Thoughtfulness and Understanding- Prachi Jain

We meet these people almost every day in our life, whenever we step out of our house.

They are important, but we underestimate them because their hard work is not packed up in some expensive and decorative wrappers and then labelled with some big brand names. Even after knowing this fact, we try to low-ball these vendors in price, we bargain with them while we pay EXTRA very much when it comes to brand name. 

If we talk about a classroom, the same thing happens with the children also. We always go after those children who can fetch our attention towards them. But what about those who actually need attention and are not able to express it. Most of the times, they are missed out, their need is also underestimated, and their emotions are bargained with.

So, on the part of a teacher-

Ø Thoughtfulness is the quality of thinking carefully about how to do something which is effective for every child.

And, for a student-

Ø Thoughtfulness are showing kind and considerate regard for those who showed the right path to them and helped them reach their goal. For them,

It’s THOUGHTFULNESS that inspires them to send a “thank you” note to –

§  Their grandparents for the birthday gift.

§  Their teachers on Teacher’s Day and much more….

We should always be thankful to the people at the previous steps who taught us how to move up, how to grow before we move to the next one.

Thoughtful people pay attention to the people around them, reflects on the situation and then choose to react and act purposefully and lovingly which takes a bit more consideration & time and most important-

A lovely quote that fits here-

                   “Never underestimate the power of thought; it is the greatest path to discovery.”

It shows that – Thoughtfulness and Understanding work in a cycle. If we start with Thoughtfulness, we come with a better understanding all the way and when we start with Understanding, we make an arrangement about actions to be taken.

Thoughtfulness has the power to change/improvise our thoughts, and Understanding gives us the power to take action for an effective outcome.

- Prachi Jain, The Doon Girls' School, Dehradun

My Good School - Where Passion Meets Education

My Good School Where Passion Meets Education

Recording of an interesting Insta Live session with Dipali Patwa, Group Head of Brand & Community, Fabindia, Board of Directors, Organic India USA along and Sandeep Dutt, Chairman of the Board that runs The Fabindia School, Author, Entrepreneur, Mountaineer as they talk about “School, where passion meets education.”

Building your school brand?

Join me at the Global Educators Fest 2019

Ammara Habib

Over the past few years, Ammara has worked across various fields, which enabled her to diversify her perspective on life and its dealings. Her experience in the field of education, coupled with her passion for everything branding and marketing, has led her to the inception of Mad About Ed, India’s first Edvertising Agency. While working with over 350+ schools from across India, she has closely witnessed the passion and hard work that educators put in every single day. This has also helped her identify the gaps in marketing and branding in the education sector. She strongly feels that the right tools and research-driven insights can help organisations and educators unlock their potential and optimise their results.

These insights and the professional engagements with educators strengthened her knowledge of the education sector enabling her to engage with an even larger audience. A Master of Science in Applied Psychology, Ammara is also a staunch advocate of the Violence Against Women Movement and has worked with victims of domestic violence.
Find out more https://globaledfest.com/

Build Your Own Personal Brand

There are thousands of books, articles and papers available on the subject of product and services branding, and an equal number of agencies and executives across the world working on developing great brands. More courses are being curated as part of the curriculum in business schools and millions being spent on conferences and seminars to bring the experts in the field together to share their views. However, not as many conferences, courses and articles on ‘personal or individual branding’ make their way to the headlines! The fact is that all of us as individuals, too, possess the potential to be those great brands we revere. In a world that is fast to clone, it is worth thinking about what can then help individuals, in every ordinary walk of life, stand apart from the crowd and create brands for themselves. For individuals, the process can actually be simplified.

  "When you see the world through the eyes of your purpose, you see the beauty it has to offer!" 

Firstly, to share some facts surrounding Personal branding:

Effective Personal Branding is not a spin. It is not sugar coating or artificial packaging. Its roots lie in authenticity. The image manufactured for the world, has to be the actual person in reality as well. If you play a role, one that is not real, you will quickly be found out, and you will exhaust yourself one day just living those perceptions. It also means that you live in a world in which If your approach is to wear a mask, you will fail. You cannot be what others want you to be. You will have to get others to see YOU for what you really are. The traditional models at the workplace were about doing as told, blending in and adhering to what was the ‘normal.'  The new normal is to stand out. Current models are about passion, discovering meaning and purpose and about defining values. It’s about building your personal brand.

Personal Branding is not meant only for outgoing gregarious personalities. In fact, everyone, irrespective of their personality can possess a personal brand. Did you think the most amicable or social personalities are the ones who have their own brands? This is one of the biggest myths surrounding personal brand building. It supersedes personality, and rather is based on the strength of relationships!

Building a Personal Brand takes does not take time:  It emerges as a reflection of your behavior. It is not a hobby or something you ‘do’ in your spare time. You can’t ‘do’ a brand. You build it, bit by bit, everyday, every minute.

It’s not just business; It’s personal:  Can you imagine trying to say ‘ It’s not personal, it’s just business’ to any leader, teacher, or CEO who has spent half of his/her life at work and put their heart and soul into their work. Business is personal because we each crave a deeper connection with our work, a connection that transcends position and power and money, a connection in which we meet needs and create something. We all want to be valued and recognized. And we like to know that we are making a difference when we put our heart and soul into something. Our work reflects our personal lives, and our personal lives reflect our work. If you have cared for your customers, it’s personal. If you have lost sleep over a client, it’s personal. If you have gone out of your way for a colleague, it’s personal. If you stayed extra hours to help a team member, it’s personal. The fine line between personal and business has evaporated

We are connected- everywhere, all of the time. Your community partners will know what you are doing on your holiday. They will know if you are calling into work sick, but checking into a spa… or at your daughters PTA or just a shopping trip out. It’s all visible. You are being judged, and evaluated constantly. Your networks are receiving inputs and signals with everything that you say or do or don’t say or don’t do.  You walk into a meeting late; you are sending a message. You borrow stationery from the office for an emergency at home; you are sending a message, you write rude emails, you are sending out a message, you do not reprimand errant employees, you are sending a message… you go out drinking with your team; you are sending a message. Your brand is being defined and tested every minute.

On a lighter note, it is seldom that we are remembered for our professions…..more likely for what we stood for, what we meant and how we lived our lives..which tells us how important it is to build our character which defines our brand!

To begin creating a personal brand, you could follow a few simple steps:

1. Identify your Passion: What makes you tick? Call out your strengths and label them. Get as close to the basics as you can and be eloquent about what it is you believe you have on offer to the world. Several attempts could be made before you can zero in on what really defines you. But what is important is to believe in the fact that you had a purpose in life before anyone had an opinion about it! Start where you are, use what you have and do what you can. Keep characterizing yourself. Precise, concise and consistent.
2. Scale your Values to Articulate your Identity: Once you have defined yourself, you need to articulate your identity with your values. The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus had said that ‘Character is fate.' After all, if people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they will do business with you. Reputation matters tremendously. Admit mistakes if you make them. Work with all stakeholders to create mutually beneficial solutions to forge deeper relations. The base of all interactions should be Trust, Respect, and Humility, fundamental human values. Every interaction should reflect your values.  Brands don’t just live on the page anymore.  They are living breathing things. It is important to build your brand that is aligned with your values so that your actions are aligned with the message you are putting out there.
3. Resiliency & Growth: There may come upon some difficult times in your journey, which challenge your fundamental beliefs. The Valley of C, as this is often referred to, is the lowest point in a journey, from where on the only way forwards is upwards. To propel yourself out of the Valley of C, resiliency and growth are critical factors. These are important because they provide the opportunity to recalibrate, fortify and endorse your authentic brand. It is important not to let these create fear or shake your fundamental values. Forge through with the strength of your relationships and behaviors. Keep an eye on the goal and allow no one or nothing to weaken your resolve to adhere to your core values. The waves will settle, and what will emerge is a phoenix of a brand. Live out your promises in an authentic way and demonstrate those in how you relate and behave with all your stakeholders.
4. Don’t just Shift, Elevate: Constantly reinvent yourself and your offerings. ‘Don’t be part of the furniture,' as we often say at the workplace. It doesn’t help your brand to be one of the herd.  You ought to encourage yourself to think differently, keep adding to your experiences and perceptions. Don’t close your mind. Absorb and challenge yourself to see perspectives you previously found difficult to fathom. After all, wheels on luggage were introduced by a man who challenged the conforming way of lifting luggage!
5. Let the World see you as you are: The greatest power and impact of personal branding comes from thinking of all the above, holistically. If you speak at a forum, or at a professional association, identify ways to link it to the virtual world- like publishing your presentation online, or writing about your experience in your Blog, and uploading video snippets on YouTube. When you link the real and the virtual, you send a consistent message while amplifying your visibility and reducing the effort required to build a strong brand. Build a Twitter following. Use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and other networks to build a following. When you have an opinion, share it respectfully. When you produce some work or do something meaningful, talk about it. Allow people to look through a window into your world. Let you work speak for itself.  

In short, to build your effective personal brand, you need to work on your core architecture. Use your values to create your competitive advantage. Create a consistent messaging. Use your behaviors to behave out the competition. Generals wear their medals on their sleeves as a constant reminder of what they stand for, what they live for, and what they are willing to lay down their lives for. Similarly, your values should serve as your armor, your compass, and your guiding light, directing behavior, sharing your message and articulating your brand!

Shibani is a scholar, consultant, and lecturer in the field of workplace cultures. She has a passion for issues around spirituality and leadership and is working on unconventional stimulating work in the areas of cultural competitive advantage through values, and about deeper purpose at the workplace. Shibani helps organizations around the world, articulate values-based behaviors.You can find out more about her on www.shibanibelwalkar.com

Award clothing and souvenirs coming soon

Award apparel manufacture Culture Clothing will introduce the exciting range of clothing on the 21st of April 2012, be the first to get this international line of Award branded souvenirs.

The best job in town!

This job will change your life!

We challenge young people and work to enhance their skills. 

You will contribute to helping build the fastest growing Award programme in the world. If you are below 30 it may help, as maybe you want this job as a stepping stone to bigger things in life; age is no bar, we promise this will be the best experience ever!

You will be responsible for the key areas of: public relations, branding, marketing, communication and other out reach activities; Extending the Award; and Quality Assurance within India. This post will also actively participate in aspects of the Strengthening the Structure pathway, where this pathway is concerned with areas of Award management and leadership development. The Team will work closely with the Delhi based National Director and the National team as well as liaise with the London based Programme team to ensure coordination of activity, policy and strategy.

Good communications skills and proficiency in computers, social media and web a prerequisites. Experienced, young at heart and freshers completing college may apply. We prefer people who have the youth in them, and promise more fun than working with the likes of Google, Facebook... call centres and the likes.

The selected team members will be expected to join in May and work on our Youth Engaging Society (YES) campaign; you may please visit our website www.iayp.in to learn about the fun things we do. You will support the Communications Manager and help design materials, make tools for training and development, and get a chance to manage events too.


There is still more on 
www.facebook.com/iayp.in
www.youtube.com/iaypindia

Salary will be between Rs. 25,000/- to Rs. 40,000/- per month, depending on your competence and and the drive to challenge young people everywhere.

Email in confidence to <nd@dofe.in>

One Award Alliance

The project is evolving rapidly from theory into practice; the thrust of the strategy has become more definitive and more streamlined; the tools are on trial; all will be presented at Forum 2012 in Malta.


The ‘One Award Alliance’ is our strategy for improving and growing the International Award. It will improve the profile and perception of the charity by making it clearer and more consistent; it will improve the charity’s capacity to grow by making the way we run it fit for the foreseeable future; it will also improve the charity’s ability to manage the quality of experience for participants in International Award programmes.


The Intended Outcome is to offer present and future members of the International Award Association a significantly better sense of identity, purpose and capability which will engage with and embrace the International Award family in a more relevant and meaningful way.


The Objectives of the project are to help the IAA realise its ambition to make the International Award the leading youth achievement award, principally by adopting an appropriate business model to help apply rigour and discipline in the way we:

• own, manage, protect, develop and value our business format; build capacity to deliver and grow
• define the charity’s brand platform and position; enhance the look, feel and visual identity; achieve clarity, consistency and leadership throughout all our communications, especially digital media
• ensure our quality assurance by measuring the success of our vision through our performance, impact and outcomes

The Key Deliverables have evolved from ideas into practical tools which, with the approval of the International Council, are being further developed through a limited number of trials. The tools and their objectives are:

• Licensing and Standards Framework – revised to better promote, provide and preserve our brand; give clarity to all operators and authorities about roles and responsibilities; enable NAAs to increase the number and variety of operational licence holders and delivery partners; generate funds through appreciation of the value of the brand and managing it
• Visual Identity – redesigned to re-capture value in our brand; unify our image, create clarity and consistency; transfer greater value to Award achievers
• Online Award Management System – developed to deliver real-time performance measurement and management information; enable capacity to grow and deliver; enhance quality experience and assurance
• Research Template – created to enable consistent research across the IAA; to measure outcomes (life skills Award holders might attain by participating) against essence and vision; to measure impact (wider effect of Award on society) in nine areas; to demonstrate our effectiveness more meaningfully with supporters and partners
• Training Modules – new training materials to reflect and support the OAA objectives and tools; new methods including online tools to give volunteers more confidence to get started and to progress

The overall benefit of the ‘One Award Alliance’ is to help present and future operators and authorities to reach out to and cope with more participants, to give them a quality experience and to enable more to achieve an Award which will have international credibility and recognition.


The implications of the ‘One Award Alliance’ are that while the Award Programme stays unchanged the ways in which it is presented, managed and measured will change. This is evolution rather than revolution, with the tools and objectives outlined above being welcome and necessary to take the charity into the 21st century and fit for the foreseeable future.


For further information about the project please contact Stephen De-Wint by e-mail stephen.dewint@intaward.org or via Skype, Id: stephen.dewint or telephone +44 20 7222 4242.

the studio

 IAYP India has set up a Training and Confernce facility, and this has been named "the studio",  the branding reflects the aim of 'equip for life', and hopes to convey a message of being a resource centre.
Welcome for workshops, training and reference any day of the except Sunday.

- Challenging young people everywhere

The Award this Week

TATW top stories:

• The Trustees meeting
• Award Volunteers Meeting 26th July 2009
• The Open Award Centre
• The NTW Coimbatore - Train the Trainer
• "Role of Volunteers" - New Delhi workshop

 

1. Trustees support the Development Plan

 

The most important event of the week was the Trustees meeting at Mumbai, held on the 22nd of July 2009. There was a broad consensus on the draft Development Plan. For this we need to thank all the members of the Award Programme Foundation Trust.

 

• Aim

 

Make IAYP, India a premier youth programme for inclusive social growth.

• How we will do this?

 

1. Set up Open Award Centres – to facilitate build up of Volunteers and encourage the participation of youth in the 18 - 25 age groups.

 

2. Programme inclusion by enrolling more students from vernacular / government schools, from the current near 375 largely private sector schools.

 

3. Raise the annual enrolments for the program from 15000 to 500,000 in Year 3 of operation

 

4. Set in place a mechanism for fund raising; have Friends of the Award.

 

5. Partner with other NGOs, Volunteer groups and even look at the PPP Model for build up. Use the CSR approach and the Community outreach.

 

6. Set up a national centre that can undertake training for volunteers and award leaders from India and the APAC (ASIA PACIFIC) region.

 

• The role out

 

1. Plan that raises enrolments in stages.

 

2. Set-up volunteer committees that comprise eminent personalities in the various streams.

 

3. Have in place one national centre.

 

 

• 1. Raise enrolment in stages

 

Year 1:

 

70,000 (set forth the seed in model government and vernacular schools; spend time in getting model right for mass implementation; work out sponsorships/ third party funding routes)

 

Year 2:

 

200,000 (massive rollout, focus on timely and accurate implementation on a mass scale)

 

Year 3:

 

500,000 (massive rollout)

This has to be broad based in terms of geography, mix of students, gender. Should not be heavily biased towards anyone area. Further the roll out will be at a measured pace and will be governed by the availability of resources. The APF welcomed the idea of NLO - National License Operators and encouraged the NAA to build the programme on a franchise model with partner bodies.

• 2. The select volunteer committees

 

A. Industry
B. Brand and Communication
C. Educationists

  

• A. Industry

 

Representatives from one or two industry bodies such as CII, TiE etc., banking industry (SBI)

 

The Industry body will communicate with their member/affiliate network in procuring assignments for the volunteers across different industries/service firms as well as tap on to the CSR initiatives of different business entities across India.

 

Need to create programs that dovetail into organisations. For example -- SBI is big on rural banking and reaches out to many communities in far off areas. Plan specifically for SBI so that they can absorb students in bulk.

 

• B. Brand and Communication

 

Youthful Brand ambassadors that are publicly known who actually completed the course, Branding and Communication specialists including those in non English streams, one or two large media houses that can provide coverage for free across regional media.

 

The Brand and Communication team will be responsible for creating brand awareness of IAYP, keeping a strong communication with existing enrolments to further awareness within the student community, work on media coverage across modes of media, create content namely brochures/pamphlets to reach out to government/vernacular schools in the latter language.

 

 

• C. Educationists

 

Eminent hardworking educationists; who have the clout / connect with leading government / private education systems. The Educationists will be people who are well connected to schools across different geographies and can open doors for you. This has to dovetail into the numbers/geographies that you are tapping in the strategy highlighted above.

 

• 3. The National Centre
The centre has to be one fixed place that is needed 365 days a year, but at start could NOT be a fixed place; can be used as and when the need arises for a program.

 

 

2. Meeting of the Delhi AV Team

 

Award Volunteers Team scheduled for today, 26th July 2009 at Barista, Connaught Place, New Delhi 110001. Excitement in the air, and expect a good response.

  

AGENDA

 

Make an Executive Team and nominate Award Leaders for colleges

Work on the AHA (Award Holders Association) formation

Workshop plan - ROLE OF VOLUNTEERS

Events and opportunities for the Award Volunteers

Discuss the idea of the Award Holders Summit in December 2009 at British Council

 

3. National Workshop at Coimbatore

9-11 October 2009. The venue is Chinmaya International School.

 

Concept

TRAIN THE TRAINER

 

Participation in Coimbatore:

Total 30 = North, West & East will have 5 each, 5 for NAA and 10 for South

30 numbers includes faculty and trainers (NAA 5 will cover that).

The faculty will have two Award Volunteers, two trainers and one Director.

 

The Trustees of the APF have nominated the National Director to be the QA (Quality Assurance) Member on the trainer’s faculty, for the Coimbatore workshop.

 

The Zones are free to decide the five participants and may need to do rail bookings ASAP. Zones to please start the search for the 5 participants in each zone. The South will have 10 nominations.

 

4. Role of Volunteers

 

NAA will conduct an add-on session to the Coimbatore Workshop in Delhi and focus on "Role of Volunteers". The workshop will help draft the Volunteer Management Policy.

  

This initiative is being chaired by Mrs. Lata Vaidyanathan and Malini will help in execution please.

 The AV Team and partner agencies will work together; the event will be in September 2009

  

5. Regional Training Workshop

 

Nominations called for RTW 2009 in November, last date is 1st Sept 2009.

 Asia Pacific Regional Training Workshop, New Delhi India, 23-29 November 2009

 Theme: Define The Future. The Award and National Development.

 

RTW will carry forward youth engaging in society, an umbrella challenge for the Region 2009-10.

 

1. Format & Key Topics

The RTW will incorporate group work, case studies, presentations and subject matter experts on how to best engage and add value to these six (6) sectors:

 

Education/academic

Local community

Youth

Government

NGO/international sector

Industry

 

2. The Participants (Selection Criteria)

 

The participants sought for RTW2009 will have to be experienced hands and individuals with roles in policy, administration and youth engagement in the Zones.

 

We are seeking participants with a demonstrated interest and/or involvement in extending the Award into the wider community to meet a higher need.

 

The RTW 2009 participants from each Zone (two per zone) will work in six pre-selected groups. Each delegate will be asked to give inputs as a part of the RTW2009 registration process, and be involved in one or more of the six sectors and area of particular interest. The need for previous experience is important.

 

6. The NAA plan for 2009-10

 

August 09 - Open Award Centre, Delhi

September 09 - Role of Volunteers, workshop at Delhi

October 09 - Train the Trainer, Workshop at Coimbatore (9-11 October)

November 09 - Regional Training Workshop at New Delhi

December 09 - Award Holders Summit

January 10 - Annual National Workshop, host South Zone at Ooty

February 10 - Award partners meeting at Delhi

March 10 - proposed National Directors Strategic Alliance meeting.

 

7. Facebook and the website

 We now have 285 fans and friends on Facebook. (www.facebook.com/iayp.in)

 Website is building up and we are now ready to accept advertisements for http://www.iayp.in/

 Your blog offers information and updates http://www.bookspro.in/

 

 8. PR and Meetings this week

 

21st July: CCS School, Mumbai - meeting of the Zone representatives with the National Director

22nd July: The APF Trustees meeting in Mumbai

22nd July: Archanna Das, VP HSBC Team to work on partnering for the 18-25 employees.

22nd July: Aparna Dubey an award holder in Mumbai, to brainstorm and work on business development.

23rd: Tel con with HSBC Team and the International Council Brand Task Force

 

25th: Informal meeting with Sir Richard Stagg the British High Commissioner in India. Hon'ble HC offered full support and assured us use of services of the  British Council for the developement of IAYP.

 

9. What is in store next week?

 

Visit of National Director to London for the IC Brand Task Force and a visit to the International Secretariat. Followed by a two day stop over to catch breath in Dubai!

 
More from Dubai next Sunday....Cheers!

 

 

The Award this week (TATW)

1. The first meeting of the Delhi AV Team (Award Volunteers Team) was great. Fresh faces at the Delhi University campus are surely going to make a difference to us. Three College Award Leaders appointed Mehaak at Hans Raj, Krithika at LSR and Saachi at St. Stephens. We meet again next week, and the first orientation will be at the Open Award Centre (OAC)  in August 2009. OAC Delhi will be the epicentre for the college award units, and will even assist individual participants. Thanks Devyani for the initiative and am sure with you as the Award Leader, the Open Centre will be in good hands. Malini our key resource is the mentor to many of our volunteers.

2. The South Zone will host the IS supported National Workshop at Coimbatore 9-11 October 2009. The venue is Chinmaya International School. 30 participants will attend from India alone, with an observer nominated by the NAA, to monitor quality and asses impact. The Workshop is being designed by the NAA and hosted by the SZAA. One session of this workshop will be hosted by the NZAA and will be held at New Delhi.

3. As a part of capacity building and training, NAA will also do an add-on session to the Coimbatore Workshop in Delhi and focus on "Role of Volunteers". The workshop will help draft the Volunteer Management Policy. This initiative is being chaired by Mrs. Lata Vaidyanathan and Malini will help in execution please.

4. Nominations called for RTW 2009 in November, last date is 1st Sept 2009. Only two experienced participants from each Zone. For details contact the Zonal Chairperson please.

5. Proposed AHA (Award Holders Association) Summit in December 2009, send in your suggestions to Rohit Saxena please. He is our moderator on Facebook.

6. Stage set for the APF Trustees Meeting on the 22nd of July 2009 at Mumbai.

7. Facebook and the website very active, and we now have near 275 fans and friends on Facebook.

8. South Zone to host the Annual National Workshop in Ooty in January 2009.

9. in last week of July 2009, Sandeep Dutt to attend the IC Brand Task Force meeting in London. A group of 8, meeting will be chaired by The Earl himself.

Cheers, more until next week at TATW

We are on FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/iayp.in

Weekly update 21st June 2009

9 Point Action Plan...

1. Working Groups- Not much progress this week.
This will happen once the schools open and the Zonal Chairpersons get to meet up with the National Director. The Working Group comprises Zonal Chairperson, Members of NAA and could be an invitee.
In July the Trustees meet, and further we will have in place some policy decisions to take this ahead. Until then cheers!

2. Exchange initiatives - please do work on this with your Zonal Team and the schools.
Sourajit is back, and now we look ahead to encourage exchange visits of Awardees, participants and Award Leaders.

3. IT Initiative – the Blog and the Facebook features, The IAYP website are being updated regularly

Priyank is controlling all from the Book Cafe IT and Management Centre, in Dehradun, India. He will work on a National IT strategy and see how we can develop a solutions for the entire IT backbone needed for the Award in India. Rohit is in touch with Priyank.

4. The first 18-25 Award Centre SRI AUROBINDO CENTRE FOR ARTS AND CULTURE;

The first OPEN AWARD CENTRE in India, will start work in July, after the college admissions are done.

5. Zonal offices – will all be doing their bit to build up the teams and infrastructure.
PLEASE ADD TO THE COMMENTS ON THE BLOG, AND UPDATE US ALL.

6. The shared National Office in Delhi , with Book Cafe is operational. Manish Kumar is available on +91 11 26497154, and on the Award Office phone + 91 11 64662720; welcome to call and get further information.

7. Alumni network; Rohit has in place the FACEBOOK India Award Holders group.
The database filler is on online too, we have 29 active members now.

8. Branding and corporate communication; meetings …
The International Council has invited Sandeep Dutt to be join the 8 member IC Team for Brand Strategy. In July 2009, Sandeep to attend meeting in London.

9. Programme to hinterland is happening too
Now near 375 schools and hope to reach 500 Award Centres in 2010
Aloke is in touch with the new Leads in the WEST and Malini is active too.
News from South and East will come, once the Summer Holidays over.
Need inputs and invites from Zones to plan travel and assist in development.

Draft Development Plan

Aim
Make IAYP a premier youth programme for inclusive social growth.

How we will do this?
1. Set up Open Award Centres – to facilitate build up of Volunteers and encourage the participation of youth in the 18 - 25 age groups.

2. Programme inclusion by enrolling more students from vernacular / government schools, from the current near 375 largely private sector schools.

3. Raise the annual enrollments for the program from 15000 to 500,000 in Year 3 of operation

4. Set in place a mechanism for fund raising; have a Friends of the Award.

5. Partner with other NGOs, Volunteer groups and even look at the PPP Model for build up. Use the CSR approach and the Community outreach.

6. Set up a national centre that can undertake training for volunteers and award leaders from India and the APAC (ASIA PACIFIC) region.

The role out … steps up the ladder!

1. Plan that raises enrollments in the following stages:

Year 1:
70,000 (set forth the seed in model government and vernacular schools; spend time in getting model right for mass implementation; work out sponsorships/ third party funding routes)
Year 2:
200,000 (massive rollout, focus on timely and accurate implementation on a mass scale)
Year 3:
500,000 (massive rollout)

This has to be broad based in terms of geography, mix of students, gender. Should not be heavily biased towards anyone area.

Before connecting with anyone formally, need to have a mapped out visual strategy with names of schools, targeted enrolment in that school, and geographical location of that school. The strategy needs to be that detailed instead of just a large number that the team chases.

2. Set-up volunteer committees that comprise eminent personalities (who actually work!) in the following streams:

A. Industry
Representatives from one or two industry bodies such as CII, TiE etc., banking industry (SBI)

The Industry body will communicate with their member/affiliate network in procuring assignments for the volunteers across different industries/service firms as well as tap on to the CSR initiatives of different business entities across India. You will need to create programs that dovetail into these organizations. For example -- SBI is BIG on rural banking and reaches out to many communities in far off areas. But one will need to come up with a plan specifically for SBI so that they can absorb students in bulk.

B. Brand and Communication
Youthful Brand ambassadors that are publicly known who actually completed the course, Branding and Communication specialists including those in non English streams, one or two large media houses that can provide coverage for free across regional media.

The Brand and Communication team will be responsible for creating brand awareness of IAYP, keeping a strong communication with existing enrollments to further awareness within the student community, work on media coverage across modes of media, create content namely brochures/pamphlets to reach out to government/vernacular schools in the latter language.

C. Educationists
Eminent hardworking educationists; who have the clout / connect with leading government / private education systems.

The Educationists will be people who are well connected to schools across different geographies and can open doors for you. This has to dovetail into the numbers/geographies that you are tapping in the strategy highlighted above.


3. AIESEC and its partners owe their success to the strong affiliate network they have in the form of corporate partners. This is the weak chain in your current set up.

Schools -----> Activities that qualify for IAYP <---------- Corporate Partners

Some potential partners, besides the industrial groups can be: --
Ashoka: www.ashoka.org -- they can easily absorb batches of students for programs across India
Xceed: http://xseed.idiscoveri.com/xseed-schools.html --
FabIndia not for profit wing –
Pratham...www.janaagraha.org. Ramesh Ramanathan is doing an outstanding job.

4. The national centre has to be one fixed place that is needed 365 days a year, but at start could NOT be a fixed place; can be used as and when the need arises for a program.

Would consider approaching a large corporate that might have a large vacant hall that they can lend for these activities.

The option of doing an Open Award Centre at the SACAC (Sri Aurobindo Centre of Arts and Communication) Delhi Campus.

Alternatively have a foundation backed by a large group such as the Azim Premji Foundation (www.azimpremjifoundation.org) to come forward and lend support to the program and take branding as an output for them self in turn.