Executive Secretary to Help ACYOA Volunteer Leaders

Earlier this year Nancy Basmajian, a long-time Diocesan employee, assumed the newly recreated position of executive secretary for the Armenian Church Youth Organization of America.

The position was created after ACYOA leaders won support from the 2001 Diocesan Assembly to fund the full-time position, designed to give the young volunteer leaders of the ACYOA a full-time administrative staff person dedicated to helping them expand the ACYOA and create programming.

"Historically, the ACYOA has been at its strongest when there was a single individual appointed as the executive director, who was responsible for the administrative and developmental aspects of the national organization on the Diocesan level, as well as assisting the Central Council in the operations of the organization," said Dn. Diran Jebejian, then chairman of the ACYOA Central Council to the 2001 Diocesan Assembly. "The need for an executive director, which was filled just once in the last 10 years, for a total of 24 months, has never been greater."

A graduate of St. Nersess Armenian Seminary, Basmajian said she hopes to offer more than traditional administrative support.

"My training from the seminary means that along with being an administrative person I can do ministry with our young adults," she said. "That age group is ripe for ministry and for drawing closer to the church and to God."

She grew up as a Sunday School student and ACYOA member in the Holy Trinity Church of Cheltenham, PA. Her first position in the Diocese was as director of the ACYOA Junior program. She has also served as program director for St. Vartan Camp and, most recently, as co-director of the Department of Religious Education.

"Growing up in the church, as a member of ACYOA and in Sunday School was an opportunity for me to be with other interested youth my age, it was a place I felt most comfortable and at home," Basmajian said.