“DISHA” MISSION ACCOMPLISED

When SPANDAN decided to conduct DISHA- A Pre-placement Workshop we had two clear objectives in our mind.

1. To give COEP (College of Engineering Pune) students the best in class training and guidance in GD and PI and equip them with skills to face their placement process confidently.
2. To raise money from this workshop for the SPANDAN’s activities.

But when we started working on it there were many things to worry about. First of them was how to get the hall and classrooms for this workshop. Initially we were thinking to organize this workshop outside the COEP, as there were some problems to conduct it on campus. But later we drooped that plan and thanks to the support from the Director and HODs of COEP this problem was finally solved and we got permission to use institutes halls and classroom for our workshop. Due to all this we decided on schedule of the workshop just 3-4 days before the workshop dates and hence it was daunting task to reach to each and every student and to advertise for our workshop. But there was no looking back. Chintaman, SPANDAN’s chief coordinator with the help of others worked relentlessly to overcome all these problems and in just two days 80 students registered for this workshop.

DAY 01

The day started at 6.00 AM in morning. Last night it took 3.00 AM for us to catch our sleep as there were many last minute things to do. I gave final touches to the presentations and also called Tejas to confirm if he and others (Ami and Deepak) boarded their train on time. When I told them about the idea of workshop last week, these guys liked it and immediately agreed to join me conducting this workshop. I invited Ranjeet, Vinamra and Deepak just a day before the workshop and they also accepted the invitation without any hesitation. When I reached at the venue there were students eagerly waiting for the sessions to start. There were 10-15 last minute registrations, which took our tally to 93. Only thing these students know was there were 5-6 IIMA guys coming for the workshop so many of them thrilled with the idea of meeting with the best brains of country.

Its 10.00AM when I started with my first presentation on SPANDAN’s activities and workshop overview. Ranjeet was first one to join me. Later Tejas, Ami, Radhika and Deepak who traveled all the way from Mumbai and Vinamra joined us. When I introduced these guys to students everyone got shocked to see they have in front of them someone who scored 99.999 in CAT and someone who had strike rate of 6 out of 6 IIM call conversion. This assured them the best investment of their time next two days.

The next 3 hours we all conducted a sessions on GD and PI and covered all nitty-gritty’s of the GD and PI. This session was interactive and we cleared all possible doubts the first timers can have. COEP students made best use of this opportunity and hadn’t missed a single chance to interact with the faculty. They also caught hold of us in break and asked n number of questions on CAT. All of us were always ready to help them and even agreed to conduct a separated session on CAT if time permits us to do so. After the lunch break we started with MOCK GD. This session was planned to give the real experience to students. We divided them into group of three and two of us moderated their GDs. We analyzed groups and individual performance and gave them feedback for further improvements. All this continued till 6.00 PM and we concluded our day 01.

DAY 02

It was time for the some more hard work for us. There were 93 PI to be taken and we were only 6. Ami went back to Mumbai and Dhyanesh joined us as replacement. When Vinamara told he would not make up today, the task became more difficult for us as we were only 5 and per head need to take more than 18 interviews in single day. We decided not to compromise on quality and fixed on 20 mins of PI and 10 mins of feedback for each student. We started at 9.00 AM in morning and continued till 7.00 PM to finish all our interviews. It was really great experience for the students and us also. We interviewed students from the various braches of engineering and guide them how they can improve further.

All of us were totally languished with non-stop schedule since morning. But there is one more promise to keep and that was a session on CAT. It was 7.30 PM I decided to conduct this session and ask other guys to finish their remaining interviews. The session continued till 8.30 PM and with that we concluded this two days workshop. It took 1.00 AM for Mumbai junta to return back to their home but they were not complaining but rather delighted with the joy of helping others.

Accomplishments

1.The most significant achievement of this workshop was the way students of COEP got benefited from it. Here is the snapshot of how these students rated this workshop, which I got from the feedback form they filled.

Below are some of the actual feedbacks we received from the students of COEP

“It was very interactive, personal attention was also provided. Basically it cleared quite a few misconceptions too. The speakers were just excellent. “
Neha Gandhi TE Comp Science

“The workshop was really good and it had honed up my GD and PI skills. The panel was best. Personal attention we got was good”
Subhod Chaudhari TE Production.

“Its really very very good. It really helped me a lot. It helped me to know the Do’s and Don’ts of GD and how to face PI.”
Hemant Joshi TE IT

“ It was a nice experience to interact with people who guided a lot, shared their experiences. Experiencing the GD and PI before the actual placements was the best thing of this workshop.
Milind Patil TE E&TC

“ The workshop was good and very useful in all the respects. Here our inabilities, lack of soft skills are scanned especially in mock GD and PI. The interviewers were excellent and words are less for appreciating their qualities.
Doshi Sonam TE Mechanical.

“ Workshop was very much well managed. It increased our confidence for facing GD and PI. Also it helped me to improve my personality.
Mahant S TE Mechanical

“ The overall workshop was good. It definitely added some value in our personality, certain doubts also got cleared and GD/PI phobia got reduced in some extent. It proved really useful.
Sagar Gangarde TE Mechanical

“ It was a interesting event. I got lot of important tips that will really help me in actual GD/PI”
Ankit Ambekar TE Production.

“Most special thing of this workshop was it was interactive and one to one unlike other presentations. I benefited tremendously."
Radhika Jagtap TE E&TC

“It was very well organized and the interaction with various IIM students really help to boost our confidence.
Neha Parashar TE Civil.

2.Though the workshop was conducted for the fund generation for SPANDAN’s activity, in the two days of this workshop it took back seat and all of us were working to give best value to students for their money. Below are the figures on what we achieved on the monetary target.

Money earned from fees: 92*150 + 50 = 13850
Overall Expenditure : 2540
Fund Generated : 11310

3. When we decided the conduct this workshop all of us thought it will be just a normal Gyan session but at the end of it we realized we also got a lot from this workshop. We come across various students in these two days and interacting with them was a great learning experience for us. And yes a noble cause of helping others and indirectly to SPANDAN gave us really great feeling.

Kindly visit HERE to view the snaps of this event.

DISHA - A Pre-Placement Workshop for Engineers

SPANDAN has been working on various social activities over the span of last three years. Till date we never need to raise money for any of our activities. The reason for this was we decided that in initial phase of SPANDAN we will work on the areas which doesn’t require much funding. This was decided to set a trend that to perform any social activity funding should not be stumbling block. Whatever funding we required in our activities was contributed by members.
After three years scope of SPANDAN’s activities has been changing.

We decided to generate some fix and some variable fund so that we can undertake more challenging work and make a bigger impact. This was the reason behind keeping a target of Rs1,000,00 of fix fund generation in SPANDAN’s action plan.

To achieve this target we had two options. One to reach the people around with the activities we performed and ask them for funding help of future activities and second to raise a fund from our own initiatives. We were more inclined towards the second one because it will not only give us pleasure of earning the money of our own but also make us more responsible when we will spend it in future. With this view in mind SPANDAN with collaboration with IIM students decided to conduct DISHA a pre-placement workshop for engineering students in Pune to help them getting into their dream companies and also collect some funding for SPANDAN’s activity through the registration charges.

Below are the details of this workshop

“Disha”: Pre-placement workshop for the Engineers

Placement in a dream company is a very important phase in every engineer’s life. We hope all of you are set to march towards your destination. In most of the placement-tests and various competitive examinations now a days, Group Discussions and Personal Interviews have become deciding stages of selection. To equip you with these skills and help you pursue your dreams we are glad to announce DISHA a two day workshop.

Workshop Features

Ø Workshop is designed with the view of selection process of various companies.
Ø MOCK GD will be conducted by the IIM students.
Ø Every interview panel will comprise of one IIM student
Ø This is no profit no loss initiative. Collected money will go for charity activities.

Day 1: 08 June
Venue: M-13 Government College of Engineering Shivajinagar Pune

Event Timing

Registration 9.00 – 9.30 AM

Session 1 Introduction to the workshop 9.30AM– 10.00 AM

Session 2 Introduction to Group Discussion 10.15 AM -11.45 AM

Tea Break 11.45 AM- 12.00

Session 3 Introduction to Personal Interview 12.00- 1.30 PM

Lunch Brek 1.30 PM 2.30 PM

Session 4 Mock Group Discussion 02.30PM – 06.00 PM

Venue :Metallurgy Department COEP

[Groups will be formed and everyone will get a chance to participate in GD. Moderators will give you the feedback on your performance.]


Day 2: 08 June

Session 5 Personal Interviews 09.00AM – 5.00 PM
Venue :Metallurgy Department COEP

[A mock PI will be arranged for every one of you. Duration 10-20 mins each. You will get the feedback and suggestions at the end of PI.]

Registration Fees: 150 Rs Only

Contact: (for registration) Chintaman Sanap 9226564746
Sushant Abhale 9226564791
(for details) Rushikesh Humbe 9224424742

UPDATE: SPANDAN’s Action Plan

This is update on the progress of the SPANDAN’s action plan.

Registration
I discussed the registration formalities and its legal aspect with the advocate. We need to submit the details required. Vinayak will be working on it and make sure the application part will be over by 10th June.

SPANDAN’s Website
I purchased URL and disk space for SPANDAN. One kind hearted webmaster is ready to work on our website without any charges. The website will be ready to use from 15th June.

Organization Plan
I discussed the SPANDAN’s organization structure with Chintaman and Vinayak.
We finalized the functional and non-functional organization structure and it will be published on SPANDAN’s website.

Fund Generation Target
We kept target of 1,000,00 for SPANDAN’s fix fund. We have decided to conduct pre-placement workshop in pune to generate the fund. Very soon I will publish the details of this workshop.

Tie up with other NGO
I will identify the various NGO working in pune to find out what SPANDAN can do for them. I will post a detail about these organization and form a tie up with them.

Vision, Mission and Values

(Read background of this initiative HERE )

One of the tasks I mentioned in my action plan for SPANDAN is to form an effective organizational structure. As we are going through the restructuring I thing this is right time to define Vision, Mission and Values for SPANDAN. I am not doing anything new by defining these statements. Actually we were following these things in mind over last 3 years. This is just to put them in right words so as it will guide SPANDAN in it’s further journey.

Vision:

To create strong sense of social commitment among the people and with the help of them work for the betterment of unprivileged section of the society.


Mission:

To become leading organization in the area of social development in next 10 years. To setup and run an orphanage and an old age home by 2020.


Values

1. Strong sense of social responsibility
2. Helping others to help themselves.
3. Building youth to build the society.
4. Generate awareness among people about the social problems.
5. Converging individual efforts into combined effort of social upliftment.

SPANDAN’s Appeal to COEP Alumni

It is now three years SPANDAN is doing various activities in and around COEP but still date we haven’t approached COEP alumni. Though when we started SPANDAN one of our objectives was to made a stage available to the COEP alumnus so that their combined effort can be channeled.

Until now we haven’t ask any help from alumni because before doing so we want to established ourselves completely. When I took SPANDAN rejuvenation task first thing that came in my mind was this is right time to aware the alumni about the functioning and plans of SPANDAN and how they can help us.
I was looking for such opportunity and it came to my way through the COEP alumni’s annual meet scheduled in Pune on 26th of this month. So when I headed towards the Pune on Saturday it was not an occasional visit to the town but I had mission in my mind.

I convinced the organizers that I should get 10 mins slot in the program. When I arrived for the program I came to know that due to lack of time they could only give me 5 mins. I agree on that and decided to deliver a compact speech.

Few highlights of the my speech of that evening

1.The various activities SPANDAN members have been doing last 3 years.
2.Which all problems we are facing.
3.What COEP alumni can do for us.

One of the major point I raised was ‘Hike of the fees after COEP getting autonomous’
I made them aware that annual fees of 30,000 is not a small amount esp for the students who came from the lower class families. I told them we are not opposing the hike in fees but at the same time care should be taken so that no one should deny from the opportunity to join COEP. I suggested them there should be tie up between COEP and Bank so that education loans should get available easily. Also I suggested them to start some need-based scholarships for such needy students. When I calculated the amount to start such scholarships the budget came around 6-7 Lakh and looking at the lack of funds available with alumni association I assured SPANDAN will take steps to raise some amount of this funds.

After my speech some of the two three alumni members approached me and shown willingness to work for SPANDAN I think that is something I achieved on that evening.
I request all the other alumnus of the COEP who I can’t reach on that day that if they feel they can do anything for the SPANDAN they should come ahead and join hands with the SPANDAN’s mission.
I am looking forward for your feedback and help.

Rejuvenating SPANDAN

Hello friends

SPANDAN recently completed three years of it's functioning. Though 3 years looks a long time but for an organization its growth is decided not on the basis of number of years of its functioning but the work it had executed and change it made. On this scale I feel SPANDAN is still in its childhood.

As last 9 months I was not able to contribute much towards the development of SPANDAN so I thought I will give my best to it in coming 2 months. In this two months I am planning to metamorphose SPANDAN and to rejuvenate it completely.

Present Situation and Problems

Number of members =35-40
Though the number looks good many of them are not self driven and they need to guide to participate in SPANDAN’s activities.

Major Problems

1. There is no proper organization structure in place which will make sure the work will go on smoothly.
2. The activities lack planning. The work is getting executed in ad hock manner.
3. There is no work that can be visible and tangible so for the entry level member it is difficult to decide what he can do.
4. As most of the members are students and always busy with their studies their bandwidth available is less.
5. At present the members are only from COEP hence activities depends on their schedule.
6. The group is not yet registered which creates limitation in fund generation and in execution of some activities also.
7. There is no corpus collected for the activities at presents funds are generated from the some working members.
8. There no tie up with the other NGOs or social groups apart from Akansha.
9. No centralized communication tool which make the group activities visible both internally and externally.
10. Many ideas and initiatives not get completed due to lack of the tracking and reporting.


Action Plan

After studying the above listed problems here I am ready with the action plan

1. Work on to decide the organization structure and registration procedure.
2. To identify the work so that the work is visible and tangible to the members.
3. To increase the member base and involve members apart from COEP students.
4. Tie up with the various organizations working in the areas of interest of SPANDAN and request them to contact SPANDAN for any assistance in their activities.
5. Fund generation fix target 1,000 00 Rs.
6. To identify the means in which fix corpus can be build and also to generate the regular funding.
7. To build a centralized communication tool (interactive website), which will help in internal, external communication and also bring transparency in SPANDAN’s functioning.

I will be working on this action plan over next 2 months and expect cooperation from all of you.
I will update you will the progress periodically.

About SPANDAN

A Bond With Society....Straight From Heart !!

SPANDAN is a group of dedicated youths, established in 2003 by the students of Government College of Engineering Pune to perform various social activities.

SPANDAN as its name suggest is the concern that originates straight from heart of every SPANDAN member towards the unprivileged section of the society to help them to come up.

SPANDAN strongly believes that if we help each other the world will be definitely a better place to live. As a member of the society we all should work for it’s betterment and this is a combined effort towards this!!


SPANDAN’s Philosophy

As a member of the society we are all indebted to it. We all have social responsibilities on our shoulder but due to our self-indulgence we tend to forget them and always blame other things for the various problems in and around us. Some people desperately want to do something for this society but they don’t know WHAT TO DO? And thus, though they have desire they can’t contribute.
SPANDAN’s aim is to generate awareness among the people about their social responsibility and make them available the STAGE through which they can serve to the society.In other words this is A BOND TOWARDS SOCIETY STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART of the people who want to contribute towards the society.

SPANDAN’S WORKING

SPANDAN is neither a group nor an organization with the hierarchy for the sake of control. We call it as STAGE as anyone who wants to contribute towards society come forward and use it as the platform. We have periodical meeting in which we discuss the status of work, plan our projects and discuss about the new ideas to improve our way of working.


Work Done by the SPANDAN

• The waste food distribution of the mess to the roadside people.
• Visits to remand home and various activities there.
• Visits to the Sasoon hospital for the counseling with the patients.
• Distribution of the fruits and sweets to the hospital patients.
• Blood donation camp in COEP.
• Tsunami relief fund collection.

Working with other NGO’s on their projects.