We first planned Chennai Social for the third or fourth Friday of every month. Then we listened to the feedback coming our way and moved it to Saturday. This time we took it one step further and planned a beach meetup: frisbee, play, and a chance to unlabel ourselves and get to know each other through it.
But Chennai was welcoming its monsoon, and an outdoor meetup no longer looked viable. So we hosted it online.
I was skeptical about the online setup. Those 60 minutes helped me set my judgement aside. When an intentional group of people comes together with open hearts and minds, in a space with safety and support, an online meeting can be special too.
Who we were
We began by sharing what we do for work and how we see our roles in the social sector. We had ecosystem builders, people who oversee implementation and practice, and technology enablers. Social purpose organisation leaders play many roles, and quite a few of them were in the room.
How can this group hold each other?
We then asked how best this group could support and hold one another. Many ideas came up:
- Share what our journeys involve: the books we read, the conferences that matter to us, the events we take part in or co-create, and how we view the world. This can build a deeper bond between us as leaders.
- Share what we know about the sector and guide those who are just starting out, from fundraising to networking to technology support.
- Find more ways to gather volunteers and spread the word about our work to a larger audience.
- Make this group an entity of its own, one that does deep work and lets individuals spearhead some aspects on their own.
- Strengthen the Tamil Nadu ecosystem of social purpose organisations. Funding and presence are skewed towards Chennai today, while the need for this work is spread across the state.
What we will do together
By the end of the meeting, we had already lined up our next set of activities. We are taking this gathering beyond an event and into an ongoing collaboration. I think that was the intention all along, but it emerged as a collective feeling, not a forced activity.
We agreed to:
- Volunteer at a library in Perungalathur (Prakrith Arivagam) with cataloguing and other enhancements, which can spread the word about the library and make it more effective. Its founder is one of our community members, and we heard him ask for some support. Volunteering is usually left to corporate groups or students; leaders rarely do it themselves. So another member suggested we do it ourselves.
- Offer sessions focused on Tamil Nadu social purpose organisations, as a way to build their capacity. Two of our members have stepped forward to lead these.
- Start a newsletter or zine about what is happening in the sector, a curated communication tool. This small group will spearhead it, and it will eventually open up to more leaders shaping the ecosystem.
What comes next
Chennai Social will now meet online every month, on the third or fourth Saturday. We do not want to become another entity that only city dwellers can join, or one that turns elitist. Meeting online lets us bring in an audience from across the state, and lean on leaders who are in the same boat as we are.
We will also meet in person three to four times a year, and we hope these meetups lead to an annual gathering.
We are also moving towards creating shared values for the group and building a stronger community identity.
We hope this is a first step. What started as Chennai Social is slowly becoming something larger than the parts that nurture it.
About Chennai Social
Most gatherings in Chennai bring together people from the same sector, or the same funder and donor organisations. Chennai Social is a space curated for senior leaders, founders, and CSR heads. These are the people who take critical decisions every day, whose decisions affect many others, and who still struggle to find the quiet and space they need to recentre with their vision and values. Those who run organisations are mostly overwhelmed with firefighting. Chennai Social is the pause. It lets them shed their labels and be their whole selves, with no expectation, no judgement, and no pressure to perform. And especially no pitching for a piece of the pie. It is not a place to compete; it is a place to collaborate, and to come together as something more than any one person or organisation.
Watch this space for our next meetup. It will be online, so let distance not keep you from us.
*— Jayashree (Inner Companion Foundation)