Hi SM,
On 09/08/2015 07:22 PM, S Moonesamy wrote:
>
> Avinash Meetoo is the Chair of the ICT Advisory Council. Ish Sookun and
> you are members of that Advisory Council. You are also "high officials"
> of the Linux group. What have you all been doing to convince a
> government organization to sponsor of foster the activities of your
> group? :-) According to the event page [1] 73 persons went to the
> event. There are nine persons in the photo [2]. Is that vibrant? :-)
>
Convincing the government to *sponsor* FOSS-related activities was
achieved to some extent without any help/votes from the ICT Advisory
Council. However, bureaucracy kills the efforts. I will not elaborate on
those.
> This group encounters similar problems. It is very difficult to
> convince governmental organizations or companies in Mauritius that it is
> useful to foster voluntary efforts or to provide a little money to help
> those efforts.
>
I was and I still am in favor of formalizing this group under a *legal*
umbrella. If we continue running "Mauritius Internet Users" as only a
mailing list, it will not help much in getting sponsorship. At some
point you need to adjust things a little bit to fit in the local context.
Besides, in a group you should find the right skills for the right job.
Approaching an organization to discuss sponsorship requires good
communication skills. People who can clearly explain the aims of the
group and show how those could help the organizations. Please note,
formalizing does not mean bringing in bureaucracy that kills the efforts
of those who want to help. Folks who want to help but aren't applying
the proper methods should be mentored and channeled properly.
Regards,
--
Ish Sookun
Received on Tue Sep 08 2015 - 16:05:50 PST