In last two to two and half months we had 3 programmes of which one was organised by Yuvak Mandal and other two were organised by Samaj aka Motu Mandal.Response and involvement of the members of the Samaj , to say the least, was lukewarm and worrying. Those at the helm of the Society need some serious thinking about the poor attendance of the members. Let us one by one take up the 3 functions and try to understand the response of the members. First let us see what happened on 22-12-2013.
The programme was named Sneh- Samelan and was organised on a Sunday at 3:00 PM to be followed by Dinner at Raghu Leela Village at 6:30 PM. There were around 300 people who attended the function (if at all this could be termed as function) out of a population of around 8000 people . What could be the reasons of such a low turnout ? To our mind following were the causes :
1) The show was at 3:00 PM which was not a suitable time as on Sunday people take their lunch at around 1:00 PM . They also take siesta on Sunday. So to attend the show, they would have to miss their afternoon sleep.
2) No doubt, we have a very high presence in and around Borivali but those who stay in central suburbs would never think to come all the way to Borivali as they will spend some 2 hours one way to reach the venue.
3) The card rate was kept at Rs 300 per person that means husband ,wife and two kids would spend 1200 rupees plus transport for one evening.
4) Dinner at a place like Village is tempting but who will go to dine at 6:30 PM ?
Now let us talk about costing of the function
The cost to Yuvak Mandal for Film and Dinner was about Rs 700/- per person or so of which Rs. 300 were contributed by the member. The difference between expenses and collection is generally to be bridged by collecting donations from charitable members of the community. For so many years this was the practice but this year yuvak mandal did not bother to collect the donations for the function and spent the amount from the funds of yuvak mandal. At Rs. 400 per person for 300 people yuvak mandal spent some 1,20,000.00. The donors give their hard earned money to yuvak mandal thinking that the funds and the income generated from those funds will be utilised efficiently and needy and helpless people would be benefited but this does not seem to be happening . For this, we would blame the donors also to some extent because they do not keep a watch on what is happening to their charities. Time has now come to have check & balances over the members of the yuvak mandal and oversee the spending they make. This is needed to be stated as more and more inexperienced members are coming in the working committee and because of lack of understanding and knowledge they misutilise the funds which now runs into crores.
To stress the point just made, if you see the recent election of yuvak mandal there were 12 members required for working committee but only 8 came forward and they were elected unopposed irrespective of their social standing and knowledge. Against this, for trust board where some 5 members were to be elected, 10 people contested. What is the signal ? It is simple everybody wants chairs, photos and microphone to give speech but no body wants to work at root level.
What is the reason for diminished interest ? One very important reason seems to be lack of communication amongst the young. New generation is very poor in Gujarati and old horses are not interested in English so there is divide due to language. This must be addressed very fast to bring the yuvak mandal on track. Involvement of the next generation is a must and whatever needs to be done must be done.
Other 2 programmes will be discussed in days to come. Please keep visiting the site.
The programme was named Sneh- Samelan and was organised on a Sunday at 3:00 PM to be followed by Dinner at Raghu Leela Village at 6:30 PM. There were around 300 people who attended the function (if at all this could be termed as function) out of a population of around 8000 people . What could be the reasons of such a low turnout ? To our mind following were the causes :
1) The show was at 3:00 PM which was not a suitable time as on Sunday people take their lunch at around 1:00 PM . They also take siesta on Sunday. So to attend the show, they would have to miss their afternoon sleep.
2) No doubt, we have a very high presence in and around Borivali but those who stay in central suburbs would never think to come all the way to Borivali as they will spend some 2 hours one way to reach the venue.
3) The card rate was kept at Rs 300 per person that means husband ,wife and two kids would spend 1200 rupees plus transport for one evening.
4) Dinner at a place like Village is tempting but who will go to dine at 6:30 PM ?
Now let us talk about costing of the function
The cost to Yuvak Mandal for Film and Dinner was about Rs 700/- per person or so of which Rs. 300 were contributed by the member. The difference between expenses and collection is generally to be bridged by collecting donations from charitable members of the community. For so many years this was the practice but this year yuvak mandal did not bother to collect the donations for the function and spent the amount from the funds of yuvak mandal. At Rs. 400 per person for 300 people yuvak mandal spent some 1,20,000.00. The donors give their hard earned money to yuvak mandal thinking that the funds and the income generated from those funds will be utilised efficiently and needy and helpless people would be benefited but this does not seem to be happening . For this, we would blame the donors also to some extent because they do not keep a watch on what is happening to their charities. Time has now come to have check & balances over the members of the yuvak mandal and oversee the spending they make. This is needed to be stated as more and more inexperienced members are coming in the working committee and because of lack of understanding and knowledge they misutilise the funds which now runs into crores.
To stress the point just made, if you see the recent election of yuvak mandal there were 12 members required for working committee but only 8 came forward and they were elected unopposed irrespective of their social standing and knowledge. Against this, for trust board where some 5 members were to be elected, 10 people contested. What is the signal ? It is simple everybody wants chairs, photos and microphone to give speech but no body wants to work at root level.
What is the reason for diminished interest ? One very important reason seems to be lack of communication amongst the young. New generation is very poor in Gujarati and old horses are not interested in English so there is divide due to language. This must be addressed very fast to bring the yuvak mandal on track. Involvement of the next generation is a must and whatever needs to be done must be done.
Other 2 programmes will be discussed in days to come. Please keep visiting the site.
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