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The Present   

History  

Vantiga  

The Constitution   

Organisation  

Mission  

Newsletter  

Committee  

Membership  


Our Mission

The Samaj was founded mainly as a social body to organise social and cultural activities of interest to the Saraswat community. However, it also recognises its obligations in respect of:

  • Helping newcomers to UK in settling down,
  • Encouraging younger generation in understanding, appreciating, maintaining and furthering our culture and heritage.
  • Encouraging up-and-coming artistes from our community
  • Responding to appeals in aid of Disasters and
  • Contributing to the local society by way of charity work.

(The Constitution describes these in detail.)

Aims of the Website

These were the main discussion points and future directions and are subject to change.

Motivation

Samaj activities are primarily social / cultural in nature and success depends on its members; their sense of belonging and willingness to participate. While annual events (Diwali etc) remain very popular, they are not enough.

For older members, the pressures of daily life make it more and more difficult to stay in touch and to devote time to Samaj activities. Of greater concern is the observation that the younger generation is slowly losing interest in Samaj activities and is drifting apart.

One key problem is that of communication, the main vehicle today being the newsletter. This is generally not felt to be of much interest to the youngsters. And even if its frequency is increased, it remains one-way communication at best and the cost/ effort goes up disproportionately.

The Samaj feels strongly the need to provide a cultural backdrop for the younger generation, especially during their crucial age of self-determination.

A website is an inexpensive and effective means of two-way communication and is highly relevant to the younger generation, who are more technology savvy and comfortable with this medium.

With all these in mind the Management Committe decided to form a Communications Sub-Committe and assign it a task of doing a feasibility study and provide a report.

After elaborate deliberations and study the Communications Sub-Committee recommended that the website be given high priority and that it be allocated the appropriate resources.

Long-term Vision for the Website

  • To become the gateway through which young Saraswats around the world connect with each other and with the community as a whole

Short-term Objectives

  • Get the younger generation of UK Saraswats more involved
  • Facilitate closer 2-way communication between UK Saraswats
  • Strengthen links between UK Saraswats and Saraswats elsewhere