Straw man ideas
from a Jpura member
By Kumara Wickramarachchi
J’pura Alumni Association has come a long way since its shot
period of existence. Members are
enthusiastically engaged devoted their time and energy to organize programs
like J’pura scholarship program, blood donation campaign and many other events
at various scales. By spending sleepless
night and days of labour, our dedicated officials (past and present) make all
these happened, for which they deserve our gratitude and big thanks ”Bravo Ladies and Gentlemen” . Question
is, can we maintain our current member enthusiasm for next ten years by doing
what we are doing now? I am not sure. I believed most of these programs are
very effective in short term to bring our alumni together, but these shot term strategies
have very short shelf life, after they achieved the basic objectives,
enthusiasms eventually die down. The
outcome will be, organization either completely disappears or limits to a very
few active members. If our organization has
not already been reached this phase yet, I am sure signs are definitely being popped
up. This eventuality is not specific to J’Pura Alumni Association but it is
universal. Every organization is going
through this hard reality, some survives others succumb.
Question is how do we survive?
Answer is simple, keep the organization relevant. As long as J’pura alumni association is
relevant to its members, they will come, actively engage and grow bigger and
bolder. Sounds easy, but it is the most challenging task of all. Believe me, at
this phase some members will abandon the organization but others will start to
rally. At this phase officials need to be bold, visionary and take strategic
decisions; don’t try to please everybody, let minority opinion to go if they
cannot respect the majority. Don’t worry they will join back when they see the
success. But most of all create an environment which allows all opinions, ideas
and views are being heard before they are discarded. As long as officials started to filter
members’ opinion through their ideological lenses, nobody will trust them, nobody
will express opinions and next time nobody will bother to come. So don’t try to
impose our values on others, let the sluice gates opened and then create a mechanism
to manage the flow.
Assessment
My humble opinion is our association is very much inward
looking and too much focus on getting something to our members or to our
university. Due to this inward looking
attitude we miss out lots of positive things happening outside our
boundaries. It is even contradictory to
our Buddhist values. By breaking down the
boundaries, going beyond J’pura and integrating with the larger social fabric,
foundation of our organization can be strengthened. But remember to keep your identity. Unless we fully
integrate to Canadian society, we don’t progress. We must cherish the society
we live. I think we should integrate all Sri Lankan graduates into one Alumni
Association and brand it as larger professional body, instead of living in our
own glass silos and pointing finger to others.
We should give something to the Canadian society; in return all members
will get a larger benefit. Below is a
rudimentary analysis of some of our current programs and some of proposed
initiatives.
Current Programs
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