Hi Lisette,
At the outset let me thank you and the other committee members for the yeomen
task of holding the recent Goan convention in Toronto. I think you should be
proud of yourselves for being part of the effort. Two decades from now, as one
reviews the Goan history in Canada, your names will certainly be mentioned.
To me the issue is: Two decades from now will someone be writing well about
Goans in Canada (and North America); as a positive successful community? Or
will it be a history of a community that will be lamented for lack of growth,
divisiveness and petty mindedness? As individuals we likely will be doing
pretty well.
One of the crux is as you put: Should this be a convention for 100 people, even
as the Toronto population (alone) is in excess of 20,000? I view this
convention to serve the Goan community of North America; just as the Bengali
convention in downtown Toronto, held a few weeks earlier, served their
community, with 6,000+ attendees, paying a registration fee of hundred dollars
($100:00), compared to the Goan registration of two hundred and fifty. I think
this is a take home message to all organizers.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Bengali_Conference
If the Goan convention got the attendance you planned for, your beef is not
with Eugene; but with those who complained about the poor attendance. Please
do not spin the attendance numbers. I heard at a recent medical presentation,
"One can come to any conclusion, if one beats the data hard enough."
I think the above are fundamental issues of Goan conventions that we should be
engaged in dialog, instead of the mudslinging that some view is occurring. I do
not see much mudslinging, but I am not on the committee, and I do not read all
the posts. By the same token as a committee member you and others should not
take it personally any discussion / post-mortem on the convention. In that
case, we should end goanet because we are always writing on issues that may be
perceived as negative to someone or an institution.
Eugene's posts and others on Goanet on this thread that I have read (I do not
read all), is nothing compared to nasty posts we see on other topics, written
by several individuals who serve on and defend your committee. I hope you can
be an active participant on Goanet. Then you can attack these people who write
vicious and 'near inappropriate' posts (since it passes the moderators),
where personal attacks are made on individuals and institutions. Your reproach
with a 'velvet glove' will moderate a few - some of whom are your admirers, as
seen from their recent posts. Do you not think we should apply the same
standards and yard-stick?
Perhaps a good topic for the next Goan convention is reviewing the art of
communication on Goanet with regard and respect; and focusing on the idea /
topic; rather than the individual. This would be an excellent topic at any
forum, and one specially organized by GNAT..
My next topic of dialog on Goanet is "It is not so" regarding a heavily
discussed past topic. I will rely on a book which I have just completed
reading - "Cracking Da Vinci's Code - You have read the fiction, now read the
facts". Likely you will enjoy this topic. It may help you as
you encounter 'the fictional facts' about the Catholic Church.:=))
Kind regards, GL.
PS: To those who likely will object to :=)), it reflects the oxymoron ... like
'happy marriage'.:=))
---------------- LISETTE SALDANHA
The academic portion of the convention was planned for 100-120 people as was
evident in the venues we used. It would have been impossible to achieve the
level of interaction and intimacy the convention provided if we had
larger groups. Quite frankly I cannot imagine any room that could have housed
10,000 people for an effective presentation even 20 years ago. Should the next
Convention's goals be to have a much larger crowd, than their organizational
plans and goals will have to be different from the Toronto group.We had a
100-110 people, 80 were paid registrants and the rest were volunteers,
observers, presenters.
