Introduction

The meeting of the International Coordination Council (ICC) held immediately after the Fourth NRN Global Conference in Kathmandu in 2009,decided that the Fourth Regional NRN Conference (the “Conference”) would be held in the USA pending the consent from the Oceania Region which had earlier proposed to held the meeting in Australia. NRNA General Secretary Mr. Ratan Jha was given the task of recommending a proper place and date for the conference. In its Cyber Meeting on December 20, 2009, the ICC, after due consultation with representatives from Oceania, approved the proposal of the members from North America in the ICC to host the Fourth Regional Conference in Houston, Texas, USA from May 28 to 30, 2010. The same meeting of also decided that Mr. Ratan Jha, General Secretary of the NRNA ICC, to be the Coordinator of the Conference.

Although the conference id termed regional as is being held in North America, it will have representation of the NRNs from around the globe. The past three regional conferences were held in Doha (Qatar), Bonn (Germany) and Bangkok (Thailand) in 2005, 2006 and 2008, respectively. Such Regional NRN Conferences, ranked second only to the Global NRN Conference in attendance and significance, are mandated by the NRNA constitution - which stipulates that a Regional Conference be organized outside of Nepal in between the global conferences. The Global Conferences is held
every two years in Nepal.