Hari Om everyone,
Moorti Sthapana coordination team wants to thank each and everyone of you for your kind support and cooperation. Without any hesitation we can say that we couldn't have done without you. As you all heard from Guruji himself that we are NOT GOOD BUT EXCELLENT. Lets maintain that Excellency.
The beauty of teams working together to achieve higher results was clearly visible and proven. Without a doubt we can say that we are simply the best - DREAM TEAM and this is impossible for any individual to achieve this feat. GO CHINMAYA YAMUNOTRI GO!
As said in Vedas true seekers will not be content with accomplishments and they always look for ways to improve upon it to achieve even higher goals. This is exactly what we learn in Chinmaya Mission and I am sure there is room for improvement for all of us in this area and we need to be leading by example for this mission to grow and filled with love and bliss forever while upholding our values. This we believe is true Guru Dakshina to our beloved Gurudev. To that end we had very nice gathering with few sevaks and sevikas to discuss lessons learned and take what was done right and improve on few things to take it to next level.
The following is the summary of the minutes.
Attendees: Vineyji, Rameshji, Archanaji, Pramilaji, Shubiji, Shilpaji,
Karthikji, Rajji Y, Sushmaji, Ashokji B, Deepakji, Raviji, Lakshmiji, Rajulji,
Shankarji G, Kumudji, Ujjwalji and Ashokji Kajjam
Minutes:
Ashokji B mentioned that Shankarji Pillai and he received a nice note of encouragement from Pujya Guruji. He plans on forwarding that email to everyone and if possible ask our Pujya Swamiji Sharananda to read that email to everyone.
Vineyji presented everyone with all the feedbacks he received from various people and we went thru team by team discussing lessons learned for their teams.
Acharya Accommodation & Transportation:
Acharya transportation and accommodation team led by Rajji Yadalam and Kumudji was simply superb in executing the plan and well synchronized between Badri and Yamunotri teams. Kudos to entire team for an impeccable job. Rajji mentioned that only thing he wanted to know was how well all the sevaks handled all these, which is very thoughtful of Rajji and how thankful he was for all the help he received. Great Job!.
Puja Team:
This is another huge event well planned and executed flawlessly. Great Job everyone and you should be really proud of this achievement. Netromelan function was breathtaking. Lord Shri Radha Krishna decoration combined with Pujya Guruji’s deeply involved and emotional address of Gopika Geet touched many hearts and exactly no words can describe such an event and definitely observed tears in many faces due to the excitement and touching atmosphere. There is no way to describe other than experiencing it and definitely no master or visa card can buy that experience and cannot be measured by any tool that exists in this modern world. Archanaji humbly pulled out her list of improvements that Puja team could think but no one really noticed anything.
Improvement Ideas
1. Need dedicated storage place close to Puja place for example having space both inside and outside the building.
2. Could have had a bigger havan so that they could have accommodated more families and in a better way
3. If some main Puja items go ahead of schedule, it’ll be better to have fillers in between so that main Puja items stay on course. It seems some people missed Netromelan/unveiling on Sat morning at 8:30am as it was done ahead of schedule
Food Team:
What a tremendous effort and achievement by the food team! A tough job not only handled flawlessly but also served warm and great tasting food. We believe food team served about 2000 people combining all 3 days and could be more if you count seconds J. Most importantly this was handled very economically with the help of generous donations and catering by Chinmaya family members. This team had several challenges due to time changes of the program but that didn’t bother and affect them, it was handled smoothly and everyone was fed. Rameshji Chandra’s comment was “ What did we gain in Moorti Sthapana – answer was 5 pounds”. That comment alone speaks volumes about Food team. Great Job!
Improvement Ideas:
1) Order more food if possible even if we have to distribute to members to take home
2) Avoid last minute changes. It is very difficult to accommodate them. The food team didn’t anticipate food in the mornings.
Publicity Team:
Excellent performance by publicity team. This team worked very hard and well prepared for the show and they knew exactly what needs to be done and how it needs to be done and they just did it. . We all need to admire this team for applying all the lessons learned during their execution for Griha Pravesh. Overall well coordinated and timely execution of the projected. We felt that this was a factory setup everything was preprogrammed to execute in time and perfection.
Improvement Ideas:
1. Eliminating duplicates in the database (this wasn’t their role or expectation). This will be done by a team effort in due course
2. Ensuring the stores maintain fliers all the time.
3) It was suggested that members adopt stores so that each store sees only one face of Chinmaya family. Since Shubiji gave this great idea, we humbly request her to take lead in soliciting input from members as to which store they would like to adopt and publicize the list
4) It was also proposed to give a ‘Thank You’ gift to stores that donated. We request Ashok Bhatiaji to assign this important responsibility to somebody. This will help us to approach them for Banquet sponsorship.
Parking Team:
This team did an impressive job taking it to the next level in a true Yagna spirit and they provided Valet Parking. This feedback was provided by an outsider – satisfied customer. Way to go Raj Raoji and your team! Enjoy your Asia Pac trip!
Improvement Ideas:
1. Should have had a hundi J especially for Valet Parking (just kidding!)
2. Thursday night parking could be better organized and we could have more people but there were no major issues.
3. It’ll be better to have one member of parking team always available in the parking lot to guide people for parking spots
Recommended Resolution: Raj Raoji to be promoted to Chinmaya Mission Yamunotri Parking director and we will recommend to executive management to setup a gate and small office at the entrance of our mission J
Cultural Team:
This was extremely challenging task mainly because of the summer holidays and lots of participants in some of the few items. That combined with everyone wanting to be in everything, frequent and last minute changes made it even more difficult and hard to manage. We believe this was true test to our egos. This team was under intense pressure from all directions.
In spite of all the odds, cultural team has provided best show ever at Yamunotri. Props team, audio team and all the coordinators worked very diligently with all their hearts and minds. It was simply a superb exhibition of talent and teamwork. This team truly turned things around in an unimaginable way after their dress rehearsals and true evaluation of themselves, which we believe, is the turning point that led to the great success. Finally, cultural program was ahead of schedule and was able to finish15min early.
All the Balavihar children worked extremely hard, had several practices and at the end it was very colorful, inspiring and wonderful to watch all those little children dressed colorfully, with bright and big smiles on their faces. Our children were really committed and took lot of pride in doing their part and in some cases they motivated parents too.
It was an amazing experience and excellent performance by everyone involved. Guruji was truly impressed and admired all the children and everyone involved and this was even heard all the way from India by someone who met Guruji in Bombay. Excellent show by cultural team. Three cheers for your organization in chaos!
Improvement Ideas:
1. Individual Item coordinators to provide crisp and clear information about their item to main coordinators well in advance, which helps to plan carefully and clarify things that aren’t clear.
2. A suggestion was made on possibility of moving big participation items like Chinmaya Parivar song ahead but also team was challenged to maintain the flow of the things and match certain themes.
3. Could have presented theme to all participants and audience prior to the start of cultural program
Display Team:
Display team nicely organized all the info based on the themes and definitely got Guruji’s attention as soon as he entered Yamunotri on Thursday morning. Good job with slide shows and hooking up TV in the basement. Great Job everyone.
Audio Team:
Audio team indeed had great challenge to setup microphones to accommodate all needs and also to understand each cultural item very well in order to support various needs.
Audio team did absolutely phenomenal job supporting all age groups starting from age 3 to all the way professional level that indeed is a huge task. They coordinated with all the cultural programs and retuned to their planning after rehearsal, which in itself is a huge task and pressure. Although there were some areas some of them expressed concerns and probably could have been fixed with proper communication.
Improvement Ideas:
1. We should have same individuals adjusting and setting up microphones for both rehearsals and in actual cultural program.
Tent Team:
Tent team quietly handled everything as if they were not involved. Way to go tent team, leading by example.
Improvement Ideas:
1) Ensure all safety precautions are taken. On Sat morning during morning Havan, we had some issues with tarps on the tents not tied properly
Fund raising team:
A solid performance by fund raising team and quite a few donations poured in during the festivities. The placement of tables was perfect and teamwork was excellent. While all the expenses are still being counted, we got solid contributions for our center.
Improvement Ideas:
1) Try to automate processes as much as possible
Video Recording:
Here is the example of dedication and commitment. Rameshji Chandra was one-man army and he recorded whole event by himself on all 3 days without even asking for any help. Good work Rameshji.
Special Request: All the team members would like to have a complimentary copy of Guruji’s 20 minutes Kirtan on Sat morning during 9:40-10:00am. Let us try to have it as soon as feasible
Book Store:
Following comments were received from the team of Venkateshamji, Ravi Bhagavatulaji, Sunithaji Gadey, Ravi Kothapalliji and Raja Yadalamji
· Pujya Gurudev's visit to the bookstore was the highlight
· Ordering some of the additional titles helped us sell some more books than usual.
· We should have done some additional marketing by using the TV and powerpoint.
· Pujya Gurudev's bhajan CD was in great demand, We should have ordered more - especially when we knew that Gurudev was going to visit our center. When he was singing the bhajan we had a lot of parents visiting the bookstore for the CD.
· We have received additional CDs (exclusive info for team members)
· Whenever we play a DVD in the auditorium, we need to make sure that we have copies in the bookstore. We do get requests after they watch the DVD. The coordinators need to keep the book store apprised of this in advance
· Some of the additional titles that we ordered had minimal sales, We’ll be promoting these titles via email shortly.
No other observations were made by the team members. Overall, the Book Store team did a great job.
Badri Team:
We would like to thank our Badri team for their support, guidance and taking part in cultural programs
Photography
Team: Srinivas Gangaramji, Raja Yadalamji, Rameshji, Karthik Ramji
Karthikji uploaded all pictures to Deepakji and Shubiji. Shubiji will upload all of them to pikasa website and provide everyone with a link.
Ideas discussed in the meeting:
· Need to have one assigned official photographer for such functions
· Need all the pictures from everybody compiled and circulated to all members. Kartikji has sent all these for our site. Shubiji agreed to coordinate this effort and send all the pics to members. Thanks Shubiji.
· A suggestion was made to make an album of Moorthi Sthapana taking select pictures and nicely putting them in an album. This should be displayed in the lobby for all members to view. Rajaji and Sushmaji team agreed to take on this task.
General Observations:
· Most of the teams broke ground rules due to the nature and complexity of the event. A great example is: our sevika Jothiji Arul had no choice but to break the ground rule and she just didn’t break the rule but she communicated to the coordinator explaining the reason for doing things differently. What a perfect example of sincerity, and respect towards others. If we need to break rules, let us do so by respecting others.
General Comments & opportunities for improvement:
· Chinmaya Mission is a voluntary organization where people try to help as much as they can with true love. Based on some observations and incidents, it was emphasized that we all need to show respect towards others, be supportive to each other, do things in a complementary manner, help others to achieve our higher goals etc. This should be the way whether it is a small program or a huge program and one should put all the efforts to avoid such things in the future. This is where we must practice what we preach.