TIST
September 2004
If a tree is treated as a living organism, with an understanding of its vital functions, it will be a constant source of profit and pleasure to men. – N.T.Mirove
CHEZHUMAI©
Building Up – Don’t Miss The Blessing For Your Group!
Building Up, one of the TIST Small Group Best Practices, is a very important part of your small group weekly meeting. Each member in the group can build up the other members in the group.
Each person in your small group brings his or her own special talents, gifts and insights to the group. Sadly, human beings are far more accustomed to giving and receiving criticism rather than praise. Through the practice of Building Up, group members train their eyes to see, ears to hear, and tongues to speak the good they see in others. One of the wonderful things that happens in the small group is recognizing, sharing and using your group members’ talents through practicing Building Up.
There are two steps of Building Up:
1. At the end of each meeting every member of the group says one specific, positive statement to the servant leader about his or her leadership of that meeting. Instead of making a general statement, like “You did a great job,” it should be a specific statement about an observable behavior of the leader such as, “You came to greet me, when I arrived, and I really felt welcome ” or “I really liked how you encouraged us all to speak, but also kept the discussion moving.” or “You pointed out something that was going very well in the meeting.”
Everyone in the group gives Building Up to the servant leader. This is not optional. Each group member’s Building Up must be different than what has been said by other group members. Some groups also give Building Up to the co-leader.
2. In addition, any member of the group may identify a special gift he sees in the leader. For example: “You have a gift of encouragement. I saw it when you spoke to Shanti. I’d like to see more of that.” This is optional.In response to Building Up, that week’s servant leader just says, “Thank you” after each group member’s specific, positive statement. There is no discussion about how it could have been done better, or differently. Sometimes this is awkward at first. Be sure to stick with it. When the small group becomes accustomed to Building Up, everyone looks forward to this part of the meeting.
With Rotating Leadership, each week a new leader will receive Building Up. As the weeks go by, the whole group learns what that group thinks is important in servant leadership. The next leaders will benefit from what they have heard in Building Up the previous leaders and know what the group thinks is important in being a servant leader.
The whole group, not just the leader, benefits from the practice of Building Up. Group members have an attitude of expectancy and eagerness as they begin to look for positive traits and actions during the meeting. Building Up is a double blessing!
Best Practices
- Allow five minutes at the end of each meeting for Building Up.
- In early weeks, group members should remind each other so they can be looking for the positive.
- Begin Building Up by saying something like: "I really liked how you . . . ."
- Every group member says a different Building Up statement to the leader.
- The recipient must only say, "Thank you" and not get into any discussion about it.
- Never allow negative messages or criticism disguised as a compliment.
- Identify any gift in the servant leader that you think could be brought out more.
Cauvery and Roja Small Group of Chittoor and Nandimedu
Chittoor village has been in constant drought due to shortfall of rain for more than 10 years. People who have more than 5 acres of land are also under poverty line. Occasional little shower made the villagers go for short time crops like groundnuts, but within a month the crops dry due to lack of water. The TIST program is bringing much needed relief and hope to the grief stricken villagers of Chitoor.
Recently, few villagers of Chittoor have joined TIST Tree Planting Program. They have been united with Cauvery and Roja Small Group of Chittoor and Nandimedu. These two Small Groups have started a huge nursery with more than 70,000 seedlings of curry leaf. The seeds were bought from Salem. 35,000 seedlings are kept at Chittoor and another 35,000 at Nandimedu. All the seedlings are arranged orderly in groups of 1,000. Seedlings are protected well from sunlight by jute coverings, over and above a roof with straw to save from sudden cloudburst. The members say that "Yes, the water scarcity is acute, but still we will save all the seedlings with available little water by spray method. TIST congratulates these two Small Groups for their marvellous start, at the same time, TIST advises them not to trim the trees for commercial purpose and allow the trees to grow to its full height, and to concentrate in growing multiple species of trees as well. The larger a tree grows the more CO2 it reduces from the atmosphere and also it will have a good root system to hold the soil. All the small groups should adhere to this strategy to get good voucher payments.
Saraswathy Small Group of Kandoor
Ranganathan, one of the members of Jasmin Small Group of Molachur has introduced a new Small Group to TIST, which was registered on 31.07.2004 as Saraswathy Small Group with seven members.
This small group is the first one to start tree planting in a vast way at Kandoor. Presently, they have few hundred seedlings of drumstick and agathai in polythene bags. Total land area owned by this group is seven acres. The awareness of planting trees to get rainfall has enforced them to dedicate all their dry land for planting trees. The members of this Small Group are confident in showing a minimum of 5000 seedlings by end of August 2004. While TIST congratulates Jasmin Small Group for introducing a new small group, it welcomes / advices all the members of every Small Group to introduce at least 2 new Small Groups, which will result in TIST implementing various beneficial schemes.
Sakthi Small Group of Sokandi
This Small Group was registered on 15.06.2003 under TIST Program. Before joining TIST the members of this small group were involved in cultivation of fruits and selling them at the Sungvachatiram market. When the TIST Officials approached Sokandi Village for recruiting Small Groups, the villager's fruit trade was almost at standstill due to short in rainfall.
Now, after joining TIST, Sakthi Small Group have started planting multiple species of trees like Drum Stick, Neem, Teak, Goava, and Orange. These new trees are planted in between their earlier distantly planted mango trees. 252 Teak Trees are planted separately in an area of 3,200 sq.ft. Presently, they have 325 Drum Stick, 126Neem, 252 Teak, 35 Mango, 13 Guava and 7 Orange. All in total they 758 trees of one-yearold growth. This group leader has promised to start a nursery with minimum 2,000 seedlings of some different kind of species. The strategy of TIST is that, "every small group is to plant multiple species of trees", and this Sakthi Small Group is an example for it.
Gratified Letter from Paranthaman of Ganga Small Group, Chittoor All the activities carried out by the villagers/farmers for TIST Program is beautifully photographed and include in the Chezhumai (TIST monthly News Letter) along with the write-up on villager activities for TIST. We are happy to see what we (villagers/farmers) have done and this also encourages us more.
G.Paranthaman
Ganga Group
Node Schedule
Nodes are the only place where every member of a Small Group gets opportunity to meet all the members of the other Small Groups of their village. There is enormous opportunity to gain knowledge from the other Small Groups and good training on various activities of Tree Planting Program from the TIST Coordinator. Every Small Groups members can utilise the Node for the following purpose :
1. Your monthly SGMR can he handed over to the TIST Coordinator
2. Your monthly News Letter (CHEZHUMAI) can be collected from the TIST Coordinator
3. Knowledge can be shared
4. You can make a request for training on Tree Planting Programme and get trained on the same
5. Your Voucher (once in three month) can be collected from the TIST Coordinator
TIST advises all the Small Group Members to participate in all their Node Meet in full strength and utilise the facilities provided to the full extent.
TIST India
Mr. Prabakar Srinivasan, Project Manager
Mr. A. Joseph, TIST Coordinator and Correspondent
