"The common dream, the combined effort, the sharp quest for improvement, the systematic project cycles and a sincere effort to get things done for the cause of the nation." Sankalp volunteers would be happy to describe themselves as such. the first ever Sankalp Volunteer's Review was a major step in ensuring that the organisation is true to the above statement.
Work at Sankalp never stops. 24 X 7 the organisation is working. Yet, there is a need to step aside for a moment and once in a while evaluate, bugfix, measure and enhance the working strategies for the organisation. The annual report is one tool that we use for this goal. Unlike the public reports that are shared by most, the report that each Sankalp wing prepares for this review is a comprehensive document indicating the success, failure and performance of people, plans and projects of the organisation. These indepth reports are taken as a base for the building of future road maps and plans. At Sankalp, it is not the leadership, but the volunteers who formulate and strengthen these plans. The Volunteer's Review was envisioned as an opportunity for various teams to share their report with fellow volunteers and facilitate the shaping of the future strategy for each one of them.
Preparation started months in advance with individual teams taking feedback and putting their documentation in place. There was quite a bit of pressure on the volunteers who are happy working but not that happy documenting things. Nevertheless, the organisation managed to see to it that every team completed the preparation in the most elegant manner.
Sankalp organised the first "Volunteer's Review" from 18th to 25th April, 2010. The program which extended for almost 12 hours say the review of 13 projects by the volunteers. There were comprehensive presentations, SWOT(Strenght, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats) analysis, discussions about the the good things and the bad things that happened in the last year, rich discussions on the strategies and healthy debates on the course to be taken next.
For senior volunteers it was an opportunity to get greater clarity and detail into the plans that are coming up. For junior volunteers, it was an opportunity to wow at the extent and amount of things the organisation undertakes and for all of us it was a chance to see the big picture of Sankalp India Foundation.
Transparency, awareness and participation are cornerstones for Sankalp Volunteers. Ensuring the enforcement of these ideas internally is the starting step. Looking back, it looks like a good strategy that we plan to continue in the years to come. However, the souring afternoon temperatures and the demand for 7 hours of attention in a day was a but too much for some volunteers ;-) Next time the review will be distributed across 4 weeks.
Srinivas Raju, one of the volunteers expressed his feelings at the end of the review as "Looks like each team of Sankalp has improved over the last year". Jayesh Parmar was more focused towards execution when he stated - "The plan looks good. Let's see how the execution goes". Ambika, who joined the organisation in last year was happy to learn how much the organisation is doing. Amit Sedai was happy to be photographed while he spoke about the Tech Team. A Volunteer who came back to the meeting after a long time commented - "The organisation has become much bigger and much more complex than before. Good that I attended this meeting to get a feel of what's up". The senior volunteers were happy to see the dreams and the plans getting more ownership.
As for the ones who miss being part of the review programme and who are keen to know what Sankalp has been doing, just hold on for a couple of more weeks. The Annual Report - the juice of the review is on it's way.