Sabaydii my fellow Satjadham and Laonetters,

	What I am trying to do here is to give you a preliminary report 
about Satjadham conference which was held on June 21st and 22nd. The 
final one will follow soon after I have received all the inputs from 
those who took notes. This report is mainly from my own participation and 
observation. If any participants want to give a complete picture of the 
conference, please feel free to join in.
	On Friday, June 21st, we had an internal conference - that was 
only Satjadham members were to attend. Because of the time constraint, we 
had to convene again on Sunday, June 23rd right in the middle of a picnic. 
There were 13 of us present at the first meeting. 
The names were of the following: Sonny, Guy, On, Chaosinh, 
Joe, Thip, Pam, Sengthiene, Vic, Tim, "Jit and K.P." (our interested 
guests who turned out to be very helpful in suggesting the constructive 
ideas for Satjadham) and me. The second meeting included Dave, Into, Toon, 
Oy, and some more that I couldn't remember the names. Ai Sak, Kag, 
Troy and Vee were the observers.
	Because we were kind of excited and at the same time tired 
because of the trip, we could touch only certain issues that were 
relevant to the growth of Satjadham. What we discussed mainly was whether 
Satjadham should stay as it was or tighten its structure as to insure 
that its work was of a high quality and deserved a name of an organization.
We decided that Satjadham should be as it was - that was producing our 
works as we liked but at the same time producing a quality work in the 
form of research periodically. This quality work would be aimed by the 
participants and any members who wanted to see Satjadham works raised to 
the scholarly ones. Regarding the name, we would go with the one we had - 
that was Satjadham, a literary group. The reason that we didn't change 
our name to Satjadham, a lierary society because we didn't want to scare 
off the potential members due to the high-sounding name. Our goal was to 
recruit all Lao under our umbrella so we aimed at the lowest common 
denominator - that was a love for Muang Lao and Quon Lao. In our 
organization, we would have both: those who were very committed to 
produce quality works, to help build Satjadham to be an elite group; and 
those who just wanted to be in the same boat for their particular 
reasons. We realized both groups of members were crucial for the growth 
and success of Satjadham. What is the use of quality either in works or 
people if it doesn't reach the majority of people. And at the same time, 
what is the use of quantity either in works or people if it is just a 
heap of junks.
	As of right now, we decided that we wouldn't formally appoint 
certain people to certain positions yet but it didn't mean that our 
organization lacked a working structure. Instead, we had trust in each 
one of us to carry out whatever the group had decided. In each region, 
each member had a responsibility to recruit members, to do fundraising 
and to organize as he/she saw fit. We would like very much to see 
Satjadham became a real force for Muang Lao and Quon Lao in the year 2000 
- that was a little less than 4 years to go.
	We agreed to post our articles twice a week because we had more 
than enough members to do so.
	We would publish Satjadham works in the form of a book (not high 
quality one) in the month of Frebruary. By the Pimai Lao, we would be 
able to distribute it. We thought of a donation for our book for our goal 
was to reach a majority of Lao instead of making a profit. The money for 
the publication would come from the fundraising and from the donation of 
our members. As of right now, Chaosinh, Ai Sak, Troy, Anousack, Kag? me and 
the money which were left from the conference had contributed to the 
fund. Sonny and Pam would be our treasurers. Anyone wanted to help out 
with this project, please send their donation to those two. 
	Also, we would make Satjadham T-shirts. In the T-shirt, we would 
have Satjadham logo and our motto: "a dawn of a new Lao" in front. Right 
now, we needed to find out where we could get the cheapest prize for our 
T-shirts. We wanted very much to have both Satjadham books and T-shirts 
ready before our next conference which was planned to be in Rochester, 
New York next summer. We will let you know the progress of our T-shirt in 
a timely manner.
	My letter is a little too long so it is better if I continue it
tomorrow. Until then, my friends!

***** Good News *****
I just got a letter from Into that he would help out with the publication 
of our book. Thanks a lot, my friend!
*********************

Hak phaang,
Kongkeo Saycocie
http://www.santarosa.edu/~ksaycoci/kongkeo.html
http://www.sonic.net/~kongkeo/Poem.html