[billybolimeeaaaw]

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

3) Are we looking at some particular set of activities (for eg. leveraging on PG's USP of MBA Counselling) or are we looking at activities beyong this

4) How can this chapter help in attracting new members and retaining old members

5) When PG is right now looked upon just as a stepping stone to a B-School, how will this chapter aid in changing that image or do we actually want to change that image

The positive outcome of the discussion is that today am sitting with a database of 64 PGites from BLR, more names will be added as and when they come. So the kickoff has happened albeit its a short pass..but nevertheless the ball has rolled and yeah in the positive direction...

ciao..

It's not the possesion, it's what you do with it is what matters...
Few things to attract new members:
1. Accesibility of information. Many people are registered on the site as the "word of mouth" has been quite powerful and worked well for PG. Most people are not successfully able to search for the information they are looking for...
2. A small group of people can be assigned to a particular thread as suggested by curtz. So whenever there is a query regarding the topic, an alert is sent to the thread "owners".
3. PG should move over the image of "a means" and go on to become a community with more visibility. It can all start from a cricket match for example...
Regds.
Billy...

[ashishyahoo]

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

The initial enthusiasm of the BLR puys looks quite encouraging with regards to the chapter thing. Few points raised during the the short discussion we had were

<snip>

Thanks all for coming forward and supporting this cause

ciao..

Before the first actuall Blore Chapter meet - here is my main suggestion...

-> MBA Counselling as one of da points Curtz has put forward is a MAJOR area where we can make our mark... its a sureshot guarantee that we all know muchh more fundae and stuff than the coachin classes - and by offering it free of cost - we can be doin a WHOLE LOT of help to the MBA aspirants... (hope this doesnt include me itself... )...

Mitu has already come up with a plan tat we can use up his house basement or so to kick off.. - thanx pal... - i guess we can just pour in ideas in this way... we already have a big database of people jotted down - and we can get even more as there are people every year out to battle billy - oops - CAT... ...

Mitu - inviting ur suggestions for the NGO/Social activities...

To all PGites from the other cities... :2gunfire::2gunfire::2gunfire::2gunfire:- BANGALORE races you guys to the LOCAL chapter !!!!!

BRING IT ON PG !!!!

Ashish

[Psychodementia]

Someone from PG HQ is probably supposed to answer this. But I have known them for long enough to know what could be the probable answers. Here is my stab at it:

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

1) What kind of support is expected from the PG HQ

To being with - nothing! apart from moral encouragement and chipping in with ideas

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

2) What kind of authority will the local chapter have in terms of taking decisions locally

I would say "carte blanche" in terms of planning & execution but all activities as such would require prior approval.

Realize that "pagalguy" is a brandname and even the most innocous of moves might have repurcusions since now he local chapters are the brand ambassadors. To give a small example "Is it okay to stick posters on the city walls informing them of some activitiy?" On the face of it this looks great. We have enthu junta designing the poster and even more enthu junta plastering them. But most munical bodies slap hefty fees (upwards of 1lakh depending on defacement) on the parent body. Get the idea? So be careful.

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

3) Are we looking at some particular set of activities (for eg. leveraging on PG's USP of MBA Counselling) or are we looking at activities beyong this

We are not even looking at marketing PG. That is *not* the objective. The objective is to get a bunch of insane junta to get together and figure out some fun activities. If something good comes out then fine. Else, no worries.

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

4) How can this chapter help in attracting new members are retaining old members

The purpose of this group is not to attract new members. We are not the "marketing" arm of PG. We are just going to come together for some fun/camaraderie/info etc. and in the process make PG famous.

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

5) When PG is right now looked upon just as a stepping stone to a B-School, how will this chapter aid in changing that image or do we actually want to change that image

As I said - we don't even want to mess with the PG long term vision and stuff. I mean how many of us care about PG's image? As long as it means something to us. So Im sure if we spread the good word around - we will be spreading the right image. Each one will have his own story to say and im sure the noobs can learn different things from different people.

Originally Posted by curtz-imi

The positive outcome of the discussion is that today am sitting with a database of 64 PGites from BLR, more names will be added as and when they come. So the kickoff has happened albeit its a short pass..but nevertheless the ball has rolled and yeah in the positive direction...

Thanks all for coming forward and supporting this cause

ciao..

And that - my friend is the best thing to happen !!

Having names and contact details of 64 pg-iites. Wow !! The next PG meet looks all the more simpler (and nearer :wink

Thanks everyone !! I cannot wait to get back in May to jump into the action.

Arun

[mituag]

Ok... we have got a nice start... but what we now need to see is try and start on the actual activities...

few activities which we can start on are,

1) From the community service perspective what we can do is organise a few events for the local NGOs say like Dream-a-Dream where the members of the PG local chapter would be doing the complete planning of the event... what event? say a sports day where in around 250 kids from 7 diff NGOs take part, or say a Movie screening for kids, or say just a funday for kinds in fun world or any other place...
Now when we do this one thing which we need to keep in mind is Dream-a-Dream constantly works towards enhancing life-skills of a child so our activities, whatever we have in mind, should see to it that there is some learning curve ... ofcourse funday would be just for fun And this would not be like you need to devote 2 hrs a week for the activity... we can do one such event every 3 months , so thats 4 events a year by PG local chapter.... we can discuss about this in detail during the local chapter meet...

2) giving some presentations to newbies/cat aspirants on few subjects.... finding a place to do that is not a problem... we can use my house for that

more things to do will come up very soon and then we can take it forward from there...

we can start on the SMS grp and other activity related to the communication part... may be also form a yahoo group and also have the blog which rohit was talking about...

[atulonweb]

i have requested Apurv to create a sms group for bangalore puys and yes..

having a dedicated yahoo or google group of bangalore will be also good to communicate between us..

[anarchy]

Originally Posted by mituag

<snip>

hey dude...
I have a doubt.. How would the activity number one be a representative of what PG is???
Second activity I have no qualms with and I think it would be a fundoo idea...
moreover, the people in IMS GD PI (the few classes I attended) are in obvious awe of the seniors over here..
It might be good to cash in on that so as to spread the name of the brand which is PG....
And with ppl like Mitu n curtz, the awe factor can only be added upon!!!

[mituag]

The first activity will help the PG members be involved in community related work on a regular basis... it could also be means of advertising PG and its contribution towards the social cause... and as we move forward we can talk to corporates to sponsor such events...

I am stressing on the CS related work cause there are many people who would want to do something but are not able to devote 2 hrs a week to any NGO... so this kind of a thing would help....

Originally Posted by anarchy

hey dude...
I have a doubt.. How would the activity number one be a representative of what PG is???

[Apurv]

Originally Posted by Psychodementia

To being with - nothing! apart from moral encouragement and chipping in with ideas

That is not ENTIRELY true .

1. PGHQ shall provide you with specific tools to network easily and seamlessly. Your own SMS group, wiki, blog which would soon even be accessible through GPRS enabled mobiles. But hey, our job always has been enabling interaction .

2. Getting new users to your City Group. As new users join PG, how do they know about your City Group? We'll make sure they do through banners, advertising, contests, etc. Coordinators of each city would work closely with the marketing team at PG to get their messages on the website. Any day, PGHQ will put an activity by users on much higher priority than an ad-banner of some arbit advertiser.

3. Sponsorship wherever possible. Now the onus to make this possible lies on the Bangalore Group and garner numbers. Whenever there are large numbers, companies like to be associated. We'll ensure that happens and your coffee and pizza are on the house.

4. Recognition - Good work needs to be recognized in public. Puys who contribute well would receive recognition in many ways on pagalguy.com and any other place we can think of.

Any other suggestions?

One more point to ponder upon - We have already attempted a city-wise activity before with the Community Service. Bangalore has one too - http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/touchi...y-service.html (Bangalore Community Service)

Can we learn anything from the fizzling out of activity in Community Service? My guess is that the hardest workers in our city chapters should have received more recognition about their work. That would have led more puys to keep the activity sustained.

PS - And yeah, City Chapters are not meant to do marketing for pagalguy.com . That's our dirty job to do while you guys have the fun

[curtz-imi]

Tx Apurv for that update

A local sms group would really be nice..would request someone from the chapter (maybe atul as he has shown the prelim interest) to co-ord with HQ for getting the group on board . anyone else especially if someone has proper contacts with the service providers wanting to help can also chip in

Once we get a sizeable number on board and we are able to ensure their participation in the chapter meets, maybe with the help of HQ get some corpo tie-ups done (corporates targetted should be: food chains/banks/insurance/coaching centres/newspapers-mags/top dealers of say HP/IBM et/ retail stores for giving discounts on purchase/ et et

why did the CS fizzle out, simple for CS like activity you need a passion for the work, just mere asscociation for the sake never works, it takes a lot of your regular time and you need to dedicatedly work for a cause maybe spare a few dedicated hours every week on aregular basis. does PG target a crowd which would want to do it...my answer is NO...its sad but yeah most of us would rather do something which will be an one off activity ..maybe 1 event a month kindoff, very few have the zeal to do it week in week out...therefore in everycity a few puys work..when they leave the city the CS initiative dies down, so CS should be an activity set looked upon, but CS should be taken separately and as Mitesh has already posted a big event every quarter is something that we can look forward to. Benifits of it:

- The whole team works for the same cause, you have time to plan the event out/coord for it, everyone chips in..pressure is less..you enjoy doing i

- Its not a week in week out activity therefore you dont have to spare a fixed time every week, everyone works to his/her strength and in the end as a team we succeed

- What puys gain, a recognition for having worked for an NGO, beleive me most of the ppl do it just to write in their CV's, they gain in learnings the tricks of event management, again somehing to boast in your interviews, for organizing the event partner and network with different sets of ppl...thus increasing your circle of influence, learn somethings froom the expertise of other ppl in the chapter

more views later

ciao..

[Apurv]

Here is the Pagal Bangalore Chapter Mobile SMS Group

sms START PAGALBANG to 9845398453

... and you'll get a confirmation message!

How do I post to the SMS group?

sms PAGALBANG (message) to 9845398453

... and it shall reach everyone who has joined the group! You send only one SMS which reaches everyone

To leave the group and stop getting SMSes

sms STOP PAGALBANG to 9845398453

You can use this to plan Chapter activities, community service, meets, study groups, etc. Please PM me in case of any problems