Social Work...Online and Offline ..A case study
Interesting case study based on a real experience while working in social activities.Read only of you want to study human behaviours and also have lot of time to read and understand this : There are 3 organisations..all socially active and worked in past together for betterment of the surrounding community. One of them is online group (Let's call them Group A ) ,one of them is a school alumni association (Let's call them Group B ) and one of them is a registered NGO (Let's call them Group C ) !
Some core members of Group A had an idea for an event and as usual they discussed this with Group B and Group C .Core group members of Group B and Group C agreed to take active part and event planning meeting was done.MOM was agreed and responsibilities shared.One of the action point was on Group C member to create a flyer which also has information on all three groups in 3 paragraphs and contact details so that on the event day,people can read about the nice works these groups do and if they wish to contribute ,they can join any of them as volunteers.So far so good !
Group C spokesperson prepared the draft as agreed in above MOM and sent it to all groups .This person who drafted the note was a common founder member for Group B and Group C and knew about these two groups well..so he wrote more lines on them and requested Group A core committee member to add more about Group A in the same draft so that the draft would look neat !
Surprisingly,group A chairperson calls this Group C member ( who wrote the introductions ) that by reading good things about Group B and Group C in the draft,Some Group A members' sentiments are hurt !They feel their organisation is not getting enough mention. !Group A core committee then decides not to publish ANY name on flyer.Following which Group B and Group C took a strong objection.
The whole issue was NOT about who gets publicity but why in first place"sentiments " ( ! ) can be hurt by as non destructive as a simple paragraph on other group who is like your brotherhood partner in social activities ! And if Group A members had any objection,why they could not voice their concerns in the meeting when all met face to face ?When it was agreed by EVERYONE that all three groups are equally important and should be known to public,what was the matter with "sentiments " ?.So if the minds were not together ..what was the point to co host event ...Somehow group B and Group C could never fathom which "sentiments" were hurt and whose "sentiments" were hurt !Though the whole episode was "assumed" by many as "clash of egos" between groups !
The drift widened between these three organisations and finally Group A conducted the event alone..albeit successfully !The sad part is..the alliance which was working for community betterment is broken ..The online Group A will need volunteers in physical world who can come to help community ,work,dirty their hands and conduct social activities,,,Finally virtual world has limitations and brick and mortar organisations like NGOs and Alumni associations who have manpower beyond social networks can compliment online efforts .Online presence is important..in fact must in today's connected world but we have seen that online forums may not invite the kind of commitment from volunteers which offline NGOs can.
If you are student of management or social sciences or member of any NGO,it would be interesting to study this and understand the finer issues of human mind !
No questions regarding the real identities of these three groups will be entertained and any effort by anyone to write real identities of these groups in comments will be deleted for privacy reasons
Some core members of Group A had an idea for an event and as usual they discussed this with Group B and Group C .Core group members of Group B and Group C agreed to take active part and event planning meeting was done.MOM was agreed and responsibilities shared.One of the action point was on Group C member to create a flyer which also has information on all three groups in 3 paragraphs and contact details so that on the event day,people can read about the nice works these groups do and if they wish to contribute ,they can join any of them as volunteers.So far so good !
Group C spokesperson prepared the draft as agreed in above MOM and sent it to all groups .This person who drafted the note was a common founder member for Group B and Group C and knew about these two groups well..so he wrote more lines on them and requested Group A core committee member to add more about Group A in the same draft so that the draft would look neat !
Surprisingly,group A chairperson calls this Group C member ( who wrote the introductions ) that by reading good things about Group B and Group C in the draft,Some Group A members' sentiments are hurt !They feel their organisation is not getting enough mention. !Group A core committee then decides not to publish ANY name on flyer.Following which Group B and Group C took a strong objection.
The whole issue was NOT about who gets publicity but why in first place"sentiments " ( ! ) can be hurt by as non destructive as a simple paragraph on other group who is like your brotherhood partner in social activities ! And if Group A members had any objection,why they could not voice their concerns in the meeting when all met face to face ?When it was agreed by EVERYONE that all three groups are equally important and should be known to public,what was the matter with "sentiments " ?.So if the minds were not together ..what was the point to co host event ...Somehow group B and Group C could never fathom which "sentiments" were hurt and whose "sentiments" were hurt !Though the whole episode was "assumed" by many as "clash of egos" between groups !
The drift widened between these three organisations and finally Group A conducted the event alone..albeit successfully !The sad part is..the alliance which was working for community betterment is broken ..The online Group A will need volunteers in physical world who can come to help community ,work,dirty their hands and conduct social activities,,,Finally virtual world has limitations and brick and mortar organisations like NGOs and Alumni associations who have manpower beyond social networks can compliment online efforts .Online presence is important..in fact must in today's connected world but we have seen that online forums may not invite the kind of commitment from volunteers which offline NGOs can.
If you are student of management or social sciences or member of any NGO,it would be interesting to study this and understand the finer issues of human mind !
No questions regarding the real identities of these three groups will be entertained and any effort by anyone to write real identities of these groups in comments will be deleted for privacy reasons
posted by Chinmay Gavankar @ 10:28 PM
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