- February 5, 2017
- Posted by:
- Category:BLOG, Events, Volunteer
Contributed by: Vibhor Nayar, CFA, Member, IAIP
The Delhi chapter of CFA Society India organized its second Volunteer Orientation Workshop at Ibis Hotel in New Delhi on 21st January, 2017. Arati Porwal, Director – Society Relations (CFA Institute India); Manisha Sharma, External Consultant – CFA Society India; and Biharilal Deora, FCA, CFA, CIPM – Member on the Board of Governors and Active Volunteer joined us from Mumbai. From Delhi, we had Jitendra Chawla, CFA, and Deepak Mundra, CFA – both active volunteers of CFA Society India.
Jitendra started the workshop by welcoming all the potential volunteers from Delhi. He then introduced Arati, Manisha, and Biharilal Deora to the participants present at the workshop.
Arati took the first session by introducing CFA Society India to the potential volunteers of the Delhi region. CFA Society India is an association of local investment professionals. It was established in 2005 and is currently present in 8 locations via regional chapters across India. She also spoke on why volunteering is beneficial to charterholders. Arati mentioned that every year there are about 19,000 candidates who appear for the CFA Exam and about 300 people become CFA Institute members. Arati then spoke about how people can take part in various volunteering initiatives.
Arati concluded her session with the following quote:
“Commitment means staying loyal to what you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you”
Thereafter, Manisha spoke about the various committees through which volunteers can participate and contribute to the society. She highlighted the key requirements for and benefits of volunteering:
Requirements
- Time Commitment
- Passion
- Dedication
- Involvement
- Participation
Benefits
- Networking and collaboration
- Build leadership, communication and other professional skills
- Enhance knowledge
- Build connections in local markets
- Contribute to the investment community
The next session was conducted by Biharilal Deora (BD, as he is popularly known). BD has been one of the most popular figures for CFA Society India since many years now. He has worked on all the different committees and is one of the members on the Board of Governors for CFA Institute.
BD spoke about his educational background and how at every stage of life he wanted to learn more and discover a niche in various fields. He then spoke about how he started his career and how he began his journey toward attaining the CFA designation and how it has helped him achieve success.
“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they have the heart”
BD discussed how, by virtue of his volunteering efforts at CFA Society India, he could connect with the local society members in the region and managed to interact, connect, and make friends with like-minded people from the other part of the world as well. BD shared experiences of how volunteers have been benefitted immensely from their volunteering efforts.
He continued by sharing extremely interesting insights and enriching experiences of various volunteers. He shared interesting incidents of volunteers who got a chance to interact with CFA charterholders from Pakistan through their volunteering efforts; charterholders who were travelling abroad and lost their valuables but found a companion in another CFA volunteer in a new city, and many other such interesting experiences.
The session was then led by the Delhi Volunteers Jitendra Chawla, CFA, and Deepak Mundra, CFA along with CFA Society India representatives. The senior active volunteers shared their experiences working with various committees over the years. All the speakers then responded to various questions from the potential volunteers about the Delhi chapter. The participants were intrigued by the passion of and experiences shared by the senior volunteers.
Participants then filled up the Volunteer application form and were to be assigned specific mentors based on their chosen volunteering area of interest. The session ended with a vote of thanks.
–VN