No subject

program was being grilled by the world community. Out of sheer lack of
interest, we had stopped inquiring into CA affairs, we no longer watched
IEP pages though we came across some activity going on from time to time.
Because of this, the true state of affairs and scope of the setback came to
us only with the latest Signpost.

Now a lot of blame has been put on the educational system, students
attitudes etc. That is true that they are a contributory cause but the
blame must also lie with those responsible for planning. If the priorities
in training CAs were got wrong, it takes no leap of imagination to imagine
other decisions may not have been optimal either.  The Campus Ambassadors,
God bless them, are mostly blameless.

The Pune Community had a clearer idea of what was involved right in the
beginning than the India Programs office. Its decades of experience in
academicia (Harshad & Sudhanwa), FOSS (Sudhanwa), industry (Mandar),
teaching (Sudhanwa & Ashwin), marketing (Mahitgar), retired marathi expert
(J), business (Suhel), armed forces (Ashwin), Wikipedia experience (in
en:WP, mr:WP, Commons) and the general management experience and detailed
on-site knowledge etc were a very valuable human resource, and these were
made available to Hisham. He chose to sip sparingly. Perhaps, just perhaps,
if he had drunk deeply - recognised that the miniscule Pune community was a
true well-wisher, and had made us a true partner, the outcome may have been
different.

The purpose of this feedback is to educate people about the need to engage
local communities. Communities are not easily engaged. Each has its own
complexities. Their capacities to help you forward your plans may be
limited and nuanced. They cannot be taken for granted either. Often you
have to prove your worth to them. Some communities may even be of nuisance
value unless engaged. But if properly engaged, they can bring you unique
viewpoints, opportunities; they will stand by you in difficult times,
sometimes a critical breakthrough may come from them. They are an important
stakeholder, no matter what your opinion of them is and they will play a
role in your activities. It is up to you to help make them an asset or a
liability and that, in our opinion, is a vital lesson to learn in addition
to all the others.

We are really unhappy that the Pune pilot should falter and that all this
has to come out. But the lesson needs to be learned, so the story needs to
be told.

Warm regards,

Sudhanwa Jogalekar, Mandar Kulkarni, Ashwin Baindur and other members of
Pune Community







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--=20
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical'
algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of
precise information." - Donald Knuth



--=20
"[It is not] possible to distinguish between 'numerical' and 'nonnumerical'
algorithms, as if numbers were somehow different from other kinds of
precise information." - Donald Knuth