Our Manifesto

A TWO-YEAR PROGRAMME FROM THE
PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC ALLIANCE

I offer our opponents a bargain: If they
stop telling lies about us, I
will stop telling the truth about them.

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ADLAI STEVENSON

The PDA gave you a brand new Clubhouse and has made the Club an important and respectable platform for journalists. Remember, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh specifically preferred the Press Cub of Mumbai over other bodies to launch the MHADA Housing Scheme. He realized it represents the entire profession in the city.

Now we will give you a new team for the new term that will combine the old and new. That is youth and vigour with experience and maturity. As we have always said, we don’t believe in tall promises; but we deliver what we promise.

A 12-POINT MANIFESTO FOR 2008-2010

• HI-TECH CONFERENE HALL : Complete the refurbishment of the Club that will include rebuilding/repair of the Conference Room. The old Mhada barrack has reached the end of its tether and a larger and better equipped Conference Room will add an important revenue stream to the Club. Ajit Joshi, who played a key role in the reconstruction of the main Clubhouse, will be PDA’s point person to execute this project.
• ROOF FOR FIRST FLOOR : Provide a high quality, all-weather, tensile fabric canopy for the terrace so that you can enjoy our seating-in-the-sky at all times. Also, completion of the ‘Exhibition Corner’ so that photo-journalists and other Artists have space to exhibit their creative work. Godrej has sponsored this ‘Artists Niche’ and a great design is already in the process of being implemented. PDA’s Devendra Mohan has personally taken upon himself to see this through.
• GRAND PHOTO CONTEST : Launch of a much larger Photo Contest that will give a great platform to our photo journalists for displaying their creative work. We have given you two rounds in the past. The Third Mumbai Photo Contest, delayed because of the Club’s reconstruction, will be bigger and better. Santosh Bane, G.S.Bhadeker and Fauzan Hussain will coordinate and build it to be a regular Annual Event.
• MHADA HOUSING SCHEME : Ensure that the final allotments for the MHADA Housing Scheme, cleared as a policy decision by the Chief Minister in our last term, are completed before the year is over. This is expected to benefit as many as 300 of our journalist members. Gurbir Singh, Pratap Asbe, Praful Marpakwar and Prakash Akolkar, who have been working on this, will put renewed efforts for early allotments to our applicants.
• INSTITUTE OF JOUNALISM : Start an advanced journalists training academy with experienced corporate bodies so that we help in raising professional standards and provide employment to our senior members. Senior members Pradeep Shinde and Deb Varam, who have offered to help in devising a syllabus, will be associated with the programme.
• JOURNALISM AWARDS : Begin the process of setting up a professional platform for recognizing excellence in journalism in print, television and the electronic media and to constitute awards for that purpose. Swati Deshpande and Santosh Andhale have committed themselves for this project.
• SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES : Provide a social and cultural and social platform for informal and organized journalist groups like the Network of Women in Media (NWM), Business journalists and Gujarati and Hindi networks to meet and interact.
• KNOWLEDGE PLATFORM : Create ‘Knowledge Platforms’ for lectures and training sessions by eminent business and social personalities to improve the professional skills of our members. Also organize seminars, kavi sammelans and symposia on issues that concern media and other important issues of the day. Ninad Sidaye, O.P. Tiwari and Sunil Shivdasani will coordinate these efforts.
• SPORTS FESTIVALS : Develop sports activities. After the Inter-Media Football Tournament was a runaway hit, members have been increasingly demanding that the Press Club coordinate more sports events including Inter-Media Cricket, and Pool and chess tournaments. Gordon D’Costa and Edwin Fernandes, who have performed well in the past, will continue to develop the sports programme too.
• FOOD AND TECHNOLOGY : Raise the standards and facilities in the Club. This would include improving the variety and quality of food through so that dining at the Club becomes a major attraction. Improving our level of computerization to include swipe cards, billing and payment on the net and a web magazine are all targets we will work for. Technical wizkid Rajesh Mascarenhas, who has contributed to upgrading the club’s systems will coordinate these efforts.
• ENTERATAINMENT & FESTIVALS : Celebrate events like New Year’s Eve, Navratri, Baisakhi as well as food festivals to develop camaraderie and a community spirit among our members and their families. We have been giving you great events like the STAR New Year Eve Party, the ‘Sony Mumbai Moments Party’ and the Navratri ‘Garba Raas’ and Gujarati Food Festival. These will be bigger and better in the future and will be coordinated by Devendra Mohan and Ajit Joshi.
• CARE FOR OUR MEMBERS : We will work to develop the Journalists Welfare Fund so that those in situations of emergency can turn to the Club for loans and grants. Medical services and emergency help for hospitalization and operations are a nightmare today. Santosh Andhale, who has been doing yeoman’s service in this regard will coordinate these facilities

Annual General Meeting : July 25, 2008 at 2.00 PM
Elections : July 26th, 2008 from 12 Noon to 7.00 PM

Our Achivements

We Delivered ! What We Promised !!!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR UNSTINTED SUPPORT!!

Dear Members,

As the term comes to an end and we await the start of a new one with a new Managing Committee elected by you, we take this opportunity to thank you for the unstinted cooperation rendered to the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) team.

Two years ago, you elected the PDA team with a thumping majority. Your trust was not misplaced! The two-year term, the first of its kind in the history of the Press Club, was a milestone in many ways. Two years ago, you sat and sweated under an asbestos roof. Today, you have the option to chill in a centrally airconditioned recreation area or relax in the breeze on the terrace or the garden Patio.

We did not make too many airy promises, but we made two significant commitments. And we have honoured them. We said we would create a brand new Clubhouse of international standards, and the result is there before us. We said we would see through the Mhada Journalists Housing Scheme; and in another 3 months allotments of housing units are likely to begin.

It is not just a new Clubhouse that has been created. With it has come a new culture and ambience that has earned our community a new respect. As a surprised Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said at the March 28 inaugural ceremony of the Clubhouse: “I never knew journalists could create something as grand as this!”

To elaborate on the significant milestones of the PDA’s two-year term:

• Successful completion of the Clubhouse that offers high class recreation to our members, as well as new dignity, and much-needed privacy.
• Crossing the 1,000 membership mark with high enrolment of women members and a rapidly increasing visitation by families.
• Record-breaking mobilization of funds of over Rs 1.2 crore for the Clubhouse Project that has more than covered our expenses and allowed us to prepay our bank loan. This has also meant that the reconstruction project was entirely levy-free for members!
• A spanking new Media Center with high-end LG computer workstations that have come without cost to the Club.
• Technological up gradation of the Press Club by making it the only press club in India with a regular email service and website as well as an entirely computerized billing and accounts system.
• Smarter and better skilled staff that have undergone service training for three months by qualified professionals.

The inauguration of an Inter-Media Football Tournament that has helped the spirit of camaraderie among our community.

The initiation of training programmes for journalists with the help of institutions like ICICI Bank. Also, an MoU with exchange4media for the development of a Media Training Academy in Mumbai that will offer jobs to senior journalists.

After several marathon meetings with the Chief Minister, a notification in February 2007 recognizing journalists as a category entitled for a ‘Special Housing Scheme’ under Section 13(2) of the Mhada Act; and a policy decision on May 24, 2007 to grant 300 homes to Press Club members.

And finally, after the inauguration of the Clubhouse, a commitment by Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that he would sign the ‘G.O. sometime after the budget session.’

Dear Member, the PDA has delivered results. The PDA has put the Press Club on a growth trajectory. It has made it the foremost media representative in the city.

But there is a lot of work still to be done, especially the housing project.

Trust us!

In the forthcoming elections for Office Bearers and Managing Committee members, your support will help the Club grow to further heights.

Devendra Mohan

Gurbir Singh

Rajesh Mascarenhas

Swati Deshpande

Ajit Joshi

Santosh Bane

Gordon D’Costa

Edwin Fernandes

Ninad Sidhaye
Santosh Andhale

Mumbai
July 15th, 2008

New Club House

The biggest achievement of PDA

The inauguration of club house
A dream of three decades

Elections in 2006-08

PRESS CLUB ELECTIONS 2006-08

THANK YOU FOR YOUR FAITH! WE WILL DELIVER!!

Dear member:

This is to thank you for delivering a thumping mandate to the PDA team. We thank you for reposing your faith in those who have taken the Press Club of Mumbai ahead all these years. We thank you for sparing valuable time and coming all the way on a weekend to strengthen our democratic institution.

On our part, we will work for the continued progress and growth of the Press Club, We also pledge to make it a happy place for entertainment and recreation rather than a platform for signature campaigns and disturbances it had become in the recent past.

We invite you to participate in making the Press Club a great place. Any suggestions that you may Have in this respect would be welcome.

PDA won all the five office bearers seats and six out of ten in the managing committee elections for the year 2006-08 held on July 28, 2008.

The PDA candidates who won the elections :

Devendra Mohan – Chairman
Sumant Mishra – Vice Chairman
Gurbir Singh – Secretary
Swati Deshpande – Jt Secretary
Rajesh Mascarenhas – Treasurer

Committee Members :
Santosh Bane
Gordon D’Costa
Edwin Fernandes
Ajit Joshi
Awadesh Vyas
Sunil Tambe