WonderLife 1.0, July 2018, Issue 1 | Page 17

Tr. Venkataramani, Area 2 Chairman (Elect) AREA 2 TEXT The Area 2 TExT program was conducted on 9 th and 10 th of June at Ocean Spray Resorts, Pondicherry. The program was facilitated by Sq Leg Narendar Agarwal, Past President Tr Harish Shenoy and Tr Kartic Ramesh. The entire event was flawless organized and executed by Tr Anand Moorthy. dancing et al. PP Tr Harish Shenoy then took over to give a brief insight into how RTI works which was a true eye opener for many of us. There were also discussions on how motions in AGMs and the RTI Trust work. Post this was an intense session of planning for the year in groups led by Sq Leg Narendar Agarwal. This threw in a lot of new ideas and everyone has some interesting thoughts on what they have planned to achieve in the tabling year. The lead up to the event saw extensive planning and discussions between the facilitators and organizers in order to clearly understand and design the module in line with the vision of incoming Area Chairman Tr Venkatramani Nadarajan. The goal of the program was to ensure that tabling as such shouldn’t become a burden on oneself but instead should be a fun and enjoyable experience where Tablers can complement each other and not compete against one another. As the classroom session came to an end, there was more outdoor activity planned. One such activity was the Diamond Cricket game – a cross of cricket and baseball. The game revolves around teamwork and supporting your next in line. It turned out to be a great experience for everyone involved. Finally it was that time of the evening that everyone was looking forward to – The Party. It was one fun filled evening involving high voltage music, sheesha and food that one just cannot forget. It was also decided to make the TExT program itself quite relaxed and chilled out as against trying to finish way too many modules in turn affecting the mindset by cramping them up with too much information which many times turns out to be counterproductive. As a part of the Area Chairman’s ‘Go Beyond’ theme for the year, it was also decided to encourage Inter-Area fellowships. Day 2 of the training program started with Sq Leg Varinder Singh also joining us to do a few activities like TV style interviews and Lap Sitting. After this, the team was split with Chairman module being conducted by Naren and Harish while the secretary module was conducted by Kartic. This was essentially a deep dive in to the specific roles and responsibilities of the Chairmen and Secretaries respectively. In line with the ideas discussed above and to create a more friendly and relaxed program, it was decided to ferry everyone to and from Pondy in an AC Coach bus instead of the usual drive your own car which turned out to be something unique and was well appreciated. The sessions started bang on target in the afternoon of Saturday the 9 th of June with the introduction of special guests and the area chairman’s vision speech. We were honored to have incoming National Secretary Tr Akshay Dugar with us and his speech outlining the big responsibilities that everyone was to look forward to was highly entertaining and motivating. Moving on, there was even more entertainment during the ice breaker session which included crazy tasks like pole A complete introduction to the newly re-designed MOMO was also given with demos of a few sample reports. After this, the session duly came to a close with the Area Chairman felicitating everyone. In a nutshell, the program was a huge success because the message of the Area Chairman’s vision was clearly understood and communicated to everyone. In addition, the flawless planning, organizing and execution of the event was also a big hit with everyone getting their personalized invites, linen shirts and themed t-shirts. The Area Chairman’s touching gift to everyone with a beautifully framed group picture from the first day is surely to be stuff of legends that we will all be talking about for many more years to come. 17