Suggestions for the next IFAN Meet

Thank you so much for you email. I went through the report and here are my suggestions. See if any part of this is helpful -
Since the document already makes clear the overall agenda and general aims, what i have tried to do is to fill it in with specific events and more focused areas that you could look at:

1. Focus on students - through a campus liberal paper to begin with. this could be a small magazine, journal or even just a spreadsheet that is published once a month by the students of DU and circulated just to create a forum to disseminate liberal ideas. once this is done on a monthly basis we can have an annual issue - a culmination of all these 12 journals. this could be a stock taking even for us to see how far we have go in the process of publishing these ideas. then once this is an annual affair we could build around this or make this event coincide with other events like the Convention (that you are planning this year) etc. i began with a small journal spreadsheet bec it is viable - ppl will be wiling to work and commit , it doesn't need too much labour AND it really has an impact.

The content of this can be worked on some creative lines. i have looked at some campus papers but they all seem to be lacking in one thing - they do not address issues that concern the students directly. we could refocus on that. show liberal approaches to univ-students problems and solutions; draw inspiration and information from liberal movements around the world and be able to spread information. This could be one channel of access to students. If we try in DU and it works then im sure the 'movement' can also spread to other cities and universities. it will also bring like minded people on campus together

2. freedom weekends - we could have alternate weekends as 'freedom weekends' and tap students' attn - those who live on campus. a HUGE number of students live in hostels or accommodations around the univ area. if we could organise films/book readings or other events on alternate weekends then we could create space for people to come together and discuss issues. Slowly this group/groups might also want to evolve and take up events/projects on their own - but at least we can provide a forum for people to come together

3. of course the association with LYFI is tehre to tap - events for this will concretize i think once the plan of action has met and come up with the final agenda.

4. we all seem to only react to 'current events'. after a thing has happened we all tend to draw out solutions to it. but it would be interesting to see what can come out of being proactive. we could have a research team who will look into budding problems and devise methodologies of liberal responses to these problems. we can run a project of this sort and show people how IN EXPERIENCE a liberal approach will take you further than just trying to treat symptoms of problems. the project could be anything even minor - like deforestation in one small area in delhi or traffic regulation in one route anything small or big - but if we are able to show the importance of being proactive AND having a realistic liberal approach to it; we will be able to prove many points i think. this exercise will do good for everyone - those who undertake it and those who witness it.it will be interesting to hear people's responses at least.

5. the annual convention can be a forum to being all global friends of FNSt together - we could have sessions where global interns can present their experiences; it can be a meeting point of various kinds of experiences and information and see what india can learn from it. this will be a good forum for the indians to interact within themselves and also have a global experience of what will and what wont work in india. a stock taking of sorts.

this is what occurs to me right now. if any more creative thoughts come my way i will certainly email you. hope this helps...im not sure if this is the line of response you were expecting...let me know!! this is also a very informa documentation of my thoughts...hope that is alright.


best regards,

manvitha.