Brotherhood Scholarship Decision for future

This post is about future decision making. Decisions that together all of us would make about whether or not- we should embark on a change how the Brotherhood Scholarship Fund is being currently utilized. In case we decide to change- what could be the possible new avenues to utilize the fund we collect to make even great impact? And at the end how should we do that?

Brotherhood scholarship has successfully completed seven years of continuous effort to help meritorious but needy students of RKM Narendrapur. We have collectively, over the period of years, have raised more than Rs 7.8 lakhs. Along the way we have gathered suggestions that may be it is the time to re-look at the strategy to leap into the next level of efficiency.

We are starting a discussion in our blog http://brotherhoodscholarship.blogspot.com/ to debate all possibilities and decide what could be the best way out? We would like to hear your comments. Once we have sufficient discussions on this aspect, we would arrange for a vote to select top 4 ideas. Subsequently- we would discuss with RKM college authorities- which of these are more workable and would implement the same for the next year.

Currently our fund is utilized in various student welfare activities such as paying of examination fees and tuition fees. Let me write down a few concepts that I have picked up from our fellow brothers to facilitate the discussion.

1. Infrastructural projects- College (Computers, books, and capital intensive item/ lab equipment that college requires)
2. Infrastructural projects- Hostel (Solar electricity, hot water, High speed internet connection, Gymnasium etc)
3. Individual assistance (Sponsor all expenses of 3-6 students, who are highly meritorious. 2 students from each year)
4. Individual assistance (Scholarship to study in premier institutes such as IITs, IISc, ISI, IIP etc)

These are only a few. I am sure all of you would have even more ideas. Please go to the blog and post you comments. Please leave your Name. (We may not consider anonymous posts).

Cheers.

Brotherhood Scholarship 2010 Receipt copy

Dear Brothers,

We are very happy to share that Manna had gone to Narendrapur last Saturday and has handed over the drafts to college. Attached is the receipt scan copy for your reference.

Congratulations to all of us and a big thank you for all those who participated.

Along the way- we have received various suggestions on how to enhance the impact of Brotherhood scholarship and how we can make it more effective. We would collate the thoughts and put them to our blog (http://brotherhoodscholarship.blogspot.com/) by Sunday. Would encourage all of you to participate in the debate/ discussion. Post the debate- would arrange for online voting to select top 4-5 ideas for next year. Out of those, we would select top 2 basis discussion with college authorities.

I would send you an email update and a link to the discussion, when it is started.

Warm regards.

Manna, Gautam & Avi.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: S Manna
Date: Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 1:21 PM
Subject: Re: Fwd: Brotherhood Scholarship 2010 (Final collection: Rs 203,002)



Avijit and Gautam
Mission accomplished - today I have handed over the 2 demand drafts totalling Rs. 203002 to RKM college Narendrapur. Unfortunately, Satyada was not available and I couldnot meet him when I reached @ 10.30 am - thought will catch him just after the prayer. Now given he is secretary, he has become more busy and I was told by Uttam da that he may be in a meeting of mission management. Anyway, congrats to you both as well - its a good job done through awesome teamwork. Individually we could have done so little but together we pulled so many peanuts that it became a very significant amount and that's where BHS is so unique and successful.
I will scan the receipt and send you the copy so that you can forward to everyone. Please write to Satya da - unlucky me, couldn't touch his feet today.
Feeling good now - the collection was a pain though!thanks to you both and everyone who contributed!
Cheers,

Subhashis

Proud contributors for Brotherhood Scholarship fund 2010

A C (Name withheld on request), Abhijit Bhattacharya, Amritangshu Nandi, Ananda Jana, Anirban Seal, Apratim Chandra, Apurba Roy, Arnab Sengupta, Avijit Das, Avik Chakraborty, Avik Sarkar, Bodhisattwa Chaudhuri, Debasis Das, Debayan, Dibyendu Samanta, Dibyojyoti Chatterjee, Dipankar Banerjee, Duswanta Roy, Gautam Debnath, Kallol Kumar, Kiran Shankar Maity, Lalmohan Kundu, Olive Bhawal, Pradipta Ghorai, Prasad Krishna Ghorai, Pratyush Roy, Rajdeep Dutta, Rajib Ghosh, Randhir Paul, Saikat Dhar, Sandeepan Bhattacharya, Sandip Das, Sanjib Das, Sanjit Konar, Santanu Pradhan, Satrajit Roychoudhury, Saurav Ganguli, Saurav Santra, Shatadal Dey, Shital Das, Sneham Banerjee, Soumya Bandyopadhyay, Soumyabrata Dutta, Subhajit Basu, Subhasis Manna, Sudarshan Ray, Sudeep Bose, Sudipta Basu, Sujay Das, Sumit Deb, Sunirmal Soren, Suproyo Dasgupta, Swapan Chakraborti, Swarup Kr. Poi and Wasim Ali

Brotherhood Scholarship 2010 (Final collection: Rs 203,002)

Dear All,

We have come to the end of yet another successful year of brilliant team effort called Brotherhood Scholarship Fund. It is even heartening to share that we have managed to reach the target we had set at the beginning. Total collection for this year is Rs 203,002 (Rs two lacs, three thousands and two only). This is the highest so far has been possible only because of the relentless support from all of you.

This year we have got a few new contributors too. We welcome them to this movement. It is your encouragement that keeps us moving and keeps us motivated.  

A list is attached with the names and amount being contributed by each individual. One particular brother has requested to keep his name secrete. We respect his wish.

Some statistics- we had 55 contributors this time, down from 56 we had last time. We have 12 new contributors. That means 13 of our friends from the last year could not join in. This is a worrying sign. We need to think about it- how to make sure that we get more people on board, while not losing old ones.

While talking to different brothers, we were happy to note that quite a few of us have great ideas on how to make this initiative even better. We also had a few suggestions on improving connectivity among members. We also had concerns on a few aspects. Keeping all these points in mind, we are going to start a debate/ discussion in our blog (http://brotherhoodscholarship.blogspot.com/) within next few weeks. Would request all of you to participate. I would send an email reminder once we start the same.

As far as further logistic is concerned, Manna is going to arrange a draft and would visit Narndrapur to handover the sum to college authority. We would share the scan copy of the draft and the receipt with you all. If anyone wants to accompany Manna to Narendrapur, please get in touch with him directly for the timing and arrangements.

That's it for today. Would be back with the recipt copy soon. All the information would also be available on our Blog, Facebook, Orkut and tweeter.

Do not hesitate to write back if you want to have any clarification. Thanks once again for your support.

Gautam, Manna & Avi.

Subhasis Manna

Gautam Debnath

Avijit Das avi0826@gmail.com +44 7776 49 1412

Brotherhood Scholarship Fund 2010- (Msg from Satyada)

Dear Avijit,

I replied to your email yesterday.  I just went through your brochure  on Brotherhood Scholarships.  The list of brothers contributing to the project also noted.  I congratulate you all.  You have been proceeding on right track.

Love to all.

Satyada

_________________________________________________________________________
Ramakrishna Mission Residential College(Autonomous), Narendrapur, Kolkata 700103
Phone : +91-033-24772201 (3 lines), +91-033-24772205,  Fax : +91-033-24773597
Email : rkmcnpur@vsnl.com,  Website : www.rkmcnarendrapur.org

Message from Satya da

Dear Avijit,
My love and best wishes to you all of a Happy and Joyous New Year. Your Brotherhood Scholarship Scheme is going on unabated. This is very good sign. Try to extend it among the other batches. You follow the way everybody likes. Please meet when you are in Kolkata and ask all of our brothers to do so.

Satyada
(4 May 2010)
_________________________________________________________________________
Ramakrishna Mission Residential College(Autonomous), Narendrapur, Kolkata 700103
Phone : +91-033-24772201 (3 lines), +91-033-24772205, Fax : +91-033-24773597
Email : rkmcnpur@vsnl.com, Website : www.rkmcnarendrapur.org

P Please Consider the Environment before printing this Email

BHS 2010

What is Brotherhood Scholarship Fund?
Brotherhood Scholarship fund is an initiative by Ex-students of Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur to help meritorious but financially needy students of the college. It was started in 2004 with a handful of ex-students and a contribution of Rs. 52,000/-. Last year 56
ex-students jointly contributed Rs. 1,67,064/-. All put together a sum of Rs. 5,77,526/- has been contributed to the college authorities till now.
This amount is spent on student’s education, books and examination fees. We do not get into the details of it and let college authorities exercise their judgment and discretion.
What is the amount?
There is no standard norm for this. For past six years we have targeted Rs. 2,400/- per personas the minimum amount. (@ Rs. 200/- per months- It is much less than what we spend on a movie or eating out one evening.) However, contributors can pay any amount (more or less) depending upon their wish. We stress on the collective effort and togetherness. The intention is the key not the amount. We know some of the contributors also separately donate to college.
What is our objective?We were in Narendrapur during our formative days. We believe Narendrapur has shaped our future. Whatever we are today or whoever we would become tomorrow, impact of our learnings at Narendrapur would always be enormous. This is one of the ways to recognize that contribution and express our thanks. This small contribution of ours towards our fellow brothers, who need our help, will ensure that the spirit of Narendrapur lives & grows within us.
How is the contribution made?
Contribution are collected through crossed cheque, bank draft or internet transfer. Cash is normally not taken. The entire sum collected, is handed over to the college authorities at one go. The receipt is shared with all contributors through e mail. It is not possible to provide individual receipts. However, if needed a letter can be issued from RKMR college authorities mentioning
the names of the contributors and the amount against their name.
When is it done?
We start collecting contribution at the beginning of May and continue till 3rd week of June. Total amount collected during this period are then handed over as a demand draft during first week of July. Normally Kolkata based contributors personally go to the college to do so. This roughly coincides with the new session.
Who all coordinate and collect the contributions?Contributions are collected by the following three people (Contact for more information)
Subhasis Manna:
Gautam Debnath
Avijit Das avi0826@gmail.com +44 7776 49 1412