The new CCI facebook page, then the undoing of Barsho Boron, followed by the novel Outdoor Retreat .. and, our journey of change continues this year !

In our most recent Chartered Members' meeting, we collectively decided to not organize Barsha Boron this year but instead look at other innovative and off-the-beaten-track ideas of providing our members and friends an opportunity to showcase and partake in a different sort of cultural extravaganza.

Ohio Utsab being organized in Columbus by COBCA is one such event this year. Our close partnership with COBCA in organizing and supporting this event is also in line with the Utsab objectives - that of promoting and encouraging collaboration between the Bengali communities in Ohio and adjoining areas.

In that spirit of collaboration, all CCI members will get the same registration benefits as COBCA members. We will send out an update once we have enabled our online payment and registration features. We would request all members and friends of CCI to register as soon as possible. While online registration is a matter of convenience, please also consider payment by check to save the online commission charges to the payment gateways. You can mail a paper check to our registered address and drop us a mail when you have done so.

We are giving final touches to the CCI program lineup for the event. If you are interested, please send us a mail and someone from the Board of Trustees will connect with you to take it further.

We look forward to more constructive changes with your support. We love all your suggestions and believe it or not, we love spending countless hours on the phone or Whatsapp to discuss and evaluate each suggestion. So, keep them flowing !

Meanwhile, have a wonderful long weekend !

CCI invites you to enjoy the great outdoors
Where you’ll sleep under the stars
Tell stories throughout the night
And have s’more fun!

The participation fees for this event have been published by the organizing team. More details at our website here.

Camping fee: Members: $15-$20 per adult
                     Non-Members need to pay $10 extra per adult
                     Kids $10 (below 13 years)

                     Based on the number of attendees, rate will be optimized.
                     Attending parents/friends are welcome without any fee (members only).

Picnic fee:      Members: $35-$45 per family
                     Non-Members need to pay $10 extra per family
                     Kids $10 (below 13 years)

                     Based on the number of attendees, rate will be optimized.
                     Attending parents/friends are welcome without any fee (members only).

You are welcome to attend either Camping/Picnic or both.

An evite has been in the works for the past few weeks and will be sent out as soon as it is completed. We will also publish a link here once the evite is sent out.

At this time, we are not planning to create online payment options for the retreat. Please respond to the evite when you receive it and then the organizers will let you know the modalities of making the payments. 

​Meanwhile, visit our facebook event page here and share it on your wall, indicate your intent on participating and invite your friends and family.

Many of us have already paid the annual membership dues in the past few weeks, either by cash/check or via the easy-to-use and secure Paypal link, that we have on our Register page. The membership dues are critical to funding our annual fixed costs such as insurance, storage and such. So we appreciate prompt payments of the dues by our members very much.

Membership also has its own advantages in terms of reduced event fees not only here with CCI but also at our partner organizations like COBCA's Ohio Utsab. This is aside from other benefits like free registration of parents at CCI events, a complimentary physical copy of our annual brochure with Members' Directory etc.

If you haven't paid you membership for this year yet, we urge you to please do it as soon as possible. We are already past the deadline of May 20th, 2016 and will be deactivating the payment buttons anytime now.

In an exciting departure from the past, our one-day annual picnic has given way to a two-day outdoor retreat this year (one of the many changes happening this year).

Saturday will be an overnight camping at the venue, to be followed by a day-long picnic on Sunday. The venue itself could not have been any better. Hueston Woods State Park provides a variety of activities for adventure-seekers of all kinds: the marina, fishing pier, beach, biking and hiking trails, nature centers, fossil collection areas - there is something for everyone to do and have a fun time during the retreat.

Thanks to all the members who supported this novel concept and are working behind the scene on the planning and logistics. If you want to join the organizing team, please join the CCI Outdoor Retreat Google group. 

We will be publishing the camping + picnic rates for members and non-members soon. We will also be sending out the evite in due course. Please stay tuned !
​

​The cultural scene heats up in the Cincy-Columbus area this coming weekend with quite a few theater productions taking place. 

Inspired by Satyajit Ray's "Goopi Gayen Bagha Bayen", the first one is an eponymous Hindi musical play "Goopy Bagha ka Kissa". This goes on stage at Weigel Hall, The Ohio State University School of Music, Columbus on May 22nd for the benefit of Scholar Giving (www.scholargiving.com).  With music and choreography by the Barat brothers, lyrics by Gulzar and direction by Tarun Chatterjee, this promises to be quite an entertaining production.

The second is a day of theater ("Ek din shudhu-i natok") sponsored by the Bangladesh Students Association at the Wright State University, Dayton on May 21st. Two original productions will be staged with a tea break in between. The first is Humayun Ahmed's "Nirbaashon" scripted and directed by Nasrin Shahana Chadni and the second is "Cholobot Jodomaan" written and directed by Prabir Das.

If you are in the vicinity, do consider dropping by and supporting the cast and crew who have worked tirelessly the past few months in making these production-ready ! Many of them are current and/or past members of CCI.

​Of course, if that is not enough, entertainment and charity surely could be the other motivators :-)

After all the rumblings and downpours over the last couple of weeks, it finally is turning out to be bright and sunny this weekend ! Our board of trustees have been keeping pace with the weather and working incessantly in the background to give shape to some of the ideas that were discussed in the last Chartered Members meeting.

The venue for this year's annual Cincinnati Durga Utsav has been finalized and all contracts drawn up and completed. We faced quite a bit of logistical issues at our last year's venue. Hopefully with our return to a public school setup this year, we should be cruising through the 3 days' of the event. Here are some of the photos that were recently taken at the site:

Change is the only constant. It has been 8 years since our organization was started in 2008. We had to make some changes. Some of those are already in place while some others are in the process of being put in place. Our facebook address is one that had to change. We are now at www.facebook.com/hellocci

Drop by, visit us and post your comments while we keep on dressing up our facebook home with all the knick-knacks and digital goodies at our disposal :-)