Page 7 - Demo

THE REVIEW
JANUARY’19-JUNE’19 7
PUNE AGM 2018
Something beautiful happened yesterday. We were having a quiet Governing Body lunch and chatting about the AGM, and I told my colleagues on the Governing Body that I would like to see themmixing with people from other States. What I am trying to say is you have to connect. And if you are connected with your own branches in your state, the parties are a good opportunity for you to meet others. And guess what happened?
In the evening the Trichy branch delegates were in such an animated conversation with Glen
that they didn’t bother about me. That’s good leadership. Presidents of branches who are a little quiet or introvert, you can connect in your own way. You can connect with the mobile phone. When a president phones someone to wish them a happy birthday, or sends a condolence message, it touches the person. Empathise, educate, empower are our three watchwords. You’re empathizing, you’re connecting.
I will talk about our branches before I come back to the world and India. This is for presidents and branches. As branch leaders, you must Connect. But before that, you must Conceive. You can’t connect and say, ‘I have nothing to say’. You have to first conceive. You have to ideate and formulate a policy and then, after conceiving, you need to connect. What is the best way of connecting? Communicating. If you communicate, you’re connected. You communicate on the phone, you communicate by speaking, you communicate
by listening, you communicate by smiling,
you communicate through your presence. So, Communicate is the third C. Besides that, you need to Cooperate. You can’t be stuffy about the whole thing. ‘This is what my view is and that’s it!’. You will have to cooperate. Cooperate means give and take.
The next C, and very important C which I would like branches to take back: We live in an age
of Collaboration. You have to collaborate; you have to put your strengths together. When you have an Olympics, don’t have it only for your branch; call the other branches. Five branches were represented at the Olympics in Coimbatore, including Madurai, Trichy, and Ayanavaram.
The branches in Tamil Nadu and Chennai are the masters of collaboration. I used to be a Round
Tabler—that’s where I got introduced to social service—and there was an award for inter-
table activities. I think it’s a good idea for us to start an award like that. Reach out to another branch, invite another branch. Calcutta does
it so beautifully: they even give scholarships to children of other branches—Santragachi, Adra, Kharagpur. That’s amazing! You need to inform them. The Delhi branch had an event recently where, out of about 204 people, 35 were from a different branch. From the new FNG branch, 35 people went and participated and danced and enjoyed themselves. Collaboration is really, really important.
There is a suggestion from Mr Phillip Fowler, the new president of the Podanur branch. He says: Why do we only meet once a year at the AGM? Is it a problem for us to have state meets, where we can organise something in the state for a day? It can be a little informal also, to get together and discuss things. How many of you think it’s a good idea for the state to organise its own state meet, and pay for it yourselves? (Many hands are raised) Good. We will initiate it. The Governing Body will be involved in it. Don’t expect the President-in-Chief to be all state meets; then he’ll be in a bad state. (laughter) I’ll try, but we have other wonderful representatives. I think it’s a very good idea from Mr Fowler.
This Governing Body is determined to collaborate with other Anglo-Indian institutions. Friends,
if we go into confrontation, that’s another C. It’s sometimes much more difficult than you think. And sometimes, like last year, we actually decided to go and take the route of confrontation. And there has been a rethink, because of the ground realities of where we stand, so collaboration, it was felt by a large majority was the way forward. I’m happy to tell you that this Governing Body
is collaborating with The All-India Anglo-Indian Education Institution, and we will work hand-in- hand for the welfare of the community. We have been assured by Air Marshal Keelor and The All- India Anglo-Indian Education Institution that we will work together for the benefit of our children and for the future. Collaboration is also happening with the Frank Anthony Public Schools, with Laidlaw School in Ketty, with La Martiniere, Lucknow, The Bishop’s Schools in Pune, Don Bosco Academy and St Dominic Savio in Patna. We live in an age of complete collaboration.
Your leadership style can be your own, it should have your stamp on it—your own style, your own way of leading. Can you imagine a leader jumping around yesterday when that event was going on? What a crazy leader! But that’s my style, that’s
the way I do it—hands on! It may be wrong. You don’t have to do it. I hope in another year or so,
I sit down quietly and don’t have to do anything. We’ll get there. I’ll give you an example. I used
to do the awards ceremony; last year Ian did it— unfortunately Ian is not here, and we are missing him—but we had two persons yesterday who are
My Cs for our branches are: Conceive, Connect, Cooperate, Communicate, Collaborate.