Annual Meeting and Election
Persian Cultural Center of San Diego
May 15, 2022
34 Years of Service
PCC’s Annual General Assembly took place on May 15, 2022, at the Iranian School of San Diego (ISSD), located at Mt. Carmel High School in San Diego, California. This was the first in-person meeting following two years of virtual meetings. At the assembly, the annual report was presented, followed by the election of the new board members.
After calling the meeting to order, PCC’s 2021-2022 president, Shahla Salah, reported last year’s activities. Hamid Rafizadeh presented the financial report, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi presented the reports for ISSD, and Ali Sadr reported about Peyk magazine. A summary of last year’s activities is listed further below.
2021-2022 Board of Directors and Committee Assignments
PCC’s board of directors and committee members for the past year were Shahla Salah (President), Amir Farshad Babakhani (Vice President), Hamid Rafizadeh (Treasurer), Nikoo Atefi (Secretary), Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Parnian Badii, Hamid Beikzadeh, Soheil Bigdeli, Farideh Fazel, Mahmoud Reza Pirouzian, Ali Sadr (ISSD Principal), Venus Safaei, and Sara Taghavi.
The Advisory Board consisted of Shahri Estakhry, Saeed Jalali, Rosita Bagheri, and Shaghayegh Hanson.
The Board had twelve monthly meetings in the past year while committees held meetings as needed. At its first meeting, the Board elected its Executive Committee members and established the following committees:
Arts and Culture: Soheil Bigdeli and Sara Taghavi (Heads), Hossain Hajimowlana, Ali Sadr, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Amir Farshad Babakhani, Anahita Babaei, Abdy Salimi, Mahmoud Reza Pirouzian, and Nikoo Atefi
Membership: Farideh Fazel (Head), Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Soheil Bigdeli, Parnian Badii, and Shahrzad Julazadeh
Public Relations: Mahmoud Reza Pirouzian (Head), Sara Alaghehband, Ali Sadr, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Nikoo Atefi, Farideh Fazel, Hossain Hajimowlana, Milad Jahadi, Negar Nekouei, and Shahrzad Julazadeh
Grant and Finance: Hamid Rafizadeh (Head), Shahla Salah, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Shahrzad Julazadeh, and Cheryl Encine
Fundraising and Nowruz: Nikoo Atefi (Head), Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Amir Farshad Babakhani, Farideh Rasouli Fazel, Shahla Salah, Venus Safaei, Parnian Badii, Hamid Rafizadeh, Bahar Bagherpour, and Mohammad Ayari
PCC Charity: Venus Safaei (Head), Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Shahla Salah, Parnian Badii, Nikoo Atefi, and Shahrzad Julazadeh
Education (ISSD): Ali Sadr (Head), Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Parisa Amini, and Shahnaz Ahmadian
Chaharshanbehsoori & Sizdahbedar: Hamid Rafizadeh (Head) and Hamid Beikzadeh
IAC: Hamid Rafizadeh (Head), Ali Sadr, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Hamid Beikzadeh, Shahla Salah, and Shahrzad Julazadeh
PCC Youth: Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi (Head), Farideh Fazel, and Venus Safaei
Peyk: Ali Sadr (Head), Shahri Estakhry, Saeed Jalali, Aria Fani, Shahrzad Julazadeh, Shaghayegh Hanson, Reza Khabazian, Ali Sahebolzamani, and Rachel Tait
Governance: Ali Sadr (Head), Shaghayegh Hanson, Nikoo Atefi, Shahla Salah, Farideh Fazel, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, and Shahrzad Julazadeh
Summary of Persian Cultural Center Events and Activities
During 2021-2022, PCC was active in organizing traditional celebrations and programs for the Iranian American community. PCC also collaborated with other organizations to reach out to the community at large. These events were held in person, virtually, or both.
PCC sponsored or co-sponsored the following programs:
1- Food and Toy Drive by the PCC Youth Committee for the San Diego Food Bank (two times)
2- Hiking by the PCC Youth Committee
3- Caravan Electric Ud Trio’s “Angelica’s Project” concert at IAC
4- Virtual Writing Workshops with Hossein Mortezaeian Abknar
5- Mehregan Celebration in collaboration with San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA), Aida Shahghasemi Concert at SDMA
6- Performance of the play Waking Up & Sleep for four shows, directed by Mahmoud Behrouzian at IAC
7- Comedy show by K-Von at IAC
8- Informational seminar about college applications with Heidi Bridges
9- Collaboration with San Diego Asian Film Festival’s Pacific Arts Movement
10- The Sublime Sound of the Setar concert by Kourosh Taghavi
11- Screening the movie Playing with Stars, directed by Hatef Alimardani, at the Stars Cinema
12- Talk on post-revolutionary Iranian Poetry in collaboration with UCSD
13- Yalda Celebration at AIC
14- Ud Trio concert with Farhad Bahrami
15- Nowruz Preparation at ISSD
16- Presentation of haft-seen along with literary, cultural, and historical exhibits in seven San Diego public libraries
17- ISSD Nowruz Celebration at Del Norte High School
18- PCC Nowruz Celebration at the La Jolla Marriott Hotel
19- Sizdehbedar with AIAP and House of Iran at NTC Park
20- Screening of the documentary movie Tekyeh Doulat in collaboration with UCSD
21- Mystery of Tanbur, Kurdish Music of Iran by Ali Akbar Moradi Ensemble in collaboration with UCSD
22- Performance of the play Puzzle in collaboration with Sheed Film
23- Eight virtual Nights of Poetry and Literature (on the third Wednesday of the month)
24- Six virtual Film and Discussion series (on every last Thursday of the month)
25- Virtual Jong e Farhangi with guest Shahrokh Yadeghari
26- Virtual Jong e Farhangi with guest Mohammad Motvaselani
27- In-person and virtual Jong e Farhangi with guest Khsorow Davami
28- In-person and virtual Jong e Farhangi with guest Fardin Sahebzamani
29- In-person and virtual Jong e Farhangi with guest Ali Akbar Moradi
30- Three virtual cooking training sessions “Three Chefs in the Kitchen” (on every second Saturday of the month)
ISSD: The academic year 2021-2022 was ISSD’s 34th year of operation. This year, ISSD had 216 students attending 23 classes, consisting of 14 in-person and 9 virtual classes. The in-person classes were held on Sunday mornings. Classes were separated into multiple levels—Pre-K, Kindergarten, Conversation, Persian 1 through 6, and Persian for Adults. Extracurricular classes such as Dance, Drawing, and Setar were offered as well. In the virtual classes, students from other parts of the country were able to participate as well.
ISSD is planning to continue to expand the online classes and provide unique means and methods to more students around the country and other parts of the world. ISSD’s Persian language program is accredited by all local school districts as well as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, which means that high school students can fulfill their second language requirements by taking Persian language courses at ISSD. ISSD’s six Persian language textbooks for teaching Persian as a heritage language are being used in several other Persian schools around the country. In addition, audio versions of the textbooks are also available. ISSD has a website (issd.pccsd.org) and is also active on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
The school’s Nowruz program was held on March 13, 2022, at Del Norte High School, and the End of the Year event and graduation for the Class of 2022 took place on May 29, 2022.
Persian Dance Academy: With 41 students, the Persian Dance Academy met on Sundays at ISSD. The dance students performed in the PCC Nowruz event, the ISSD Nowruz program, and the ISSD End of the Year program.
Iranian American Center (IAC): The IAC typically hosts a variety of cultural activities for the Iranian community, such as the Iranian American Scholarship Fund (IASF) and Dollar a Month Fund (DMF), San Diego State University (SDSU), and UCSD. The Center has a library with more than five thousand books.
Peyk Magazine: For the past 30 years, PCC’s bi-monthly, bilingual cultural publication—Peyk—has been one of PCC’s most successful outreach instruments. Every two months, Peyk is mailed to thousands of subscribers in San Diego and other parts of the country. Typically, thousands of copies are also distributed through the business and cultural centers in San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties; the Bay Area; Chicago; Washington, DC; Maryland; Dallas; Atlanta; and many other cities. Peyk is also available online at peykmagazine.com. This site is interactive, allowing readers to directly communicate with and leave comments for the editorial board. The past issues of Peyk are still available at the Peyk archive, pccsd.org/peyk.
Grant and Outreach Programs: PCC enjoys continued joint programs with local organizations such as the San Diego City Library, SDMA, UCSD, DMF, IASF, Iranian American Bar Association, PAC Art, Amirani Film, Dornab, Persian Cultural Center of Atlanta, Professional Organization of Iranian Americans, and the Racism Awareness Project.
PCC has continued to work with SDG&E’s “Energy Solutions Partners” campaign—as an “Energy Solutions Partner,” PCC has joined other nonprofits and environmental groups in a collaborative effort to make all of California’s consumers aware of how they can save energy and money through energy efficiency. PCC was chosen as a partner because of our ability to target a specific demographic and translate important emergency news alerts into Farsi, as necessary.
Membership: PCC continued advertising and inviting members of the community to join. PCC provided new online membership software by Join It and provided newly-issued membership cards to its members. Members get a special discount for PCC events. PCC also continued procuring discounts from various Iranian businesses for its members.
Public Relations: Thousands of people all over the world view PCC’s website, www.pccsd.org, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube. PCC issues a weekly electronic newsletter that reaches thousands of community members. The PCC website provides quick access to Peyk, ongoing programs and activities, as well as other cultural information and events. People can refer to the website to read about PCC’s many activities, to renew their membership, and to make tax-deductible contributions online.
In the past year, several PCC events were featured on KPBS radio in San Diego, KIRN Radio Iran in Los Angeles, Chekhabar.com, Kodoom.com, and the San Diego Arts and Sol website. These programs not only reached out to the Iranian American community but also to other communities who attended our featured programs. During Nowruz, San Diego’s CBS8 channel broadcasted two special reports featuring PCC and interviews with PCC board members.
The PCC Foundation—A Charitable Organization: The foundation continues to raise funds for the following projects:
Helping refugee families.
In collaboration with AIAP and DMF, helping an Iranian couple and their 8-year-old son who have entered the U.S. as refugees.
Continuing to support two young students who lost their parents and need help, a long-term project.
Youth: This committee has been instrumental in supporting PCC’s and ISSD’s events. Some of the members are actively working as Teacher Assistants at ISSD. The committee has organized two food and toy drives on behalf of the San Diego Food Bank; provided free-of-charge tutoring for other students, particularly refugees; hosted an informational seminar about college applications; and also organized a hiking trip.
Special Thank You: PCC would like to take this opportunity to thank the following board members who are leaving us. We are grateful for the time, energy, and talents they generously gave to PCC and our community. We look forward to having them back on the PCC Board again.
The following members have served their terms and are leaving the board: Nikoo Atefi, Parnian Badii, Hamid Beikzadeh, Venus Safaei, and Ali Sadr. With the exception of Nikoo Atefi, who has served two consecutive terms and is subject to “term limits,” the others can run for re-election.
We are continually looking for volunteers to join our committees and sub-committees. Please step forward and GET INVOLVED with various groups to HELP US to better serve the community.
2022 PCC Board of Directors Election: After the Board of Directors’ report, candidates to fill the vacancies in the Board introduced themselves and presented their plans for joining the Board. Mr. Mehdi Moein (president of House of Iran), Ms. Maryam Nabiyouni (president of the Association of Iranian American Professionals), and Mr. Mohammad Ayari observed the election, which was performed by secret ballot. After counting the ballots, including the absentees and electronic votes, the results were announced.
The following were elected as voting members of the Board of Directors: Ali Sadr, Ali Prouzian, Baharak Shademan, and Soheil Bigdeli. Parnian Badii, Mitra Jamshidi, and Hamid Beikzadeh will serve as alternative board members. These members will serve along with the current board members: Shahla Salah, Fariba Babakhani-Ghazi, Hamid Rafizadeh, Amir Farshad Babakhani, Mahmoud Reza Pirouzan, Sara Taghavi, and Farideh Fazel. The general assembly adjourned at noon.
The first meeting of the Board of Directors was held on June 9, 2021. Subsequently, the Board elected members of the Executive Committee, who will serve PCC for one year:
President: Shahla Salah
Vice President: Mahmoud Reza Pirouzian
Treasurer: Hamid Refizadeh
Secretary: Farideh Fazel
Other members of the Board of Directors will be leading various committees such as Arts and Culture, Education, PCC Charity, Building, Grant and Finance, Nowruz and Fundraising, PR, PCC Youth, Chaharshanbehsoori & Sizdahbedar, and Membership.
If you are interested in joining any of the committees, please contact PCC by phone at (858) 552-9355 or email at pcc@pccsd.org.
