As I try (note the word) to distance myself from the day to day workings of the Bombay chapter, I spend some more time thinking about how the chapter can be taken forward and developed! Also helps me add some colour to the chapter like linkages with the mozilla foundation and enlightening them with download days of firefox - is this what someone meant by saying we should make the Bombay chapter more lively - maybe!.
This was something i never thought about in NSIT (my engineering college), which was my first association with SPIC MACAY. There, I assumed, being a college an organic growth was imminent and it was something that happened on its own. Consequently, I failed miserably at in MICA, due to never thinking about it then.
Experience is the best teacher and I learned that if I need to play an active role in Bombay (something i resisted till I felt there were more committed peopleplaying an active role!)
Priyank soon left and SPIC MACAY fest 2008 approaching and no one who would take the initiative to organise it, I decided this was the time to try and explore the old wine, but in a completely new bottle. So may be how I should savour it should also change.
I knew that there were a couple of people priyank had initiated into the scheme of things, and they could just be told what to do and they would achieve the desired effect of 15 concerts - in say 10 schools/ colleges. But could the same 15 concerts be achieved with a greater impact. I am not really talking about an impact in the city / media etc - but as priyadashan puts it rather nicely - the concerts adding more value to us - the spicmacayites, the volunteers!
A google group to which i kept posting almost felt like I was writing to the wall, making proclamations of revived saturday meetings, which at times evoked some valid cynicism and mockery,organising dinner parties to which practically no one would turn up!Many times I felt that I was trying to weave into a community wide project, a set of simple tasks which i could achieve by simple coordination skills - which SPIC MACAY had taught me in good measure by now!
However, the wall i felt I was talking to soon began to crumble as priyadarshan instantly bought into my ideas about how we work being equally ( I am tempted to say 'more') important than what we achieve!
It is impossible to quantify what we achieved by all this but if I was to put it vaguely, here is a small list -
1.We revived a feel good factor that fans and supporters of spic macay in mumbai had not felt in a long time!
2. We revived a certain volunteer curiosity > Anyone who came forward with an intention to volunteer at any scale, however big or small did not go back disappointed!
3. This interest did not stay limited to the fest series. but a similar exercise for planning and implementing the convention travel by priyadarshan - has had a certain impact on a few more people!
4. As Saturday meetings was not the most viable of things, google groups, documents and things like this blog attempt to replicate the saturday like effects with a greater regularity and with greater width
The key take home from all this being that if we begin with focussing on creating volunteer value, the likelihood of a chapter sustaining will be far greater!
And volunteer value will not come from the end product but the process, the means to achieve the end!
Let me end with a very simple and actionable example that highlights my point- by commenting on this post and hence engaging in an online discussion around it - you will add value to this volunteer's post - and make him count!
cheers
Harsh
This was something i never thought about in NSIT (my engineering college), which was my first association with SPIC MACAY. There, I assumed, being a college an organic growth was imminent and it was something that happened on its own. Consequently, I failed miserably at in MICA, due to never thinking about it then.
Experience is the best teacher and I learned that if I need to play an active role in Bombay (something i resisted till I felt there were more committed peopleplaying an active role!)
Priyank soon left and SPIC MACAY fest 2008 approaching and no one who would take the initiative to organise it, I decided this was the time to try and explore the old wine, but in a completely new bottle. So may be how I should savour it should also change.
I knew that there were a couple of people priyank had initiated into the scheme of things, and they could just be told what to do and they would achieve the desired effect of 15 concerts - in say 10 schools/ colleges. But could the same 15 concerts be achieved with a greater impact. I am not really talking about an impact in the city / media etc - but as priyadashan puts it rather nicely - the concerts adding more value to us - the spicmacayites, the volunteers!
A google group to which i kept posting almost felt like I was writing to the wall, making proclamations of revived saturday meetings, which at times evoked some valid cynicism and mockery,organising dinner parties to which practically no one would turn up!Many times I felt that I was trying to weave into a community wide project, a set of simple tasks which i could achieve by simple coordination skills - which SPIC MACAY had taught me in good measure by now!
However, the wall i felt I was talking to soon began to crumble as priyadarshan instantly bought into my ideas about how we work being equally ( I am tempted to say 'more') important than what we achieve!
It is impossible to quantify what we achieved by all this but if I was to put it vaguely, here is a small list -
1.We revived a feel good factor that fans and supporters of spic macay in mumbai had not felt in a long time!
2. We revived a certain volunteer curiosity > Anyone who came forward with an intention to volunteer at any scale, however big or small did not go back disappointed!
3. This interest did not stay limited to the fest series. but a similar exercise for planning and implementing the convention travel by priyadarshan - has had a certain impact on a few more people!
4. As Saturday meetings was not the most viable of things, google groups, documents and things like this blog attempt to replicate the saturday like effects with a greater regularity and with greater width
The key take home from all this being that if we begin with focussing on creating volunteer value, the likelihood of a chapter sustaining will be far greater!
And volunteer value will not come from the end product but the process, the means to achieve the end!
Let me end with a very simple and actionable example that highlights my point- by commenting on this post and hence engaging in an online discussion around it - you will add value to this volunteer's post - and make him count!
cheers
Harsh
1 comment:
-i would like to add one more point and that is the activities have now come to a purely student domain which is a major transition from how it was about say 2 years back.
-another thing is the attempt we are making at using available information technology (read google) to our benifit
-the journey we have started towards making it a for by and of the student movement (ofcourse with help and guidance whenever required form whoever wishes to help)
-beginning of the revival of saturday meetings where one longs to go to, just to meet up and in the process end up planning spic activities too
more as i remember
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