Successful Volunteer Meet held on 15th Feb at Navi Mumbai

The first volunteers meet of 2009, of In Defense Of Animals - India was held on 15th February.  The focus of the meet was to get organized as it was felt that up till now, the volunteers were not given specific tasks nor were their roles clearly defined, leading to several dropping out and/or lethargy and lack of interest among most that were still with us.

After a brief Introduction about IDA-India by Secretary Sudnya Patkar , our President Fizzah Shah talked about her dream for IDA-India within her areas of interest, followed by the Vice-President Viviane Choudhary and lastly Naina Athale.

This was followed by the introduction of our plan of action to the audience by Ron Billimoria. He outlined the following areas of functioning within which the volunteers could choose. Details of tasks within each group were outlined.

1. Operations Group
2. Marketing Group
3. Donations Group
4. Recruiting Volunteers Group
5. Volunteering Professional Expertise Group

A group of 32 persons attended this first meet. Retired professionals, housewives, several young students from the field of management, sciences and even medicine, and working men and women.

1. It is hoped that the volunteers would be better able to choose their areas of interest and start helping actively, now that we have given some clarity to the term 'volunteerism', and have given clearly outlined tasks within each group of functioning.

2. As of now, the work will be delegated to responsible volunteers as much as possible, with the managing committee concentrating on work that only they can do. The volunteers will be carefully monitored, encouraged and counseled from time to time, to not only help them gain satisfaction for the work they do, but also help IDA-India achieve its goals.