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"It is a unique moment in the history of our organization that we meet in person after a gap of four years. We are grateful to the tenacity and dedication of the hosts, Sacramento Zoroastrian Association (SZO), for taking every postponement in its stride to welcome the Zarathushti world from all over North America” to the 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) from April 28-30, 2023, acknowledged president Arzan Wadia. Twenty-one of their 27 member associations participated. Sixteen of the 21 committees were represented by their chairs or co-chairs. There were about 60 individuals and five members of the Zoroastrian Youth of North America (ZYNA) officially participating in the AGM. Nearly 10 volunteers from the SZO were in charge of the meeting arrangements and hospitality, Wadia conveyed the details to Parsiana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"As I enter the last year of my presidency, there are some initiatives and projects that need more attention, to get them to a point where they can be launched, or passed on to the next executive for their consideration. These include the FEZANA President’s Advisory Council, the FEZANA Canada Foundation and an all encompassing Zoroastrian App. I would like to focus my energies on that over the next 12 months, besides all of the other current projects that are ongoing,” stated Wadia.
"FEZANA’s biggest challenge has been in getting the word out,” felt Wadia. "Our audience profiles are changing. More and more younger folks are getting their news from online and social media platforms.” FEZANA’s social media team under the leadership of chief social media officer Tanya Hoshi has been diligently supporting FEZANA and ZYNA activities. Their posts on the proceedings of the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress (12WZC) and various religious festivities posts has made "FEZANA the top Zoroastrian association on the internet in terms of content and engagement,” reported Wadia.
FEZANA’s Social Media Committee that started with just one person during the pandemic in June 2020 is now a seven-person team led entirely by young Zoroastrians from Canada and the USA, reported Hoshi at the AGM.
"Our ages range from 13 to 31, giving us a nice range of content produced that appeals to youth of all ages.” They take pride that their video content achieved over half a million views and earned over 3,000 new followers across all social platforms. They gained the maximum amount of engagements on their short reels (under 90 seconds) with views/plays consistently being in the five-figure range. (The highest count was for former Supreme Court of India Justice Rohinton Nariman’s speech at the 12WZC which showed it was played 162,000 times, received 5,441 likes and was shared 1,652 times.)
In contrast, FEZANA Journal, their quarterly print publication, is struggling. As reported its editor Dr Dolly Dastoor at the AGM, at the end of 2020, they had a paid subscription base of 470 which came down to 457 in 2021. In 2022 they added 45 print and 12 digital  subscriptions but lost 98 print subscriptions that were not renewed. Citing the ZAGNY initiative that resulted in 30 new subscriptions, Dastoor was hopeful other associations would follow suit.
In response to a clarification sought by Parsiana, Dastoor mentioned that currently they have 520 subscribers, 361 print and 159 online. "Except for printing which is generously subsidized by Marzi Byramji of Regal press and mailing which is killing us, everything else is voluntary,” she said.
Acknowledging that "we are inundated with a vast amount of digital media” with varying length and credibility, competing for "our bandwidth, time and attention,” Dastoor planned to counter this "by focusing our future issue on topics of relevance and dialog with you on how to maintain engagement with our community… There is a common problem for print publications in this electronic age, when younger people prefer digital material and our senior readers still prefer print copies to hold and read at leisure.”
Chair of the Information Receiving and Dissemination Committee Behram Pastakia urged, "As the world moves to a space where hybrid events are becoming the norm, our member associations of FEZANA would do well to look into investing in technology to improve the sound systems in their meeting halls, and train volunteers who can run these sessions seamlessly.”
In the next five years the FEZANA Information Research Education System (FIRES) Committee has plans to publish an attractive coffee table book on the history of FEZANA and establish a museum for Zoroastrian artifacts. As noted Committee co-chair Aban Rustomji, "There is treasure trove of old artifacts that many of our members have in their homes. We need to find a space to display them and to preserve their history. Our greatest assets are our mission, our human resource, and our collection. We strive to be excellent stewards of our collection. We seek to inspire and impress every visitor who walks through our doors at the Zarathushti Heritage and Cultural Center (in Houston). We are always ready to try new things and push our boundaries. We are passionate about what we do and share our enthusiasm.”