For the past four years, I got 'accidentally' involved in a social organisation in my parts of Goa. It was a learning experience, a pleasurable ride, and a very insightful journey into what can make (or break) a not-for-profit organisation.
This experience shed light on what one should do (or should not do) to keep a not-for-profit social organisation alive, active and creative. Such experiences can help us learn valuable lessons.
Goa, one could say, has been a hot-bed of volunteer-driven and social initiatives. Take a look at the traditional cultural spaces called maands (now all but decimated). Look at the village chapels and temples or churches and mosques; there has been tonnes of religion-focused philanthropy happening.
Even the thousands of kilometres of riverside bunding walls (about 2000 kms, according to one official estimate given in the Goa Assembly), couldn't have been possible with a huge amount of cooperative work.
Vince Costa, in his documentary called 'Saxtticho Koddo', gives a hint of the collaborative enterprise which helped Curtorim become the "granary of Salcete". Our football clubs got patronage from Goa's once thriving mining houses no doubt; but they were built up by tiny initiatives in fields, schools and seminaries too.
Education in Goa has been a crowdsourced activity for a long time now, before that term even became fashionable. You need to think of initiatives like 'mustifund' (collecting resources via a fistfull of rice), to appreciate this. Same goes for Goa's many music schools that made it into a hotbed of talent not long ago.
One space where the social nature of Goan life really stood out was the 'kudds' (Goan residential club houses in Bombay). These made a vital difference to the Goan emigrants getting an early toehold in the metropolis. Because of the 'kudds', Goan migrants in Bombay were able to save on their accommodation and food expenses, and being able to better invest in fields like education and sport.
So what takes an organisation forward or keeps it behind? While discussing this issue online, someone suggested that "having time" to do such work is important. More than this, I'd think it's got to do with something else. How cooperative a team is? How humble is it? How much it is willing to take everyone along, in the journey of attaining some common goal?
When I got first involved with a social organisation four years ago, it had already hit rock bottom. Everyone was "busy", and nobody seemed to have the time or inclination to take things on.
The fact that things were at its worst low, might have been a blessing in disguise. When things are at a low end, you can be sure of one thing: you have a better chance of attracting the right interests and persons.
An organisation which is doing well for itself, and flush with funds, is only too likely to attract all sorts of people. A friend from a Bardez village mentioned how a local priest wanted to get involved on the executive committee of their local club "because it had a lot of money".
Apparently, villagers had, a short time earlier, sold their village 'kudd' in Bombay, and the money had reached the village club. But, some astute villagers pointed out that the organisation's constitution did not allow those who had not been active committee members to take on the top three posts, without spending some time earlier in doing the routine work.
The same is true of so many of our sports organisations. Club after sports club, in just about any sport (you name it), has taken on prominent politicians to head various sports organisations. Probably sportsmen and women believe having these politicians will help their association, and the sport. On the contrary; the politicians are there to help themselves.
In 2018, a listing on thebridge.in website said that there are as many as 15 politicians in 32 Olympic sports federations across India.
Heading the list was Goa's own Digambar V. Kamat (aquatics). Then, one could ask, what does Tarlochan Singh have to do with archery, Himanta Biswa Sarma (BJP, with badminton), Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi (INC, softball), K Govindraj (INC, basketball, Parminder Singh Dhindsa (SAD, cycling), Praful M. Patel (NCP, football), Partap Singh Bajwa (INC, judo), R Thiagrajan (INC, Karate), Raninder Singh (INC, shooting), Dushyant Chauthala (INLD, table tennis), Birendra Prasad Baishya (AGP, weightlifting), Brijbhushan Sharan Singh (BJP, wrestling), Chetan Anand (INLD, taekwondo), and Tulsi Ram Agarwal (BJP skateboarding)?
Don't forget others too. When Union Home Minister Amit Shah's son Jay Shah became the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), Quora, the site focused on crowdsourced questions, was filled with a lot of incredulity. Readers wanted to know if Shah Jr "deserved to be the BCCI secretary", what his salary would be in this post and how did he come to hold that post.
Human nature is such that when the situation is one of crisis, we do our best. But, after awhile, we are prone to get complacent. We forget our goal and tend to become arrogant in our dealings. Just as someone holding political office for too long shows signs of losing their humility.
This is a subject worth closer understanding. It can make a vital difference in the success or failure of clubs, organisations and even entire societies. If Goa were to be seen as a 'club', how well is it doing (or not doing), and why?
