VOTE MUMBAI CAMPAIGN
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE CORE GROUP HELD ON SATURDAY, THE 10TH DAY OF JUNE 2006 IN THE OFFICE OF LOK SATTA MOVEMENT, MAHARASHTRA CHAPTER, BASE UNIT 4, BYCULLA SERVICE INDUSTRIES PREMISES, DADOJI KONDDEO ROAD, [SUSSEX ROAD], BYCULLA [EAST], MUMBAI – 400 027.
1. After each one introduced himself/herself, Mr. A.K. Shende briefly recapitulated, for the benefit of all, the course of events till 18.02.2006. He stated that, after the first meeting in Sept 2005, the Core Group, as an ever increasing group, met on several occasions. During the discussions and deliberations of the Core Group, the following thought-process emerged: -
[a] That the relevant laws, viz. the Metropolitan Planning Committee Act, the Metropolitan Region & Town Planning Act and the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority Act were required to be reviewed, aligned and harmonised to ensure that a cohesive, holistic and practical Development Plan for the city of Mumbai as well as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region was determined in the larger interest of the society and citizens;
[b] That the system of the Municipal Governance in the city of Mumbai was flawed to a degree that nobody could provide effective and efficient governance to the Mumbai City and, therefore, the BMC Act required amendment to bring about ‘systemic reforms’ as advocated in the ‘Concept Note’ earlier circulated based on core group discussion from time to time;
[c] That the above changes in law should be made before holding the next Municipal Elections in February/March 2007;
[d] That in light of the thinking indicated under the point [c] above, a Campaign called “Vote Mumbai” be launched jointly by all the participating and partnering NGOs and the likeminded citizens to persuade the Legislature to amend the laws in line with the changes advocated by the Core Group;
[2] Mr. Shende then informed the Core Group that all that was stated above was agreed upon and became a common agenda in the meeting held on 18.02.2006. Thereafter, the Loksatta Movement office has been working out the ‘Detailed Strategy Planning’ for the ‘Vote Mumbai Campaign’, which included the preparation of the ‘Concept Note’, strategy planning and finalising the avenues for mobilising the pubic opinion in favour of the Campaign. The Loksatta Movement desired to present the planning before the Core Group, so that the Core Group could then take charge of the Campaign and conduct it successfully with the help and assistance of various subgroups that were formed to take charge of the different segments of the Campaign. The various segments that were decided upon were broadly divided as follows: -
[1] Media Subgroup,
[2] Advocacy Subgroup,
[3] Signature Campaign Subgroup,
[4] Street-plays Subgroup,
[5] Finance & Sponsorship Subgroup,
[6] Response Capture Mechanism Subgroup,
[7] Volunteer Network Subgroup,
[8] Subgroups for specific events to be held on specific days for highlighting the impact and effect of the Campaign. [The selected dates were 26th July – the date of the Mumbai Disaster last year; 9th August – the date when “Quit India Movement” was launched; 15th August – “Independence Day” and 2nd October – “Gandhi Jayanti”, when a public Morcha or similar large-scale public activity would be conducted].
3. This was followed by the following presentations -
[a] The Organisation Chart for the Campaign – designed by Lok Satta Movement,
[b] The various Subgroups and the various tasks to be performed by the Subgroups – detailed by Lok Satta Movement,
[c] Estimated Budgets for each activities for the Campaign – detailed by Lok Satta Movement,
[c] The Media Campaign – presented by the R.K. Swamy, BBDO, the Ad. Agency,
[d] PR Campaign – presented by IMPRIMUS, the PR Agency.
During the presentation of the Media Campaign, some of those present, expressed that the Media Plan, particularly the hoardings and advertising material, appeared very subdued and did not seem likely to impel or induce a positive response from the reader or viewer. It was suggested to review the contents of the media material and see if something more forthright or action-oriented could be included in the media material.
4. After the presentations, each participant was requested to collect the “Volunteer Form” and indicate his/her willingness to participate in any one of the Subgroups or nominate others to work in the various subgroups. All were requested to indicate their willingness to work as Volunteers before 14.06.2006. This form is again sent for them who could not attend this meeting.
The Core Group participants also heard the “Theme Song” written and set to tune by Mr. Bhushan Barve. All appreciated the song and the tune and everybody endorsed the decision to make this as the Theme Song of the campaign.
5. It was decided that the Core Group would meet every fortnight on alternate Saturdays. Therefore, the next meeting of the Core Group was fixed on 24.06.2006 at 3:30 at Lok Satta Movement’s office. This being the practice to be followed, it was decided that no separate notices for meeting of the Core Group would be sent.
It was decided that the Subgroups would meet twice a week, i.e. on Wednesdays at 4.30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 3.30 p.m at Lok Satta Movement’s office . Once the Subgroups were formed, the Subgroups would meet as convened by the convener and would submit their reports to the Core Group. The conveners of the Subgroups would be the Ex-officio participants of the other Subgroups and of the Core Group.
Note: [The Powerpoint Presentation given by Loksatta, Advertising Agency and P.R. Agency are sent herewith as “Attachments” along with the “Estimate of Expenses”].
MR. A.K. SHENDE,
Vote Mumbai Campaign Coordinator
&
Lok Satta Movement – Maharashtra Chapter Coordinator
12th June 2006. |
