Dear Professional Colleagues,
For the last time I am writing to you as “Chairman WIRC”. I was fortunate to get an opportunity to lead the entire Western Region consist of more than 2.5 lacs students, around 10,000 members, 17 offices, few hundred staff members, chapter office bearers, counselors, and 16 chapters located in 5 states of India. I enjoyed each and every moment of my tenure as Chairman. I tried to give justice to the task assigned to me as Chairman and responded to it positively. I am happy that I could contribute to best of my abilities for the development of members, students and profession.
We decided to keep the things simple and swift. The staff members of the regional office were apprised about their exact roles and responsibilities. We could impress upon them that WR includes all chapters and not confined to Mumbai only and they are expected to perform in different manner. Staff responded very well and improved their approach on service and delivery. Communication and response was given a top priority. I am sure you have observed that change, through our various communications including Focus.
Selecting topics for the professional development programmes was another challenge. It would always be difficult to have or not to have any particular topic or faculty for the programme. We succeeded in providing fresh faculties and topics to the programmes. We have tapped right opportunities at right time and as a result we did around 5-6 training workshops on XBRL. We gave totally a new look to theme and contents of Regional Conference and in 2011 Annual Regional Conference held at Pune, we did a Show Case presentation of our own members who have excelled in the fields other than traditional core areas for CS. Organization of study circles was streamlined and attention was paid towards improvement of quality of discussions at study circles. I am thankful to all of you for your wholehearted participation in the programmes and activities of WIRC. We appreciate your response and many time we landed into a situation of non availability of seats for the programme.
Students are one of the important stakeholders of ICSI and with a view to reach to students and interact with them, we introduced a unique Concept of holding Chain Regional Student Conferences all across Western Region under the theme “Change for the better, yes we can!” I am happy to inform you that we got extremely good response from the Chapters and Students and we did 13 Students conferences in entire WR during the year 2011. Around 3000 students participated and benefited through these conference. We could establish a required connect between ICSI & Students and provided a platform to them to express. Spontaneously students expressed a satisfaction about these conferences and expressed a desire to have many more such occasions in future. These conferences were offered at the lowest possible fees. We prepared a unique background material on soft skills and distributed it to each participant.
We succeeded in providing best SIP, EDP, MSOP & other training facilities to students. Before Diwali we arranged simultaneously two batches of MSOP in Mumbai and facilitated about 100 odd students to get their membership. We encouraged and supported chapters to arrange more and more training programmes for students at their respective places.
We made specific efforts to improve upon the Quality and Speed of Student Services. The registration process is decentralized with the help of Yes Bank. Few facilitation centers were opened in Mumbai. Distribution of study material from separate location was commenced. We identified the “Red Alert Days” to give top priority to Student Services. We could open more coaching centers in Mumbai for the benefit of students.
We made few attempts to do placement activities for students for training and employment. However we will continue to do more efforts in this area.
We encouraged our Research Team to develop useful publication for our profession. During the year we published Referencer on Limited Liability Partnerships, which was well appreciated by everyone including Registrar of LLP.
We maintained cordial relationships with the officials of MCA, CLB, SEBI and other government organizations. We did a grand function of Launching of CLB Mumbai website. Regional Director Mumbai, MCA Directors & officials, LLP Registrar, Member CLB, Bench Officer CLB, officials of SEBI, Registrar of Companies were invited as faculties or guests for our programmes and functions. University Chancellor, Dean, Commissioner of Police, Top corporate personalities, media persons and other local dignitaries and guests were participated in programmes organized at chapter levels at various different locations.
We tried for suitable publicity of our profession through media and press. Our members contributed through various articles and coloums in the newspapers and journals. We participated in career fairs and educational events. We did several career awareness programmes in collages and other places in the entire western region. Under the aegis of Ministry of Corporate Affairs, several investor awareness programmes were arranged in Mumbai. I got an opportunity to participate in half an hour programme on DD National about CS career. We also did various press conferences at various locations in the region.
The year was overall satisfying one and I could implement few things in the working of WIRC and could do something for all of you. I will continue to contribute to best of my abilities and I am sure my contribution will be beneficial to profession and its stakeholders. I could learn many things in this process and got the vital experience. I wish to implement those to improve upon my abilities and skills.
I will be failing in my duty if I don’t acknowledge the efforts, support and contribution made by my each council colleague in this journey. I am really thankful to each one of them for shouldering various responsibilities during the year. I express my sincere thanks to President, Vice President, Secretary & CEO, Central Council members, ICSI Directors and staff, sub-committee members, Managing Committee members of Chapters, auditors, volunteers, students & members who have supported us at all levels. I am grateful to my Partners and staff at MRM and my family members, without their continuous support and encouragement, spending one full year for WIRC would have been impossible.
I request for an excuse, if I hearted anyone’s feelings while performing my duties as Chairman in official capacity.
Before I conclude I quote few lines from my favorite Robert Frost’s poem;
“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep”
A big thank you to all of you and Goodbye.
With lot of best wishes !!
Makarand Lele
Chairman WIRC
15th January, 2012
Makarsankaranti
Above Post is subject to Disclaimer