What do you need to start your activity?
You do not need a large group of volunteers to start it. Three or 4 committed members with good interpersonal skills and commitment.Just after doing that adopt a resolution and send its information by email to Interantional Coordinator at hpi2000@hotmail.com . You will get a confirmation from him to formally start your funcitoning with material and logistic support for your activities. Initially it is advisable to concentrate on a healthy city project by choosing either Panipat city in India or any other city you like or have more facilities to work.
You need to choose some very understanding faculty members fairly soon to be involved in an informal discussion with you at occasions when you require.
Have a small memorandum of association (must contain all the mission statement as present in our web page) signed by about 40 members at the first General Body meeting.
Send a nominal fee of £60 for the official approval of your national branch to the International Office.
Membership
INSEED will have only two office bearers, treasurer and a coordinator at the college, university, national and international level, they will be guided by the recommendations of a Board of Advisors (faculty members). Work in the
form of focus each of which has a group leader. These leaders change once in a while. The focus groups take care of various facets of the running of the
organization, and its the leader's job to make sure that each task is
assigned to one or more people, to monitor the progress of the various
tasks in the group, and to give a progress report at the monthly
organization meeting. The focus groups will meet separately at their own
convenience. Members typically associate themselves with one, and
sometimes two, focus groups. This gives them an opportunity to work
on those aspects that they most enjoy. Also, this allows the organization
to handle more easily the lapses of individuals - every once in a while,
people become too involved with other aspects of their lives and cant
devote as much time to INSEED. This setup allows this to happen more
smoothly.
Do charge an annual membership fees and put this money in an "administrative account" and never use this money for other expenditurers.
SEEK NEW MEMBERS:
Once you are rolling, organise a high profile event involving invitation of a noted public figure as your speaker. International office will help you, if you want that.
KEEP A BALANCED DISTRIBUTION FROM THE START: There should be some self-regulation to avoid development of caucus in form of students from same country, faculty, region or class. Freshers students must be given responsibilty at suitable levesls and their commitment must be allowed to consoildate. That will avoid succession problems.
Make sure you dont become too
much of a clique that makes newcomers feel a bit intimidated.
A couple of
specific suggestions in this regard --- make the group meetings
receptive to new attendees (you could do a round of introduction,
and invite questions), also you might consider holding a
yearly 'open-house' to introduce the group to the campus community
and attract new (and old) students to join the group.
Usually there are a few members that are quite dedicated. Don't
overwork them! Dont always count on them to do things! It's a bad
idea. Also dont make any one person indispensable on any count.
This is bad for any organization.
The more you make the members feel a part of the whole organization,
the more interested and enthusiastic they will be. Always rotate
duties, make every member feel important and responsible.
Logistics of starting the group
- Registering as an organization: INSEED can be first registered to your university students union.
- Bank account: To begin with, Vanessa Pintus will open an account for international charity.
- Miscelleneous: A receipt book to hand out receipts. Getting a stamp for INSEED and insignia for it be a useful starting point.
Overall Activities Planning
- With regard to the overall activities of the group, there are
basically two things to think about - raising money, and
putting it to use in India/ country of your choice. The first tends to be the more
time-consuming and more effort-intensive. Volunteers to be deployed after selection of activity and planning them now. In Liverpool Unit, Ms Vanessa Pintus, its President with the great work of Stu Becker, Jacki and Dave have created a model of success.
- Fund raising : just look around you. UNDP, WHO and other UN agencies could be very friendly as INSEED has done quite a ground work in this area and it hass some support in such bodies. Plan a mega star event (stars will be happy with such youths who have concern for the poorer people and environment) in December with the help of school children.
- Publish a periodic newsletter to keep your
collaborators and partner organisations informed about each others activities.
Contact address:hpi2000@hotmail.com
Information Office, INSEED International, 491/22, Shiv Nagar,
Panipat- INDIA PHONE 0091 1742 35268
