So another MAS conference is coming up and soon there will be a flurry of emails flying around and then everyone will make excuses that they are so beeezy doing evereeeeething for the event that homework has gone in the thrash. But this story is not about bashing anyone up, so all those who felt that coming should leave.
This is about leadership and the resulting losses that come from it. The job of a leader is to complete his responsibilities, manage the duties to his deputies and the most important one is to inculcate new leaders. In many situations that I have witnessed, the leader just does the first two and neglects the third. I feel every leader should spend time to identify who can succeed him. For ex. in a committee, the treasurer identifies a prospective candidate, the secretary does that and so on. Take the indian cricket team, in which once Md. Azharudding departed, was facing a leadership vacuum.
Now comes the part of identifying people to lead. Most natural choice - look at home. But as with everything dont be so narrowminded. Also look out for your friends that need that break. Or that person who sits quietly at the back of the MSA halaqa. Get them involved. Dont put the blame that if he wants to do it he will come forward... baloooney. Ask. Some of us had the advantage that our parents were the builders of the community and that environment was made available to you. Most dont.
I have seen atleast one MSA collapse because of an effective leader, and another build up all from the hardwork of one leader who took the third part very seriously. The first I will not mention, but the second is the current MSA national vice president.
30 comments:
i completely agree with you. thats exactly why our msa sucks so bad right now. we have no qualified leaders.
The Indian cricket team blows!
You all have so many youth participants. It is sort of strange that your msa sucks.
I wont say our MSA sucks.. i agree we are short of ppl most of the times.. but what we need is
1. open more doors for involvement and participation.
1. Organization..Organization..Organization..
1. Planning...
1. Delegating responsibilities.. and creating hierarchies.. everybody cant do everything..
all are labelled # 1 on purpose..
we had msa conf kick-off meeting... u know what I was sucessful in avoiding all committees..bcos I have a question.. MAS is muslim American society..and I am not a american.. I mean I can work as volunteer (which i have been doing all this while).. but can I be on committee? legally...
T2, your comments are well taken. how about clarifying what you mean by ur first number 1?
I avoided all committees by not attending. Excellent role model, aint I!!!! Shaabaash T1.
If you are ready to commit to it then you can be on the committee - jaat waat ka sawaal naahi hai yahan par.
Also MAS may reach the same problem that I mention on the post if we do not pursue to inculcate leadership into the youth of today.
People have to be identified regularly and mentors provided.
At some point we have to break the small coterie that we create and pass on our tribal knowledge for the benefit of others.
"open door..."
University clubs are of two types.. graduate student clubs and undergraduate student clubs (with few exceptions).....
muslim student clubs (majority muslims) like Pakistani Student Association.. Bangladesh SA... Iranian Student Association..Malaysian students.. etc.. etc... I rarely see anybody from these coming to MSA events...
3 years ago there was a serious proposal to start a "Graduate Muslim Student Association" in ASU...and I was invited to attend their founding meeting at pheonica cafe... I was the first one who said this is bekar idea (bad idea) and gave a compelling reason why we should not hve it and y im not intersted...
But this idea have been floating in ASU for few years.. if some ppl remember there was one bro. Mujtaba Kambati?...
i dont know what you are implying in your last comment? Did u do something good by nipping an idea?
i know bro mujtaba. i think its a bad idea to start their own msa if they just want to seperate and do their own thing. but they also have thier own needs and if they were willing to work together and do stuff together then i may not have been a bad idea. but from my experiecne here at asu, once hassan and jaber left there hasn't been as much involvement with international students and the older brothers which are mostly grad students.
to be cont i'm late for work
T1: can I be part of MAS committee.. Remember I asked same question to bro. Ammar and bro Hadi.. and they were not able to give an answer?
T1 : Muslim grad students I know, are mostly international students and they are really apprehensive to attend MSA events or be part of MSA... plus there are other organization that have lot of muslim students leading them.. they dont attend MSA events..
We need to be united, not break out and create more groups... InshaAllah, we will be united Ummah one day..
i forgot about this...didn't have a chance to finish at work....imagine that i was actually busy!
anyway so as to what t2 was saying about what our msa needs. thats all true, but that can't happen without a competent qualified leader. no offence to the current prez may Allah reward him. in my opinion no on the board right now is qualified to be the president myself included. i had the chance this year to become VP after AH left but i declined becuase i know i'm not capable of being a good leader. i can plan events and get stuff done but when it comes down to it thats all we do. plan events. no one has the vision needed to carry the msa to the next level. few ppl even understand that vision. last year HN understood the vision but couldn't carry it out. i don't think our msa has been very successful since NE was prez and HAR was pretty good too.
and the way its going right now if none of us are qualified then how is it possible to teach the younger crew? i have confidence in HS but she needs more expereince.
oh damn i just turned in to t2 and wrote a book....sorry :)
T2 you can be a part of MAS committee. anyone can. u don't have to be "american". but by virtue of being in America u are american.
As I see it, the people who run MSA are running MAS- and somewhere over there MAS is getting the upperhand. No problem, use that to increase the MSA membership.
T2 mentions that Muslims are leading other orgs. Invite them to speak on MSA Halaqa. Can be a debate too. Attend their event too.
Use Islam Awareness Week to call other muslim country orgs.
And if HS has such potential get her on the team to give her the experience.
I apologize before hand; its posssible that the msa does all what I am saying and i may be pure crap.
i don't know any other organizations that are run by muslims except for the former PSA. and everyone that isn't in msa thinks were radical because we don't have girls and guys going smoking sheesha together.
Its so strange -that as students they are complaining that you are radical. Whereas i know of groups (in Tempe) who think that there is free mixing within the MSA. Its amazing to hear that whenever you are in neither of them.
Thats what I heard when during my first semester.. that MSA is 'dating club' from a guy whom I trust... it was only after I met Omar Mahmood that I found out it was not....
MSA leadership issue??
RN: How many times did MSA win best student club award from ASASU (or ISO...)? this not rhetorical question, I am asking becos I dont know...
i'm not sure. they've won a few awards but i'm not sure what they were.
we get critisized for being too liberal and also for being too conservative.
half the ppl that are doing the critisizing have never been to an msa event.
both of those groups need to expereince other msa's. some of them have a wall between the bro/sis if sis are even allowed in msa and then other msa have bro/sis sitting right next to each other. i think our msa is pretty moderate alhumdulilah.
I totally agree - both of those sides have not come to ASU MSA but may have been to some other msa that was not to their liking
that still keeps the idea of leaders in the dark.....
T1 : y dont u join asu.....leadership problem solved... u look like phd type... u got number plate that says phd... so inshaallah join asu for phd....
I would have to say the current MSA doesnt "Suck" its just that there is a lot of work that needs to be done...and more people need to run it..rather than giving majority of the work to one person. Insha'allah once I am on the board, I hope to fix that :)
the success of an organization is not measured by how many succesful events they put on. it much more than that.
For HS to be successful she needs a good team and mostly a right-hand-person.
of course you need a good team...no one can do anything alone. but a good team also needs a good leader.
If I am here in ASU for next year..
InshaAllah I will run for president of MSA....
any supporters ???
I would be like oldest MSA president in MSA-ASU history, if elected...
nazeef was older.
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