We had a decent turnout, but most importantly we were joined by two individuals who chose to make the first stroke of the brush to spread some color- Founders of Rangde, Ram N.K and Smita Ram who drove down from Chennai along with Vibhore(Technical Backbone of RangDe) specially for the evening. Their presence surely enlightened the purpose of the meet.
Customary to any meet, we had a round of intros of everyone present. Glad to see 5 new volunteers (Siddharth, Vamshee, Anil, Shashwat & Robin) who had come along with some of the prominent one's. We jumped into our agenda straight away.
Sreekanth gave a talk on the activities having been conducted as part of the Bangalore Chapter thus far and the resulting impact of the same. We voiced our opinions on the strategy used and things to look forward to in terms of planning and executing future campaigns.
Then, Ram and Smita spoke about the Rangde model at large. It was an integral part of the meet as volunteers got to understand why Rangde stood out from other MFI's as our core values was to create maximum social impact. Primarily Ram spoke of the reason behind the difference in the interest rates among Rangde and other MFI's and its subsequent social impact.
Among the volunteers Mr.Anil, who had come along with a long time associate of RangDe Mr. Jagadish spoke about his field experiences of running a Self Help Group in the Haveri district. It was an intriguing conversation as we drew parallels between the RangDe model and his personal model. It enlightened the entire audience about the scope and opportunities that lay ahead. During this talk, Mr. Anil suggested that RangDe should look to partner with the Dell Foundation, who were on the lookout for a model similar to that of RangDe.
Such was the intensity of the meet, we overshot our intended deadline for the meet. That did not bother any of us as we moved to an important part of the discussion. Ram and Smita discussed the road map for RangDe in the year 2010, they shared their vision and laid out expectations for the bangalore chapter.
They shared their experience of putting up a punching bag(our theme being Knockout Poverty) at a clothing store in Chennai, and how it attracted the kids who would bring along their parents. We discussed a little further on implementing those ideas in Bangalore.
The idea of connecting the colleges of India, something that i have taken upon myself to accomplish, got a mention from Mr. Ram who spoke of a PAN-IIT connect to provide vocational training to the needy along with guaranteed work.We had a quick word on the Bangalore chapter's Holi campaign and on the organisation structure to be implemented by the chapter. We felt more work needs to come out in both areas.
We overshot our deadline by 40 minutes, but what came out of this intriguing meet was far more valuable to us than time. To sum up, Ram and Smita shared the uniqueness of the RangDe model and laid a road map for the coming year. It helps to understand the vision and mission of the founders as it will trickle down to the concerned chapters to ensure uniformity of brand awareness.
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