and contributions are much appreciated. I personally guarantee you that it will be a rewarding experience.

I enjoyed meeting many of you at events. Thank you for believing in me and for giving me the opportunity to serve our community. If I was able to make a positive contribution in bringing the Turkish-American community together in Orange County and successfully represented our rich culture, history and heritage, NE MUTLU BANA!

Best wishes in the New Year.

Sevgilerimle,

Sevdâ Küpoğlu Aleckson
OCTAA President
2004-2006

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