Volunteering Workshop-Delhi

Contributed By: Parvez Abbas, CFA

The Delhi Chapter of CFA Society India organized the Volunteer Orientation Workshop at IBIS hotel, Delhi on 9^th June 2019. The event kick-started with a welcome note from Ms. Shivani Chopra, CFA -an active volunteer from Delhi- who shared her volunteering experience. She informed the audience about the numerous events conducted by the Delhi Chapter in the last two years. Mr. Gaurang Trivedi, CEO of CFA Society India took the first session. He talked about the role of volunteers in CFA Society. CFA Society thrives on the contribution and untiring energy of its volunteers globally. They are at the helm of all activities and events. He broadly talked about four pillars of volunteering:

• Know Yourself – What you are good at and what do you want to improve in yourself?
• Passion – zeal to work selflessly
• Time commitment – volunteers need to devote time
• Building Network

Ms. Arati Porwal, Director, Society Relations, India enlightened the audience about how one can become a volunteer. She explained how one can take benefits of affiliate membership without being a regular member. She narrated anecdotes and experiences of various volunteers. She emphasized on the importance of keeping volunteer profile updated on the CFA Institute website. It was followed by address from Ms. Mansi Panchal, Consultant, who explained the structure of the CFA Society and its various committees. Currently, there are 152 CFA Societies across the globe and volunteers play a key role in their functioning. She advised how one can be a part of the five committees based on ones area of interest.

The last session of the day was taken by Mr. Jitendra Chawla, CFA and Director of CFA Society India who has been an active volunteer from Delhi for many years. He recounted his volunteer journey and apprised the audience of his learning in all these years. He further explained how volunteering helped him in honing his organizational skills, team management skills and in making lots of friends. He said that unlike the demanding jobs where performance is evaluated on a number of parameters, a volunteer is not judged on his work. Rather volunteering gives an opportunity to contribute to the CFA Society and provides benefits like recognition, sense of achievement, developing leadership, communication and other skills and building connections.

Many people attended the event beating the blistering Delhi heat. They asked a lot of questions which were patiently answered by all the speakers. Thereafter, many signed up for the volunteering opportunities and would be assigned mentors to guide them.

-PA