I personally take great pride in being able to organize & establish the Malayalee Association of Maryland (MAM), just as I am proud to have been a founding father of Maveli Soccer Club of Baltimore which was founded in 1983 & which is a great soccer club today with its own Maveli Cup tournament. Mr. Joseph Pothen-a community activist-was a strong initial supporter. Then came leaders like Sunnichen Karuvelithara & Kurikose Nedumpilli with association experience. Also came leaders with experience in India like Henry Thomas, Blesson Lukose, Antony Abraham, Santosh Kavanakudy, Prasad Abraham, Rajan Mathai long time community activist Peter Pereira and Prasad Nair. Christy Fernandez-the great artist-is a great valuable addition to MAM.

Malayalee Association of Maryland (MAM) is an offshoot of the natural growth of the Indian-American especially Malayalee Community in the Mid-Atlantic area. We have grown by leaps and bounds over the last 15 years. The Malayalee Community in many US metropolitan areas of USA have taken up the challenge. Take a look at the number of Indian associations growing in major US cities. They meet the growing needs of their community. Besides by their voting strength they play a key role in FOKANA, WORLD MALAYALEE COUNCIL, the 2 NFIAs, various FIAs and the like. The Maryland Indian community can't lag behind. Our numbers have grown big. They have to get their due share at the table of these National Federations. Malayalee Association of Maryland thus will help to gain clout for the Maryland-Washington-Virginia region at various National & Federation levels.

Malayalee Association of Maryland is to complement and not to compete with any existing local associations. We are a MARYLAND based association fulfilling the long felt need of our community in the Mid-Atlantic area for an organization with focus beyond just Christmas & Onam celebrations. May be in the past when we were small in number and just setting up shop in our adopted land that may have been sufficient. We are beyond that stage now. We now have to feed the intellectual, cultural and other aspirations of our community, which are growing in numbers.

We registered with the State of Maryland in the month of May 2002. Federal ID and Bank account has already been established.

Our FOUNDING COMMITTEE was formed at a meeting held at community activist & social worker Joseph Pothen's House on August 10, 2002. The meeting was presided over by the Founding Chairman Mr. Thomas P. Antony in his capacity as the Regional Vice-President of the National Federation of Indian American Associations. The following are the Founding Leaders & Founding Committee: