Hearty greetings to members of the CIC, old and new. There is a lot of stuff to share so please read on.
Over the past 6 years as a non-profit, the Cambrian Indian Community (CIC) has been bringing the community together through activities and events, big and small. From large events like Diwali and Mehendi night to mid-size and smaller events like Utsav and Discover India, CIC has been organizing events to foster Indian culture and bring members of the community together. But more importantly, beyond these events, CIC has been fostering community building by offering opportunities for members to pursue their passions- be it sports like volleyball or badminton, or micro-communities built around sharing financial ideas and career growth tips. There is something for everyone. Overall these years, CIC has been putting the building blocks to empower this vibrant and thriving community by getting people to know their neighbors and do things together.
On one hand, the micro-communities are thriving like never before. On the other hand, the volunteering that drives the events is lacking the energy the community needs to continue to flourish. We would like to hear from you on how to proceed forward in that regard. We will use each of these events to talk to the community about new ideas and how to move forward.
Starting on February 22nd with a Karaoke night, we will move to a regular programming schedule with small and medium-size events, both new and events similar to what we have had in the past, to encourage more community participation on a much smaller and intimate scale. Think of events as being similar to a meetup or informal get together - folks aligned on common interests getting together. Our annual Discover India trivia event will follow in March. We would love to see new folks in the community help organize new events. Feel free to reach out if you are interested in organizing an event and we will be more than happy to provide guidance.
Finally, one of the challenges we face is how to reach all of you and stay in touch. We will be using our blog and email as our primary means of contact. Additionally, we may periodically share details of new events on WhatsApp. If you are interested in staying in touch and have not attended our event(s) before, please consider sharing your email with us by attending/volunteering at the next event.
If you have feedback or ideas to share, please email cambrianindiancommunity@gmail.com
P.S: We will be reaching out to folks via email on participation for Karaoke Night. If you are interested and havent attended any of our earlier events, please email us.
In the past, one could choose to not volunteer at any CIC event and still get good participation opportunities for themselves and their kids. This was possible in part because we were a small community and invariably, most of the people who participated chose to also volunteer. In the past couple of years, we have seen a massive growth in the community but we have not seen a comparable jump in volunteering not much of new blood in event organization. It has become unsustainable to have the same 30 or so people jumping in for every event. We believe that many more of you want to be more involved in organizing events and in the long term, building a thriving community. So we are making some changes to how we organize our events and solicit participation.
You should volunteer, here is why!
Starting with the next CIC event, family volunteering hours in CIC events throughout the year will translate to priority in participation and tickets. We think it is only fair that families who spend hours helping us build a vibrant and connected community be offered priority for tickets and participation.
More specifically,
Helping with cleanup or decoration or registration or food management or videography or photography is volunteering.
Volunteers for an event get priority for buying tickets for their family and for participating in that event.
Volunteers for past events in the same calendar year will be next in queue.
Finally, folks who have not volunteered for any event that year will get a chance to buy tickets or sign themselves or their kids up for participation.
Participating in an event does not constitute as volunteering and will come with no privileges.
We will be building a roster of folks who are helping out every year and ensure they get the right opportunities whenever possible throughout the year. This volunteering will reset every calendar year so everyone has an opportunity to jump in and help out.
If you have questions, please let us know (cambrianindiancommunity@gmail.com) or talk to one of the Board members or officers of CIC.
Opportunities for Volunteering: 2019-20 CIC Events
Starting now, for our flagship events, we will be mapping volunteering to participation opportunities. This will initially apply to three of our largest events - Mehendi Night, Annual Day (erstwhile Diwali) and Utsav (early 2020).
We will have three of our flagship events coming in the next 7 months.
Discover India in late July.
Mehendi Night in Sept/Oct.
Annual day (the erstwhile Diwali program): Performances based event similar to Diwali Mela of 2017.
Details on all three events will be coming in the next few months. So stay tuned. Utsav will be in early 2020. We are skipping Utsav for 2019. We have also pencilled a few experimental events for this year that we will have more to share as we finalize plans.
Hope to see you all Volunteering & Participating at our events this year!
