ACYO Blog

ACYO Central Council Meets to Plan the Upcoming Year

Carmen Kestekyan — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800

On December 9-10, the ACYO Central Council along with Der Avedis, met at Hye Camp to discuss the events and activities for the upcoming year. The overnight retreat was filled with a review of the past year, what improvements could be made, and planning out the new year. After thorough discussion about this past year’s Sports Weekend and Convention, each Council member was assigned two liaison ACYO chapters for 2012. Central Council members will be contacting their ACYO liaison chapters in the next couple of weeks to get the year started!

Central Council also scheduled the first set of regional meetings. The dates are as follows:

Southern Regional Meeting: January 14

Central Regional Meeting: January 21

Northern Regional Meeting: January 28

More information about time and location will be available in the coming weeks. The Central Council encourages ACYO members and executive boards to attend their respective regional meeting. Each meeting will have useful information and dates regarding the upcoming year! Dates for Leadership Conference, Junior Retreat, and Senior Retreat were also decided at the retreat.

Another major topic of discussion at the retreat was the ACYO website. In the coming weeks, the ACYO website will be under construction with new and improved features that will be easy to use for all! Keep an eye out for these changes! The retreat concluded on Saturday at noon with excitement for the new year! Council cannot wait to work with all of you!

63rd ACYO-WD Convention

Carmen Kestekyan — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800

Over 40 ACYO members along with Hovnan Surpazan, Fr. Avedis Abovian and clergy members throughout the Western Diocese gathered in Burbank on November 25-27 for the 63^rd annual ACYO convention. The Western Diocese headquarters was the epicenter of a weekend filled with informational meetings, social events, and celebrations of another successful year.

Friday evening started off with business session 1 in Zorayan Museum with a welcoming remark by Surpazan Hovnan Derderian. A short review of Robert’s Rules was given to the delegation so that the meetings were kept in order without chaos! The session included reports from various ACYO chapters about their eventful years as well as organizations such as CYMA and their trip to Armenia. This year, we were very excited to hear reports from Seattle, Portland, La Cresenta, and Ventura County ACYO members who participated in Convention for the first time! Fr. Avedis Abovian, ACYO Youth Director, concluded the session by giving his report of the year. Later on that evening, ACYO members enjoyed a fun game of Quiz Bowl. A handful of teams participated in the second annual Quiz Bowl tournament. The host, Vicken Kalamkarian, challenged the contestants with difficult Armenian history, Bible, and Church questions! In the end, Burbank ACYO kept their winning title for a second year in a row! The celebration continued throughout the night with dancing and three 36’’ pizzas, which were finished by the end of the night.

Delegates enjoyed a hearty breakfast on Saturday morning knowing that it would be a long day ahead of them. Business session 2 included a by-law amendment: the possibility of changing the weekend of ACYO Convention. After much discussion, the delegation voted on keeping Convention as it has been for 63 years, on Thanksgiving weekend. Next order of business on the agenda was nominations for Central Council, Nominating Committee, and Auditing Committee. Names were nominated from the floor and written on ballots to elect new members of each committee. Excitement built in the room as ballots were collected.

After a quick recess for lunch, business session 3 started off with a bang as newly elected members were announced. The results were as follows:

Auditing Committee: Elizabeth Olgun, David Semerdjian, David Ojakian

Nominating Committee: Shant Barin, Serop Sayadian, Arman Kalamkarian

This year, there were three members from Central Council rerunning and one person leaving. A total of six members were running for these four positions. Incumbents Nora Barin, Mark Boranian, and Vicken Kalamkarian were reelected as well as the newest member of the Council Arpi Nakashian. However, Surpazan Hovnan Derderian decided to overrule the voting process and added two more positions to Central Council making it a nine person group. Natalie Kazarian and Gegham Mughnetsyan were given a one-two year terms as part of this acceptation, which Surpazan made. Business session 3 ended with closing remarks from Surpazan as well as Chairman Raffi Postaldjian and their appreciation of the youth and council members. Fr. Avedis Abovian was also recognized for his countless hours of work for the youth.

The banquet on Saturday night was a celebratory event! Tables were filled with a variety of mezze especially prepared by the Burbank ACYO parents. The night was also filled with many award recipients as well as the introduction of the new Central Council. Fr. Avedis awarded Tigran Khachikyan the Archbishop’s Award for his exceptional essay on “What Makes You Christian”. Fr. Avedis also mentioned that Surpazan Hovnan Derderian decided to give $250 to each person who had submitted an essay for the contest. ACYO Member Recognition Awards were given out to Arpi Nakashian, Mark Samoulian, and Shant Barin for their dedication to their particular chapters. This year, Central Council decided to bring back the Chapter Achievement Award by recognizing a chapter that has gone above and beyond their call of duty to help their community and incorporates the four pillars of the ACYO in their activities. The recipient of this award was St. Apkar, Arizona ACYO. The new Central Council members were also announced as follows:

Chairman-Vicken Kalamkarian

Vice Chair-Nora Barin

Treasurer-Mark Boranian

Rec. Secretary- Natalie Kazarian

Corresponding Secretary- Gegham Mughnetsyan

Publicity-Carmen Kestekyan

Event Coordinator-Arpi Nakashian

Advisors-Liana Grigorians and Raffi Postaljian

On Sunday, ACYO members attended badarak at St. Leon Cathedral. During services, the new Central Council members were inducted and blessed by Surpazan Hovnan Derderian in a small ceremony. Overall, the weekend was a huge success and none of it would have been possible without the help of Fr. Avedis Abovian and all his guidance. Thank you to all that participated and helped to make this a memorable weekend. We hope to see you at the 64^th Annual ACYO-WD Convention next year in Fowler!

Senior Retreat 2011

Vicken Kalamkarian — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

It's a unique opportunity to be able to visit Hye Camp during the autumn season. The fields never look greener, and the air never feels more crisp. The leaves haven't made up their minds on what new coat to sport, and the morning dew sits gently on the blades of grass until the later part of the afteroon.

What better environment could nearly fifty members of the Senior ACYO ask for?!?!

On the weekend of October 21-23, members of the Senior ACYO drove up to Camp Hye Sierra for a weekend long retreat that was directed by Fr. Yeghia Hairabedian.

Friday evening kicked off with welcoming remarks from the Central Council and from Der Yeghia. After a masterfully crafted ravioli and lasagna dinner, the participants played a few icebreaker games, although from the vibes in the air, the warmth of everyone's personalities, and the eagerness to kick off a great weekend exhibited by everyone, an icebreaker was at best, unnecessary. Vicken's (my) job was rendered useless -_-

The "Mess Hall" was where everyone spent the majority of the evening playing card games, word games, singing Armenian folk songs, dancing, playing the piano, and of course, a giant game of "Mafia."

With a 9:30AM wake up call in mind, the participants made their way up the hill to get a decent night's rest. But you know us Armenians, we say goodnight, and then talk in front of the door for another 45 minutes....

Eggs, Potatoes, Sausages, Bagels, Jam, Cream Cheese, Croissants, etc....The list goes on! Saturday morning's agenda was kicked off with a delicious breakfast followed up by the first class session of the weekend.

The classes were split into three sections that covered, Burnout, Symptons of Burnout/ Prevention, and then the third class session which Der Yeghia described as the "No Holds Barred" class session which was more of a Q&A on any topic we wished to talk about.

Der Yeghia explained what we as Armenian Christians feel when we get burnt out, how to rejuvenate our passion for the Armenian Church, and how to prevent feeling down and out with our Christian lives. The participants studied verses from Psalms, and the Book of Matthew in which Jesus told us not to worry about our every day concerns, and how He is with us, always.

The class sessions proved to be intellectually stimulating as after every class, I saw different groups formed throughout the campgrounds discussing what was covered in the previous class session. It was great to see everyone so engaged and interested in what was being discussed. I hadn't seen anything like it!

Saturday's class sessions were wrapped up and the rest of day saw an epic game of soccer...ON THE DECK! (Sorry Gary!), a 35 yard race between David Semerdjian and Mher Attarian, a campfire that was sponsered by Andrew Moltz, Abraham Tchaprasian, Mark Samoulian, and Vicken Kalamkarian, and a night of singing that was directed by Arpi Nakashian, Rafik & Gegham Mughnetsyan.

On Sunday morning, Daniel Hairabedian led our prayer service and delivered one final message about our time spent on doing God's work. He told us to remember that it isn't the number of years we work to do God's will that gets us to heaven, but it is our response to when He calls that determines our fate.

On behalf of the Central Council, I would like to personally thank every member that attended this weekend. You are the future of the ACYO and what holds this great organization together. I would also like to thank Scott Davidson, Mark Boranian, Adam Donabedian, Shant Shahnazarian, and everyone else who contributed to preparing some of the best meals I have had at camp! You guys had by far the toughest jobs and I hope you guys know how thankful we are that you donate your time and for doing this for the past 6 retreats!

Thank you

ALL

fOr a great weekend :)

ACYO Partnership Program Kickoff Featuring Vahe Berberian!

Vicken Kalamkarian — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

On the evening of September 16, 2011, the ACYO Central Council hosted it's very first fundraiser through which it launched the ACYO Partnership program, and gave it's guests a few laughs along the way.

At 7:30 PM the doors to Geragos Hall were opened to over 100 guests that were eager to eat, drink, and be merry. The hall filled up quick and at the stroke of the hour, the program commenced. This event was special for many reasons, one of which was because we were able to honor one of ACYO's very own, Joan Meymarian, a long time ACYO member, Chairlady of the Ladies Scociety at St. Gregory, Pasadena, and a member of the Parish Council. Joan was recognized with a framed plaque of recognition for all of her years serving the ACYO and the Armenian Church. The Central Council is truly blessed to have a role model such as Joan, and remembering what she said in her message to us about patience, and the love for our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, we too can be like Joan, a faithful servent of the Church.

After honoring Joan, Der Avedis Abovian introduced the ACYO Partnership Program...

The ACYO realizes that as it's active youth gets older and becomes mature adults, they no longer have as much time to dedicate to the ACYO. Through the partnership program, the Central Council aims to turn these alumni into partners of the ACYO. With a pledge of $100 a year, all those who can no longer be physically present to support the ACYO, can now do so by becoming official partners. With yearly $100 pledges, the partners can aid in putting on future events such as the Sepetember 16 Comedy night.

Der Avedis concluded with inviting everyone to become partners of the ACYO and made way for our main event of the evening, Mr. Vahe Berberian. The one man show sent our audience into a laughing frenzy for over an hour and twenty minutes with Armenian Comedy. At the conclusion of the evening, our audience filed out with smiles on their faces, a new sense of dedication to the ACYO, and having eaten a darn good meal!

With love and good vibes,

The Central Council :)

Leadership Conference 2011

Vicken Kalamkarian — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Leadership Conference 2011

What is leadership? What are the qualities of a leader? And how can we be leaders in life of the church?

With the help of Dr. Varoujan Altebarmakian, Dr. Armen Orujyan, Dr. Matthew Jendian, Dr. Don Simmons, and Joan A. Hansleit- Minasian, MA, Exectutive ACYO members representing the Northern, Southern, and Central regions of CA gathered at St. Paul Armenian Church in Fresno, CA on April 1-2, 2011 to learn how they could become effective leaders within their local parishes.

Dr. Altebarmakian, who is the CEO (Physician-In-Chief) of the Fresno Permanente Medical Group, was our first speaker on Friday night. He told about the three different ways we get into leadership positions and how each way's outcome differs from the other. His presentation led us into an ice breaker game that was conducted by Der. Avedis Abovian. After an activity that conveyed the importance of two way communication within an organization, we adjourned for the night.

On the agenda for Friday night was an evening of bowling at the AMF bowling lanes. The participants of the Leadership Conference put on their bowling shoes and bowled "XTREME COSMIC" style. Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun.

Saturday morning was off to an incredible start with Armen Orujyan, PhD, who is the founder of ATHGO International, which is an organization that "envsions having a sustainable planet where young people of all backgrounds are well educated and have access to opportunities that generate individual and collective prosperity." He told us about his trials and tribulations growing up in the United States as an immigrant. He also explained the process that ATHGO had to go through to get to where it is.

After Dr. Orujyan, Fresno's very own Dr. Matthew Jendian, spoke to us about Humanics and just how important networking was within the orgnaztion, we concluded the conference with Dr. Simmons and Joan Hansleit-Minasian, MA. Their presentation included a small activity where all the participants answered a series of questions, and through those questions, established what category of 'leader' they fell under. Dr. Simmons then led us into the nitty-gritty of Robert's Rule of Order where we simulated a small business session. We went through all the motions, literally, and then adjourned ourselves from the meeting and the Leadership Conference.

It was a very productive conference and we hope to see you all next year.

Junior Retreat 2011

Vicken Kalamkarian — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:00 -0700

"Keeping Our Faith While Away From Our Family & Loved Ones"....That was the topic of this year's Junior Retreat held up at Hye Camp on the weekend of March 18th-20th.

With the cold weather setting in, 42 Junior ACYO members between the ages of 12-17 from the Northern, Central, and Southern regions of California nestled into their cabins for what would be the start of a fun, spiritually nourishing, memorable weekend. The rain, mud, snow, and ice would be enough to deter any group of youngsters from coming up to our campsite, but not this weekend, and not these participants.

Friday night, the campers, counselors, volunteering staff, and the Central Council led by Fr. Avedis Abovian, arrived at Hye Camp around 7pm. The bags were quickly unpacked and everyone was down to the "Mess Hall" for dinner and the first discussion session. After a delicious meal, all the campers checked in and were assigned their cabins/counselors. This was immediately followed by the first discussion and the traditional "ice breaker".

This year's theme was about our faith and the different ways to hold onto it while away at school, facing different obstacles. Naturally, our first lecture, a bit of an introductory one, discussed what faith was and what it meant to have faith. Our ice-breaker was incorporated into the discussion, which gave campers a new insight on faith, what we put our trust in, and what we consider to be trustworthy. This concluded the evening with the rain gradually turning into snow, and the campers heading to bed.

The following day included the remaining two classes, bible trivia, and an indoor version of campfire.

The second class explored the obstacles that get in the way of our faith, and how we could go about getting around them. This lecture was particularly important as most of the participants were high schoolers who were getting ready to go to college, a time and place where our faith is heavily tested. And finally, the third class offered possible remedies to these obstacles that we face, and how we go about making the right choices in efforts to hold on to our faith. Through multiple stories and even personal testimonies, the final class summed up what we had discussed in the previous two lessons while looking at what a faithful peron would do to hold onto his Armenian Christian religion.

After a close game of Bible Trivia that required a "next-point-wins" to determine the winner, we ended the night with an indoor campfire. The "song-game" was a big hit as three groups were given a word and were asked to sing songs that had that word in it. Again, it came down to the wire, and after thirty minutes of intense competition, a winner was crowned and the night came to a close.

Sunday morning Fr. Avedis conducted a prayer service and gave a sermon about the prodigal son in observance of the Lenten period. A quick breakfast and unstable weather saw the campers to rush up the hill to pack their clothes and hit the road.

Everyone returned home Sunday afternoon and concluded their 2011 Junior Retreat.

The weekend would not have been possible without all of our conselors, kitchen helpers who prepared every meal from scratch, and Der Avedis Abovian our Youth Director. We would like to personally thank every one of them and express our gratitude for what they did.

Burbank Chapter's "Survivor's Walk"

Anna Arakelyan — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Burbank ACYO organized its first annual Silent Walk. The purpose of this walk was to provide a new perspective and deeper understanding of the suffering of genocide victims by walking 15 miles in a desert. Through the walk the youth was enriched with a better understanding of who they are as Armenian "survivors". The participants met at the Diocese at 7:00a.m on April 24, 2010.

There were 20 members including Fr. Avedis Abovyan. We also had Deacon Guj Khachikyan with us, driving the support car. When we reached the destination of the walk, Desert in Lancaster, Fr. Avedis began with a motivating speech that would help keep the youth focused on what they were really there for. He encouraged the youth to think about who they are as Armenian survivors while there were putting their each step. The participants were not talking and thus concentrating on the purpose of the walk. After walking for about approximately 7 miles continuously the youth stopped for a lunch break and a few minutes of relaxation.

Throughout the walk the cargo van was available about every mile or so for water. After continuing for another 7 or 8 miles the participants reached their destination at about 6:00 p.m. After struggling to put up the tents dinner arrived. Later, the youth huddled in a tent to have the discussion and reflections on how they felt about surviving the walk and how that paralleled to the people in deportation marches of genocide. They also reflected on how being a Christian meant that we need to have a "survivor" mentality and eliminate the "victim" mentality of hatred.

At proximately 7:30 a.m. the following morning the cars were loaded up once again and headed toward St. Peters Church in Glendale where during Badaraq the group was united with another group that was doing a 30 hour famine. After receiving Holy Communion everyone had a breakfast served by the church and the day was completed by taking pictures with Archbishop Hovnan Derderian. Though all of the participants were in pain they enjoyed the event and hoped to repeat it next year.

St. James, Los Angeles "Lock-In"

Ani Khatchadourian — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

On Saturday, April 17th at 7pm, under the spiritual leadership of His Eminence Archbishop Hovnan Derderian and Fr. Arshag Khatchadourian, the St. James Junior ACYO hosted its first annual "Lock-In", with participants from St. Gregory, Pasadena and Burbank chapters who enjoyed a night of fun, fellowship, and education.

Fr. Arshag Khatchadourian led an interactive translation of the 4 components of Badarak, where ACYO members learned about the priest's religious attire on the altar, a synopsis of Badarak, and enthusiastically participated in a question/answer session following the demonstration.

Following the educational portion of the evening, ACYO members enjoyed each other's company in Dulgarian Hall overnight and in the morning entered the church to light a candle and say a prayer. St. James Junior ACYO thanks the Burbank and St. Gregory, Pasadena chapter for their participation and look forward to hosting next year's 2nd Annual Southern Regional "Lock-In"!

Junior Retreat 2010

Liana Grigorians — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

On the weekend of March 19-21^st, ACYO youth from all three regions gathered at Hye Camp located in Dunlap, CA for our annual Junior Retreat. With about 35 junior participants and senior counselors in attendance, the group enjoyed beautiful scenery, fellowship, as well as educational lectures conducted by Der Avedis Abovian. The theme for the weekend, “Keeping our faith in a doubtful society,” focused on living our lives as Christians, discussed evolution, as well as answered questions from all ACYO members. During free time, members enjoyed great food, participated in a camp hike, and played games. Saturday evening all participants headed to the camp fire for a couple hours of storytelling, games, fellowship, and smores. In the end, all attendees had a great time and learned more about their faith. The ACYO Central Council was thrilled with the participation and turnout for this year’s Junior Retreat and can only hope for great memories in the years to follow.

2nd Annual ACYO Leadership Conference

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

On February 19-20^th, ACYO members from all three regions gathered for our Annual ACYO Leadership Conference in Fresno, CA. With roughly 45 members in attendance, the main focus for the weekend were resource management and fundraising, which are two key objectives in all ACYO chapters. Some topics that these professionals from World Vision conducted during the lectures and workshops were:

- What motivates donors

Personal Investment Sheets
Social Networking
What makes fundraising fun
Creating budgets

During the course of the workshops, chapters broke down into groups and created advertisement collages and a special commercial with the tools they learned from the various lectures. With the educational information that was taught from these professional speakers, we are confident that these ACYO chapters will be able to successfully fundraise for future events, as well as create new, inventive ways for advertising. The ACYO-WD Central Council was very pleased with the turnout for the Leadership Conference, and hope that it will only get better in the future.

Respectfully submitted,

Liana Grigorians