9th Dec 07 REALIGNING THE SABHA VISION AND MISSION
Over 120 key office bearers and central councillors of the Bombay Catholic Sabha met at the Morello Hall, Bandra, on Sunday 9th December, 2007, to review the Sabha Vision and Mission and reinvent ourselves according to the need of the times.
The evening commenced with a meaningful opening prayer by Mr. Victor D’Cruz, the Jt. General Secretary. Immediately thereafter, the resource person for the evening Mr. Thomas Lobo took over. He very skillfully presented the importance of having a vision and the need for its universal ownership by the members. All Sabhaites are called to be proactive, which means more than merely taking initiatives and develop responsibility (response-ability) to act on decisions of conscious choice based on values.
All our concerns comprise the Circle of Concern and the Circle of Influence. He exhorted members to concentrate on expanding their circle of influence if they truly wish to make a change and difference in the lives of people around them.
He carefully brought out the difference between leadership and management, explaining that while management is doing things right, leadership is doing the right things. Management is efficiency while leadership is effectiveness. Leaders therefore he said, need to have not just a vision, but a compelling one, - a realistic dream about their work. True leadership is developed and sustained by a vision. Vision however, must be articulated and shared. Therefore, involvement, interaction and moblisation of others is the key to translating the vision into a significant reality.
He then invited the Secretary General, Mr. Vinod Noronha to briefly highlight some of the significant achievements and activities of the Sabha in the recent past. The President, Mr. Dolphy D’Souza through a powerful message impressed upon the gathering the need to get involved in civic and political areas and take up issues of grave social concerns affecting citizens at large. The time for action is now he said, and reminded members that there is no space left for relaxation and merrymaking but we need to get head on into the various urgent concerns facing us all over the city and country.
Thereafter, members broke up into groups deanerywise to reflect on
--- What is their vision for the Sabha
--- How can the Sabha justify itself as the ‘Voice of the Community'
--- What could be the Sabha’s unique contribution/s to society
After a vivid and animated discussion for 30 minutes, the charts prepared by the various Deaneries showed a common line of thinking among all the groups. While all felt that the Sabha must safeguard the needs of the community, they agreed that as of now it was not really the ‘Voice of the Community’ and needed to consolidate itself in this direction. All the groups unanimously concluded that the Sabha should, from now on, concentrate solely on its thrust areas of Socio/Civic/Political Activism. It was unanimously agreed that henceforth all activities would be focused around these thrust areas and units would automatically work towards executing the same at their grassroot levels.
This realigning of the Sabha Vision and Mission could not have come at a more appropriate time because just 5 days later, at the Public Felicitation Programme, Cardinal Oswald Gracias urged the Church in Mumbai to get fully involved in the Civic and Political areas. He urged us to be alert to the social dangers looking us in the face such as SEZ, Compulsory Land Acquisitions, Displacement of peoples and other grave injustices.
The evening was truly an extremely enlightening and a well spent one and as we left the venue we knew that the long march ahead has just begun and we not only need to be alert and ready but also require all hands on deck to face the many challenges that would come our way in the days to come. Yes, we can no longer be silent spectators but need to be active and aggressive participants in the processes of governance as well as dealing with social evils.
4th Nov 07 BCS ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARDS
As the city was gearing up for the Festival of Lights, 4th November 2007 dawned as a usual warm and sunny day, for most Mumbaikars. The BCS, however, celebrated the Lights of the community, the scholars and academic achievers from the various parishes of the Archdiocese, by felicitating and awarding them at the 17th Academic Excellence Awards Function at St. Michael’s Auditorium, Mahim.
Even before 10.00 a.m. the hall was packed with bubbly and bustling students alongwith their parents waiting for the proceedings to commence. It is a rare occasion when we assemble with our academic achievers ranging from Std. X upto Post Graduation and Professional Studies.
In his opening address the President Mr. Dolphy D’Souza, while warmly welcoming the gathering, urged the students to first and foremost honour their teachers. While making a choice of career students must follow their hearts rather than go blindly by the traditionally popular or predetermined career paths.
The Chief Guest for the day was Mr. Albert D’Souza, Managing Director of Printannia, Chairman of Model Co-operative Bank and also closely associated with the Catholic Technical and Management Colleges. His efforts in this direction have ensured a 50% reservation of Catholic students - creating about 361 seats in the Engineering stream and 90 for MBA. Through very relevant statistical data, he tried to give a direction and motivation to the students, to make a difference in the choice of careers or professionalism considering the new areas of specialization that have been emerging in recent years. In the age bracket of 17-21 years, he said, that while in developed countries 50% pursued higher education, the figure came down to 25% in developing countries and in India it is just 9%, out of which only 2% are girls. It is imperative that students seriously pursue education from the age of 17-23 years, before embarking into gainful employment. He urged students to pursue education in their area of interest, but definitely try and excel in one area. The community being economically weak has for long been seen as a migrating one moving out to the suburbs. His dream he said is to see a reverse trend in migration whereby the young community professionals move back towards the city. This is possible with the pursuit of education and knowledge, which gives confidence. He emphasized that the best investment today is in Knowledge, the returns of which would be enormous. He also announced a scholarship for Catholic students wishing to pursue higher studies in the field of Public Services such as IAS, ICS, IPS, etc.
In keeping with the trend started last year, the BCS this year invited the parents of the most outstanding student as the Guests of Honour. They were Mr. and Mrs. Carvalho, parents of Ms Ryana Carvalho, who secured 86% in the B.E. Examination
Prof. Lilla D’Souza, the Convenor of the programme and the anchor since inception of the Awards, then took over the proceedings. 156 students were felicitated and awarded Scholarships and many of the faces were familiar ones who had received awards earlier too. It was indeed a proud moment for us at the BCS as we honoured and acknowledged some of the finest young brains from the community. This annual awards function has become a permanent fixture of the Sabha, a programme that is much looked forward to both by parents and Sabhaites.
And as the morning came to an end we had a couple of students expressing their sentiments regarding the programme. The morning ended with a Vote of Thanks by Mr. Vinod Noronha followed by the singing of the National Anthem.
We thank the Organising Committee comprising of Prof. Lilla D’Souza, Mr. Camillo Fernandes, Mr. John Miranda and Mr. Lawrence D’Souza for the meticulous and painstaking organization of the programme giving due attention to every detail. As the students move on, some to take up careers and others to pursue further studies, we eagerly look forward to the next Academic Awards.
