Hi Suresh,
LOL at "DP culture" and "group of distributors" ;-)
Seriously though, what you say makes sense. The group has reasonably
solid base in handling medical cases and hence our efforts go beyond
distribution. But for food, water, sandals et.al. there needs to be DP
attached because we do not have the consistent volunteer base that's needed.
To make matters worse, we are divided on whether to keep our funds unified
or allocated per area of work.
Educational ecosystem
However, I like the idea of education for underprivileged children that
you propose. The education of the child can be viewed as an ecosystem rather
than as a single task. So, the medical cases which come to the group can be
enhanced to support children's nutrition/healthcare/hygiene while the
efforts which go into sustaining a child's education expenses can continue
supporting fees and books. Newer groups can come up, which create the moral
and ethical path for children. For an outside viewer of MAD's educational
activities, it would appear like we are JUST supporting children's education
but they cannot see the finer points of demarcation which ACTUALLY go into
educating the children.
Ecosystem approach to making a difference
Similar ecosystems need to come up to support NaChaKi's idea of
integrating Orphanages and old age homes and Divya's idea of creating
sustainable sources of income for the elderly.
Approach to cases
But for this, the group has to radically re-architect its approach to
sticky areas such as volunteer base, finance management, inter-volunteer
relatedness, monthly meetings and turnaround time for project
implementation. Right now, there are far too many discussions peppered with
exhaustive apologies with very little going on. Also, not every member
participates in discussions ... why is that? are there too many mails
exchanged? are the discussions boring? what is the reward for someone
totally new to suggest an idea? This approach to development needs review.
New methods to try
At the risk of running the group like a company for a few days, I
would suggest that, discussions and meetings need to have specific
qualifiable and quantifiable agendas. A subject like finance division or
volunteer base has no specific targets or milestones ... what are we looking
to agree upon? What milestones should we set for? for every X number of
messages sent to the group what on-field progress can we look at? If no
consensus is reached after Y number of days, should the discussion be
suspended or terminated?
I understand that these approaches are anal and you maybe wondering
"arre yaar ... i came here for serving society in a small way and have some
fun and here's some banda talking like that manager of mine" ;-) but if you
think about it ... if the group is not given this kind of a direction,
atleast by senior members then the progress will be seriously slowed down.
Imagine the forward progress that the group can make if every one of
the 150 members sent one mail a week atleast giving one tiny suggestion? how
much forward progress can be made? it is the responsibility of the senior
members to bring about this kind of change.
that's what i have to write for now ... will take a chota-sa-break
from being anal ;-)
cheers!
k
On 4/23/07, suresh adina <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Lot of interesting mails of late. Good news is that there is a lot more
interest and involvement from group members. The flip side is that there
seems to be major disagreement on the focus of the group. the irritant is
that only a few people are responding.
We seem to be going deep into this DP culture. We do MDP(money or
medical), BDP, FDP, SDP, UDP, WDP, and CDP. Maybe there are a couple of DPs
that I am missing out. But why does everything have to be identified as a
DP? Are we a group of distributors? I think it is time we take some
ownership of a cause and not just doling out money or goods. With ownership
will come responsibility. And as mentioned in some of the other mails, maybe
there are members waiting to take responsibility and work towards an outcome
that we can manage. This is not to say we stop the initiatives already taken
up. That sends a completely wrong message.
I have always felt that education of underprivileged children is what this
country needs most. Education is not just about books and uniforms. It
includes health, hygiene, ethics and morals and doing right for the society.
In a way we would be building possible future members of the group. Then we
can see the impact we have made and if not for us, maybe our children. That
would make a real difference to the society that we will live in and to us
as part of that society.
With this in mind, let us focus our next meeting to define a proper path
or goal for the group. Let us not take up an new initiatives in the
meantime. And there is talk of various positions for the group like
President, Secretary etc and people who have already been identified for
those positions. The last thing we need is to work like a political party
where the "leaders" are identified and then the agenda is set by them. Let
us first define the goals and objectives for the group as well as the
responsibilities for the roles and then have members come forward who have
interest in taking this up. Right or wrong, there is a perception created
that it is an individually driven group and this process should help us get
that past that image.
There is a saying " Failure to plan is a plan for failure" and we seem to
be heading that way. Let us quickly take corrective action.
Hope we can have a focussed meeting next month in Hyderabad. The meeting
will be on Sunday May 6th 10:00 AM - 12:00 Noon at my house in Khairatabad.
Agenda will be sent by this weekend. I am hoping for more participation than
we have ever had in the past. Please prove me right. Hopefully cool
refreshments will lure some of the people in this hot weather.
See you soon.
Cheers
Suresh A
