The Ceylon Hotel School Graduates Association launched its Golden anniversary celebrations holding the 50TH Annual General Meeting recently. 

The event was held virtually with only a few invitees including past presidents and office bearers meeting at the Water’s Edge to celebrate the event and elect the new committee for the year 2021/22. 

Though virtual, the event was a success with over 200 members joining from all over the world.  In celebrating the 50th anniversary, CHSGA had lined up numerous events, but due to the prevailing situation, they had to be postponed. 

Asela Wavita, the General Manager of Victoria Golf and Country Resort , Kandy  was elected as the President of the Association for the term 2021/22. 

Incidentally, he is a product of Kandy Campus of SLITHM / CHS and the first from the Kandy campus to be elected to the position. He takes over the reins from Priyal Perera. 

Patrick Pereira and Gitanjali Chakravarty were elected as Vice Presidents with Irandi Wijegunawardane being appointed as the General Secretary and Dinesh Hettiarachchi as the treasurer. 

This year’s committee comprises of many hospitality professionals of different specializations and hold senior management positions in the industry. 

While commending the past presidents and past committees over the last 5 decades for their hard work and dedication in bringing the Association to the level it is today, Wavita said, “As we celebrate our 50th anniversary during a pandemic and with hopes and prayers of recovery and rebounding,   the association needs to be pragmatic and look at meeting the requirements of the industry while having the best interest of it’s members at heart.” 

He further elaborated on the future plans which includes setting up of a “CHSGA Center for Excellence” which would benefit both the SLITHM Graduates as well as the industry personnel in fine tuning their skills and technical knowledge , continuation of the plans to convert SLITHM into a degree awarding body, continuation  of the CHSGA Strategic Direction proposals , further enhancing the relations with the industry and making CHSGA a key stakeholder in the industry while taking the association forward by passing the challenges that are faced by the industry at present. 

Priyal Perera during his welcome address spoke of the challenges faced by both the association and the industry at large which prevented CHSGA from executing many plans that were laid out for the year. He was happy with the way the association has progressed over the last two years while being able to lay the ground work for many of the future plans of the association.