AICUF 5TH National Team Meeting 2011
13th – 14th February 2011
Ananda Jyothi, Nagarjuna Nagar, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.

Report

National Team members from the states of Dumka, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and NDC Convener was present for the meeting. Fr. Kishore Andhra Pradesh State Adviser welcomed us and encouraged us for a fruitful discussion. We started with a short prayer and then Niraj Lakra National Full-timer read out the report of the previous NT meeting. He also gave the Dynamics of the meeting and chalked out the agenda to be discussed. Prof. Sundar National Animator guided us to share social, political, cultural and educational condition of our respective states. Majority of the state sharing consisted of the dirty political game, corruption, scandals, scams during elections and women and dalit atrocity. The NTs also shared their AICUF activities in their respective states. Prof. Sundar summarized the state sharing and stated that we are going through a stage of activism in judiciary, religion, communal level.
Prof. Sundar enlightened us more about summer camps and told us about the purpose in conducting summer camps. He also gave a brief history of the previous year’s summer camps. The NTs then did a study of the previous year’s summer camp. As it was decided in the last meeting that this year’s general program will be a work camp, we discussed in detail the nature of the work to be done in the camp. We concluded that the work camp would give us a practical social analysis which we will experience through the work done in the villages. After a round of questioning, cross-questioning and clarification, we finally arrived at the theme of the work camp: “Unlearn with the millions to relearn.”

The next day we gathered early morning and discussed about the themes for the  Rally magazine. After a long discussion and airing our views about the present social and political condition we came up with the following themes for the issues of the Rally:
March :            Civil Society Activism
April :               Civilized  Fools!
May :                Careerism
Then we discussed about the theme of the commission camps. Nicholas (NDC Convener) explained to us the situation in which the Dalits lived everyday and what were the problems faced by them. After a lot of debate and argument we came to a conclusion that the major problems of Dalits are their non- acceptance in the society and the non-acceptance of their own identity. We concluded that the Dalit students should break their silence and tolerance. Thus we came down specifically with the following theme:
Silence is a Shame!
Tolerance is not a virtue….
Thinking about the theme with respect to the other commissions, we realized that this theme is appropriate to all the other commissions. Thus, it was decided to have a common theme for all the commission camps in order to bring solidarity among all the commissions.
Our proposals will be initiated with the State Advisers to finalize the Date and venue of our summer camps. Official information will be announced through “the Rally”. 
We then discussed about the upcoming National Council. It was decided that the main focus of the next council will be the draft version of State Policy Document (SPD) of each state. The team also discussed the prospects of growth in North East states like Meghalaya and Nagaland. Fr. Selvin the National Adviser also threw  light on our relationship with other youth movement and how AICUF was different from all as a “student” movement.

We finally decided the dates and venue for the National Council and the next NT Meeting. They are:
Programme                                                          Dates                                                     Venue
6th National Team Meeting                                   20th – 24th April 2011                           AICUF House, Chennai.
23rd National Council                                          15th – 17th July 2011                            AICUF House, Chennai.

 

The meeting ended by a meaningful mass offered by Fr. Kishore the State Adviser of A.P and Fr. Selvin. We thank Fr. Kishore for his love , care and hospitality during our state at the Ananda Jyothi Renewal centre, Nambur, Vijayawada. The Next N.T Meeting will be held at AICUF National Secretariate during the Holy week. We shall meet again to celebrate Easter together!