A Message from Outgoing President Gary Gomes
Hello and Good Bye,
As many of you know, I have left the CVA Presidency. I do so with somewhat mixed emotions. First of all, I really enjoyed the position and really enjoyed dealing with the membership on so many levels. 
I find our group is really passionate about Jyotisha, a field we all love. And I felt very comforted by the many positive comments that I received in my time as President.
All things must pass (with apologies to the late George Harrison), but I must confess that, given my full time job, my teaching responsibilites and my own educational responsibilties (I am currently enrolled in a doctoral program in education at Northeastern University, leading to an Ed.D.), I could not, in good conscience, continue in my role as CVA President. When I am stretched too thin, something inevitably suffers, and the one component that could be done by someone else was the CVA presidency.
We faced a few handicaps over the past few years as well — a poor economy, a reduced board (although I love and respect them) and some other obstacles that manifested as soon as I became president. Still, I think we did some good things. I tried very hard to keep membership current; we published three journals in three years, and we actually expanded membership slightly. There were also plans being fostered to develop grass roots chapters — which would have been fairly labor intensive. However, keeping CVA membership current was an ongoing struggle, and, because of expense and the timing of revenues, we could never seem to put a conference together. So, clearly I did not achieve all I wanted to do — but given the fact that our survival was at risk several times, I can’t say we did all that poor a job!
I want to thank all of the outgoing board for their hard work and support: Sat Siri Khalsa, Kenneth Miller, Nalini Kantha Das, Karen Wennerlind, and Chris Uihlein. The board members were generous beyond belief — everyone contributed something of great value. I would also like to thank my dear wife, Jeannie, for contributing her effort, energy and enthusiasm to this undertaking. She deserves a lot of credit for making things like the Journal come together.
I was also blessed with some rare opportunities. Coverage of people like C.S. Patel is a rare opportunity for U.S. publications. And the articles I received were inspired; top notch work.
I also want to welcome the new board, led by my good friend Dennis Flaherty, CVA’s original President, back for some more fun. Dennis has fantastic organizational skills and a wealth of experience and CVA is lucky to have him return. The new board is a combination of great experience and positive energy and I wish them all the very best of luck in building CVA into the type of organization the Vedic Astrology community deserves — a dynamic, responsive, democratically elected organization that welcomes all philosophies and is dedicated to the professional advancement of “The Holy Science” (Sri Yukteswar). This knowledge is too good to be known only by the few — and CVA can help make this knowledge available to everyone who is interested. I wish Dennis, Sat Siri, Sherry, Karen, Mickey, Ken, Paddi, Susie and Alfred all the best of luck as they embark on this journey.
One final note: I would love to encourage the community to develop some kind of research center for Vedic astrology. This need not be a CVA function, but could be supported in tandem with other organizations. This is the BIG mission (beyond expanding awareness) that I see for this field in the West over the next twenty years or so. It is time to talk with each other and compare notes, I think, and see what works for everyone.
In this world, nothing stays the same forever …
Namaste!
Gary Gomes