Tamilnadu Archeological Society, Chennai is conducting a two days conference in Vellore on 19th and 20th of July. Lot of researchers are going to participate and many research papers are going to be submitted. Every year they are conducting in various places of tamilnadu and this year it is in Vellore fort. Approximately 125 people are going to attend.
Mr. Rajavelu of ASI is organising the function this year and contacted me last week. He asked for some contribution or compliments for the conference on behalf of our PS eGroup and i said that i would get back to him after discussing with the group members.
Myself and poonguzhali have discussed about this and we propose the idea of giving scribbling pad and ball point pen to the viewers. And thought of preparing a rubber seal with our group name and url and can stamp in the scribbling pad.
Sounds nice. Rubber stamp is OK - but if possible just print it on the cover page of the scribbling pad itslef. If you go to a normal typeset printer (not offset!) - who do notices etc - they will do it for a very nominal charge. And if the cost is not much, just print the url in the bottom of all pages in the pad. I welcome this suggestion and willing to contribute. Pl inform Mr.Rajavelu about this, so that no two parties end up distributing the same stuff (pen and pad). Also, ask him whether we can upload the research papers presented in the seminar - on to the web. If possible, PS group members can collectively attend the seminar and share the stuff with rest of the group. If you are organising something - let me know. I'll add my father to the list.
I AM VERY HAPPY TO SEE THAT OUR GROUP IS SEEING A VERY GRADUAL AND DEFINITE GROWTH. STAMP PAD IS A CERTAIN SIGN OF IT. KNOWING PEOPLE FROM ASI WILL HELP US AND OUR ACTIVITIES A LOT DOWN THE LINE.
THE DAY IS NOT FAR OFF, WHEN SOME OF US WILL ALSO PRESENT PAPERS IN SUCH SEMINARS !!!!!!
Great work, Ilavarasar ADHITHA KARIKALAR, POONGUZHALI AND OTHERS !! Keep it up !
A good ideal. i am willig to contribute pls. let me know the approximate no. of pens u may need i a may be able to do something about it(i work for a writing instrument company).
But I have only one reservation...We are a bunch of volunteers doing our hearts desire thats to bring the tamil works and tamil glory to the public perveiw.
I am sure flyers and printouts detailing about us will be enough....Pens and scrible pads will only serve that purpose...Itsa a monetory waste...
being a person going to confeences and meetings regularly I can assure you no one takes notice of whats printed on the pads...other than details of free dinners
A banner or a filler slide which can go after each presentation is a worthy try....
Sorry i may be a devils advocate in this....There are people out there who can afford to spend money on these things I dont deny we can also but we can use that for Uzhavarathirupani or Vivasayikal Nidhi than Pens and Scribblers for delegates.....
I think we should call ourselves Ponniyin selvan e Group in what ever form we are going to be represented.....
Sri, I cannot deny that there is lot of truth in your statment.
I think we are doing it for ASI, not really for the participants. It is quite unfortunate that ASI may not have that many partnerships or people who care for them - that's why Mr.Rajavelu has taken specific care to call Kamal and ask for some contribution.
Working with ASI, we can get access to lot of resources(books and research periodicals) and people. I think they have good many no of scholars unrecognised and unnoticed. If we can bring such people into the group, it will help us greatly - down the line.
Flyers and banners is also OK with me.
But let us consider pen and pad and ask for the cost of the same. If it is not much of a cost, I still think we should go ahead with this.
What do you think ?
Others - pl react to our arguements and let us collectively take a decision.
I'm a bit lost about the whole pen/notepad compliments too. I am not sure what the purpose is - is it to promote our group? If so, like Sridhar said, the pen and pad will probably not get much notice.
If that's the purpose, I have another suggestion - how about making copies of the mudhal yaathirai vcd and selling at a nominal cost?
I'm just doing the easy thing here - throwing out the idea :-) - the logistics of doing it will probably fall on the locals aka chennaivaasigal.
If the purpose is not to promote our group, what is it then? Get some good contacts and develop a relationship with the ASI members? Even so, I really don't see the usefulness of complimentary pen/pads. Just my 2 cents' worth....had to say it since G asked for other opinions. :-)
I spoke to Mr. Rajavelu and came to know that already another party has committed to contribute pen/notepad set. So, it's ruled out. Instead, he suggested that we can give the cash itself whatever the pen/notepad set costs as per our budget. That will be used for food expenses.
Another alternate idea is, Mr. Sundar Bharadwaj is contributing a partial amount for preparing complimentary hand bags. We can add our money also to that amount and ask them to print our group url on the bag. What do you say?
And i will check with Mr. Rajavelu about the banners / flyers also.
This is not just to promote our group. If we show our presence and acheivements, we will get noticed by the scholars who can provide support and guidance for our future activities.
This conference is not conducted by ASI. There is a private organization called 'Tamilnadu Archeological Society' run by the employees of ASI and other historians. They only conducted the Iravatham Mahadevan's Nool veliyeettu vizha two months back. It was started 10 years ago and Dr. Kalaikkovan was heading the group then. Now, Dr. Se. Irasu ( Retd. HOD of Inscriptions dept, Tamil university Tanjore ) is the vice-president. It is more or less similar to our group when it was started. We can also become members of this society by paying some nominal subscription amount. I will provide the details of joining fees next week.
Please let me know your opinion on complimentary hand bags.
hello kamal, if we are looking for spreading the name across people, then probably sharing food expenses or cash donations may not get noticed across most people at all, except for the core group. In that case something with our name in it might bring notice amongst some people. if we think that it should go to a noble cause, then we can make some donations after a consensus arrives from active members..
There seems to be a divided opinion with this whole stuff - within conference - what to do, is the question.
May be you have to come out with some figures (amount which we may have to contribute together) and then we can see what is the opinion in the group.
I personally prefer working with Mr.SB as he has been doing much to our group and introducing us to many people.
We all fully support your views that we need to get in touch with scholars for all our future activities. It is very interesting to note that this is a private group - Tamilnadu arch. society. Yes, pl do provide the membership info and what are all their activites etc. If they have an URL, let me know. Many of us would like to join the society.
Apart from distributing handbags, I actually prefer distributing a printed notice or something like that - detailing our activites and achievements. Otherwise people may not know what we are doing. THERE IS AN OPINION IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD THAT WE ARE SIMPLY DISCUSSING KALKI WRITINGS. NOT MANY KNOW THAT WE HAVE GROWN SINCE THEN. (Refer thisaigal article)
Alternatively, we can actually present a small speech on the power of Internet groups and how we all came together to do some productive stuff.
The idea of printed notices sounds good. Mr. SB also suggested the same. So, instead of printing our url on the bag, we can put 2 pages write-up about our group activities inside each bag. Mr. Rajavelu also agreed to do that. Now, we have to prepare a 2 pages write-up. Well. One issue is finalised.
Then, coming to the contribution amount, anything more than Rs 3000 will be good. So, we can collect Rs 500 from each person who are willing to contribute. Is that OK?
Regarding the membership, it is only Rs 600 for lifetime membership. Every year we will get their yearly magazine 'Aavanam' which costs Rs 200 for non-members. Our researches will also be published in that magazine. We can involve ourselves in the field works which will be intimated well in advance. They are not having website for the society. We can help them to bring Aavanam online.
One more good news. Mr. Rajavelu has agreed to provide 2 slots for our group to read/submit the research papers if any.
Printed notices : I have a good writeup already - extracted from our Introductory note. I wrote it for a local singapore magazine - but could not get it published. Modify the same and use it. I'll upload it in files sec. My vanoli speeach may also be useful to some extent.
Contributions :
Let us fix up a total amount and get it divided among the interested members. I HEREBY REQUEST EVEN THOSE WHO ARE NOT SO ENTHUSIASTIC ABOUT THIS ASI ACTIVITY - TO CONTRIBUTE. THIS WILL BOOST UP THE OVERALL TEAM SPIRIT.
Let us fix it at Rs.4000 and let us see how many people come forward. If the no of contributors are high(!), then we will increase the amount. I INVITE OTHER OPINIONS FOR MY PROPOSAL.
Reading research papers : We need to think about this. May be we have to see some old avanam issues to get a feel of what the topics are like... can you pl speak to Mr.Rajavelu and Mr.SB reg. this?
KAMAL - YOUR WORK IN THIS DIRECTION DESERVES SPECIAL MENTION. OVERALL YOU HAVE BEEN DOING GREAT WORK. KEEP IT UP.
Good Work Kamal, I would like to join the group Aavanam. Can u exactly tell me where the Office is located and if we need to send the DD to which address we need to send it.
Regarding the Conference i would agree that we should tell then how information technology plays a major role with us ( Virtual meeting). and how we are going to achive things in near offings using Information technology as a tool.
PS: Though i have not participated actively in the group, I would like to participate in the near future
> Then, coming to the contribution amount, anything more > than Rs 3000 will be good. So, we can collect Rs 500 > from each person who are willing to contribute. Is > that OK?
It is fine to contribute more than 3000. I think it is better not to fix the per person amt as 500. Let it be of the contributors' wish. Big amount from small crowd and small amount from big crowd will be one and the same. Sometime the later will have more response. What do u think ?