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The National Conference: Vote for the logo!!

Posted by Karthik in Official on March 1st, 2010

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MAD Cochin Year End Report 2009-10

Posted by Sanjana in Official on February 26th, 2010

YOUTH LEADER Awardees 2009-10

Paul Francis: For his zealous and enthusiastic contribution to Placement activities.

Kavita Manipadam: For her consistency and new methods in ensuring high volunteer attendance and making Cochin one of the top 3 cities in MADapp migration.

Teza Jose: For making the MADLY (MAD Cochin newsletter) a regular feature and ensuring high activity from the PR bunch

Nadheem A M: For his commitment and work in the computer team, including the General maintenance team(GMT) an internal MAD Cochin system administration group.

Hannah Masood: for highest no. of credits, ie: highest attendance, and exceptional work as Centre Head to ensure zero class cencellation when a no. of volunteers in her centre were away on internship.

Blesson Gregory: For going above and beyond the call of duty to handle 4 positions of responsibility simultaneously (mentor, VP Resources, VP Fundraising, FoM Co-ordinator) when the need arose.

Outgoing CORE TEAM

 President: Sanjana

HR: Shahnaz

Placement: Nikhila

Training: Pooja → Gautam

Computers: Saju

Resources: Blesson

Fundraising: Vivek → Jake → Blesson

FOM: Bindia → Jake → Blesson

Finance: Hannah

PR: Jithin Jr → Karthik

 

 Activity report

HR

 Recruitment:Annual recruitment drive, smaller recruitment drives: 6 recruitment programs

College outreach: MEC, St Teresa’s, NUALS, CUSAT

New Centres started: 5 (Crescent, St Joachim’s, Pallu Big Boys, Udaya Colony, Government Girls Home)

Activities in the year: Out bound training for volunteers, All Volunteer Meet

 

PR

Newsletters: 2 newsletters released during the year

Blog: High blog traffic from MAD Cochin: every event was covered

Bunch support: Brochures/posters provided to FoM, HR, Placements

 

PLACEMENT

 

Camps: Camps conducted for YMCA, Valsalyabhavan, Bal Bhavan, St Joachims, St Mary’s, Big Boys, Crescent, coming up for Sneha bhavan(pallu)

Other Placement programs conducted:

  • Visit to Science park, CUSAT

  • Awareness program on Engineering: by Rajagiri Engineering College and MEC

  • Vsit to National Institute of Oceanography

  • 4 Cultural programs with Amaara

  • Hotel Management Orientation programs:  Avenue Regent and Casino

  • Career Awareness program for Std X students by One Step Up Education Services, courtesy Shiv Dewan.

  • Aqua and pet show

  • Saju Varghese: sponsoring newspaper at St Joachims

Sponsor bank: record of potential donors to support MAD students for higher studies

Special mention:

Choice school:

  • tie-up with Interact club

  • Library drive: 400 books donated to Crescent

  • Venue for Crescent/St Mary’s camp

  • T-shirts

Chinmaya school:

  • Venue for VYB camp

  • School bus for placement programs

Toc-h school:

  • School bus for placement programs

FUNDRAISING

PROJECT

AMOUNT RAISED

Total amount raised towards placements

20300

Amount raised towards summer camp

136990

Amount raised towards English project

27220

Amount raised towards General corpus

75000

Amount raised towards advertisement

10000

Library project

30000

TOTAL

299510*

*Till date. Will vary slightly for whole year.

 

FRIENDS OF MAD

 Organisations covered: Wipro, OPI, Rotary, RTI, Bharti Axa, Casino, HSBC, ACS

Volunteer level activation initiated

Total ECS monthly contribution from Cochin: Rs 25150

COMPUTERS

Computer classes conducted at: YMCA, Bal Bhavan, Sneha Bhavan, St Mary’s

Covered syllabus including basic applications: Basic hardware, windowa navigation, basic settings, Paint, MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint

Rosetta stone initiated

RESOURCES

 

Library projects taken up this year: St Mary’s, Crescent

Computers: 2 computers donated

FINANCE

PROJECT

AMOUNT SPENT

Placement expense

17950

Summer camp expense

87809

English project expense

25900

Recruitment expense

3650

Computer expense

750

Fundraising

1040

Miscellaneous

418

Library

15000

TOTAL

152517*

*Till date. Will vary slightly for whole year.

 

TRAINING

 

8 Teacher/syllabus training programs organised

4 rounds of invigilation completed

18 volunteers from cochin attended the 3 day mentor training program in Chennai

New syllabus distribution system initiated

Changes in MAD Cochin administration

 To improve administrative efficiency, in the coming year MAD Cochin will have two operational chapters as given below.

MAD Cochin 1: President – Shahnaz Thahir

MAD Cochin 2: President – Blesson Gregory

Holy Ghost

Valsalyabhavan

Udaya colony

St Joachims

Bal Bhavan

Govt Girls Home

YMCA

St Mary’s

Sneha Bhavan

Pallu Big Boys

Crescent

St Teresa’s convent: We may stop teaching due to admin issues, final decision will be taken in May.

THANK YOU

Thank you to an amazing and driven core team each of whom achieved so much more than what we had envisioned at the beginning of the year

AND

On behalf of the MAD Cochin Core Team 2009-10, a heartfelt thank you to all the volunteers, well-wishers and donors who supported us every step of the way.

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The MAD National Conference 2010.

Posted by Jithin C Nedumala in Official on February 25th, 2010

Today’s global youth population is at a historical high of over 1.5 billion. With 89 % in developing countries, youth unemployment has assumed alarming proportions. The youth today are on average three times as likely to be unemployed as adults. In the last ten years, the world’s youth population grew by 10.5 percent while youth employment only grew by 0.2 percent. The International Labour Organization has estimated that another 1 billion young people will enter the world’s labor market within the next ten years. Many leading thinkers of our generation has indeed labeled this the “Silent Crisis”

We are all members of this Youth population and we have a stake in this Silent Crisis.

MAD is a growing community of committed youngsters who are investing their time and energy to positively impact the communities they live in. As MAD grows we need strong leaders who can ensure our programs and policies achieve greater impact, sustainability, and scale. We see value in developing youth leaders.

The MAD national conference is a platform for our core team members from across the country to develop their leadership & management skills. It is an open-minded exchange of diverse perspectives on challenges they face on the ground and a concerted effort to find solutions that are both practical and beneficial to all stakeholders.

The MAD national Conference 2010 will be held in Bangalore on 5th,6th and 7th of March and will be attended by  70 MAD core team members from 10 cities, covering 3 days of intense training sessions and discussions that focus on developing leadership skills and better understanding of the functional systems  of Make a Difference.

 

Our focus is on action. We will have two breakout sessions where the city core teams come out with their final plan of action for the coming year. The highlight of this year is the election of the National Core Team during the Functional Break out session on Day 2.

 

The National Conference is an avenue to meet likeminded people and learn and share from each other’s experiences. This is an ideal platform to forge relationships that will last a lifetime.

 

We would like to thank Manipal County for providing us with this great venue and ensuring our team has a stress free and rejuvenating experience.

 

The following will be the agenda for the Conference

Friday, March, 5th, 2010

HR

New Policies:

  1. 70 volunteer ceiling
  2. Internship opportunities in MAD
  3. Relook at the volunteer profiles : Teaching Volunteer & Admin Volunteer

Plan of Action

  1. Deciding the City recruitment Schedules
  2. Recruitment Drive
  3. Use of MADapp
  4. MAD Workshop and Process Training
  5. Single window Volunteer Induction Process
  6. Volunteer incentive programs
  7. MAD comps
  8. Measurability: City Reporting Format

Future Plans

  1. Management Training Program

Leadership Development Programs

Operations

New Policies

  1. Fix the age group of MAD Students
  2. Importance of the role of center heads and Batch heads

Plan of Action

  1. Identifying Centers
  2. Empowering Batch Heads & Center heads
  3. An ideal Class
  4. Class Visits
  5. Use of MADapp

Placements

New Policies

  1. Centre Centric Approach
  2. Partnership with the Orphanage Head
  3. Incentive System

Plan of Action

  1. “Out of Center” Placements Program
  2. Camps
  3. Mentorship
  4. Usage of MADapp Events section

Future Plans

  1. Career Guidance

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Training

New Policies

  1. The Celta Model
  2. The New Syllabus

Plan of Action

  1. Roles and Responsibilities of a Mentor
  2. Choosing Mentors and assigning Mentees
  3. Identifying Training space
  4. Use of MADapp to manage training
  5. Student Progress

Future Plans

  1. MAD Revenue Generation program
  2. Accreditation for the training program

Finance

1. Overview of Finance Policy of MAD

2. Statutory requirements

3. Ensuring Financial integrity

Resources

  1. What is the MAD library Project
  2. How to start a library Project in your city
  3. How to coordinate the library Project
  4. Use of Basecamp to coordinate the library Project

FOM

New Policies

  1. City Incentives
  2. Online FOM
  3. National fundraising Employee

Plan of Action

  1. New City Level targets
  2. How to find an FOM POC
  3. How to run an FOM Campaign
  4. How to make an FOM presentation
  5. How to do FOM follow ups
  6. Other fundraising Avenues

Future Plans

  1. National level Fundraising Support

PR

New Policies

  1. National Employee
  2. National Brand Building

Plan of Action

  1. MAD Blog
  2. MAD Pings
  3. MAD Magazines
  4. Media Management
  5. Merchandising & Designing

Future Plans

National PR support for local PR Activities

Break Out Session # 1: Function Wise

  1. Elect the National Core team Members
  2. Deciding on the national Review Meetings
  3. Targets for the Coming year

Sunday, March, 7th, 2010

Computer Project

  1. What is the MAD computer Project
  2. How to start a Computer Project in your city
  3. How to coordinate the Computer Project
  4. Use of MAD to coordinate the Computer project

Break Out Session # 2:City Wise

  1. Finalizing the Plan of Action for the coming year
  2. Setting targets
  3. Deciding on Time lines

Apart from the above Functional Modules, there will be sessions on leadership development that inculcates a spirit of team play and leadership through a series of discussions, workshops and group practice sessions. Essential skills for leadership like effective listening and communication, presentation, team building, assertiveness and problem solving are developed. The team gets to learn the technical skills, emotional intelligence and cognitive abilities required to be leader.

Yes, it is going to be hectic with the conference starting at 9 am and stretching up to 12 am but we believe these 3 days are going to be an experience of a life time for all of us. I thank all the delegates for sharing the financial commitment for the conference and hence re-emphasizing your commitment to our values.

On a personal note, we have been working towards this year’s National Conference for over 3 months now and I am sure it will add value to every mad volunteer who attends, and hence, motivate more youngsters to GO MAD :)

Attention Delegates: All further information and discussions regarding the conference would happen in our base camp account. Do log in to get the latest updates on the conference. If you do not have your Basecamp account details yet, email Dhiya@makeadiff.in for your log in credentials.

 

 

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Be a Friend of MAD

Posted by Karthik in Official on January 18th, 2010

friend, noun: a person who provides assistance in times of need, is dependable, and makes your life awesome :-D

MAD needs a lot of such people to sign on as Friends of MAD (or FoMs). FoMs are the ones who we depend upon for their small monthly contributions and they thereby assist us in generating some awesomeness in the lives of our kids!

Why do we need the funds?

# We are developing a syllabus in partnership with EzVidya to teach our kids using the communicative approach.

# We need to develop and maintain our web application which is used to monitor and ensure better administrative control over all MAD activities. 

# Other projects like placements (career awareness, motivation, personality development), starting libraries etc.

How can you help?

# Look around you for FoMs – friends, relatives, colleagues! Anyone who is willing to be-friend us needs to be taken on-board.

# If you know anyone who is working in a corporate, put us in touch with them, so that we can run our Employee Engagement program in these corporates and identify FoMs.

So, all you MAD folks, turn the searchlights on and start hunting for some Friends for MAD. Together, we can Make A Difference!

 

Please contact:

Blesson Gregory (09995608224)
blessongregory@gmail.com

friendsCartoon

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WANTED!! The 2010-2011 MAD CORE TEAM !!

Posted by Karthik in Official on December 22nd, 2009

M.A.D Core Team 2010-2011

India’s fastest growing youth volunteer network, with over 800 volunteer teachers teaching across 10 cities, is on the lookout for its New Core team for 2010-2011. The national core team shall conduct Elections and interviews in all its cities to choose the new breed of MAD Managers.

The chosen few will be invited to the prestigious MAD National Conference where the best would be elected to lead MAD nationally and would be inducted into the National Core team.

Do you think you have it in you to take charge and lead MAD to greater heights? Then this is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss.

Applications are now open for the following positions in every city:

President 2010-11
VPs  2010 – 11

Interested Volunteers can download the application form from the Repository, fill it and send it to freshblood@makeadiff.in

Election Process Milestones for your city

1. Applications Open:19th Dec

2. Last Day for presidents Application Submission: 23rd dec

3: President’s Poll :23rd dec  to 28th Jan

4. Last Day for Core team Application Submission: 28th Dec5. New Core team Announced: 2nd Jan

The presidents would be elected. The core team would be selected by the National Core Team by conducting a rigorous interview .

Before you leap for glory, go through our Eligibility criteria and see if you fit the Bill

General Qualification:

To be on the National core team, you must be:

1.A MAD teaching or placement volunteer.

2.Able to make a commitment to hold your leadership position till March 2011

3.Accessible to volunteers, other core team members on a daily basis over phone, mail.

4.Able to attend the National Conference in March 2010

5.Able to commit 2 hours or more every day to MAD activities

You MUST apply if you:

1.See yourself growing in leadership positions in MAD and want to get more involved in MAD operations

2.Want to make MAD your TOP PRIORITY for the next academic year

You MUST NOT apply if you:

1.Have taken up other commitments in addition to you college / work during this period

2.Will not be able to complete the required time line

3.Have time / travel restrictions

4.Cannot be accessible to volunteers, core team members round the year

Campaigning of any kind is banned!!

Godspeed

The MAD National Core Team.

PS: Any doubts regarding the selection process, feel free to contact

Sanjana: 9846603372
Gloria: 9396994745
Sujith: 9396994744
Dhiya: 9895501845
Jithin:9961411099

Any comments, feel free to just type it down here

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MONITORING AND REVIEW

Posted by Karthik in Official on September 15th, 2009

…….the Make a Difference way

Make a Difference monitors its projects based on two areas:

1) Activity

2) Results

Activity

To ensure the on ground activities are taking place uninterrupted and the quality is maintained, we monitor the following factors:-

1) Attendance: Every city maintains its own attendance register online. After every class the batch head updates the attendance of the volunteers hence ensuring in real time that classes happen without fail.

2) Feedback: After every class the volunteer comes online and puts up their feedback of the class. The mentors monitor this feedback to ensure the volunteer is following the curriculum and the progress in satisfactory.

3) Invigilation: Once every two months the volunteer’s class is invigilated by the Mentor. He/she ensures that the qualities of the classes are maintained by the volunteer.

4) Training: Training registers are maintained online by every city. Training is compulsory and the volunteers are trained in regular intervals as prescribed.

5) On Site Audit: Every city is audited by the teacher training team and the core team once every year to see if they adhere to all the systems and processes laid down by the centre.

6) Monthly Review meetings: A conference call in conducted every month by national core team with all the city heads to review the progress of the projects.

7) Centrally Controlled Finance: Finance is managed centrally. There is only one central bank account into which all funds come in and all payments are issued centrally.

Result

To ensure that the children we teach are benefitted from the program and they are learning, the following follow ups are done:-

1) Baseline Assessment Test: Before MAD starts teaching a child we conduct a baseline assessment test to determine the standard of the child before enrolling for the Classes.

2) Bi-Monthly Follow up Test: Every two months when a unit is completed, a test in taken to ensure that the learning has taken place and the child is progressing. This score is uploaded online along with the child’s profile for review.

3) Yearly Assessment Test: At the end of a level the child is again tested to see if she is ready to continue to the next level of the curriculum. If not, the volunteer spends extra time with the student ensuring that she is ready for the next level.

4) Individual Student Profile: Every student being taught in MAD has got a personal profile which is updated regularly by his/her teacher based on their observations, scores in various tests etc and thereby providing a holistic view of the child’s academic progress.

Make a Difference | 2009 | http://makeadiff.in

This document is also published on our Scribd page – http://j.mp/elGUr

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