BMM-MAIYTRA 2012 Application Process
Interested in hosting MAIYTRA? Send a preliminary e-mail to us, and we’ll help connect you to other volunteers.
It’s time to begin the bidding and selection process for which city and team will host MAIYTRA 2012. This is your chance to show the Marathi community across North America and beyond how much your town has to offer, and to bring together hundreds of young adults for an unforgettable weekend.
MAIYTRA 2012 will be held under the co-sponsorship of Brihan Maharashtra Mandal of North America and your local Marathi Mandal. MAIYTRA is the world’s largest community of Marathi young adults (ages 18-35+). Every 2 years since 1994, a weekend-long convention has been held in a North American city, drawing attendees from all across the continent and abroad. For more on the history of MAIYTRA conventions, please visit the BMM website.
Hosting a MAIYTRA is no small commitment. It is a major undertaking that will require your consistent focus, time, and energy. However, it can be an enormously rewarding endeavor that challenges your team and expands your professional capabilities, as well as grants you lasting personal friendships and an extensive network of professional contacts. You will also be at the forefront of efforts to preserve and celebrate Marathi culture in North America and build a strong, energized, and mutually-supporting community of Marathi young adults.
Organizing and managing a MAIYTRA convention is akin to running a start-up business. It requires an effective grasp of marketing, publicity and media relations, data analysis, human capital management, finance, project management, operational planning, event planning, contracts, risk management, and strategy. As in any small business, the MAIYTRA 2012 organizing team will need to be held to the highest standards of accountability, and just as with a business, it will not always be possible for decisions to be made through consultation and consensus. It is imperative the committee responsible for MAIYTRA 2012 be composed of creative, dedicated, mature, and professional individuals who can work well together in a structured manner towards a shared mission.
To both ensure that this is so, and to best support and prepare the MAIYTRA 2012 team, a two-stage application process will be used.
Stage I: The initial stage will involve a short questionnaire and a few key decisions, as well as formation of your core team. This is primarily to demonstrate that you’ve put serious thought into the venture and are committed to pursuing it further. The questions will focus mostly on the backgrounds and interests of your team members. This is both so that the evaluators can get a feel for the abilities and experience of the organizers, and so that your team has a better sense of each other’s talents and competencies. The preliminary application will be due on or before 12:00 AM EST March 1, 2011.
Stage II: All bidding teams who successfully complete the first stage will then be required to prepare a more in-depth proposal (demonstrating key innovations, initial tentative operational plans, organizational charts and processes, and a preliminary budget). These teams will receive further support and guidance (as well as documentation and data from past years) on how to plan for a MAIYTRA convention. The detailed proposal will be due on or before 12:00 AM EST June 1, 2011.
Selection of the winning city and team will be conducted by the MAIYTRA Continuity Committee (composed of past convention organizers) in consultation with the BMM Executive Committee. Teams successfully completing Stage I will be informed by March 7, 2011. The winning city and team will be informed by June 14, 2011. The formal announcement of MAIYTRA 2012 will occur at the BMM 2011 convention in Chicago (which your team should all plan on attending to begin your marketing and fundraising efforts).
We are excited to hear your ideas to improve and grow the MAIYTRA community! Good luck assembling your team and completing this application. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Vijay Paradkar
President, MAIYTRA
president@maiytra.com
Manish Ingle
BMM-MAIYTRA Advisor
advisor@maiytra.com
Download the Stage I application (due on or before 12:00AM EST March 1, 2011).