Freedom Team India (FTI)

Who can join the Freedom Team of India

April 17th, 2009 by

Step 1: Please read this document (and associated documents) first.

Step 2: After that, confirm your agreement with each of the requirements/conditions in the table below. Having done that, you will be taken to a simple application form for the submission. After your form is received by the Team, a Team member will get in touch with you. Please lodge your application only once. It may take some time for our members to respond to the application, given we are all volunteers, but we take care to get in touch with everyone as soon as we can. If you don’t hear within 14 days please write to sabhlok at yahoo dot com.

AGE LIMIT: From 31 August, 2009, a new requirement has been imposed –  that to apply for FTI membership the applicant must be above the age of 21. Please ensure you meet the age requirement on the date of submitting your application.

Q. Do you agree with EACH of these? If not, then:
1 Goal of maximizing freedom.Do you agree that everyone’s freedom must be maximized in a society so long as they are accountable? In particular, do you agree with these core beliefs? FTI advocates a classical liberal political philosophy and broadly supports the differences outlined by Samuel Freeman between the classical liberal view and the libertarian position.

You may want to read at least three of these four  readings (and others of this sort) to clarify and reconsider your views, and return to this page.

2 Must want to contest Parliamentary elections. Are you in-principle interested in contesting parliamentary elections, subject to a competent national Team being assembled, and resources raised? Note that your interest does not necessarily mean you will get to contest elections. Please prepare yourself to contest elections in the coming years, and then return.
3 Ability to work in a team. Are you willing to work as a team member and share the organizational responsibility? Please prepare to work in a team and to take on the organizational responsibilities, and then return.
4 Leadership aspiration. Are you prepared to work towards becoming a level 4 or 5 leader (cf. Jim Collins)? Please commit to leadership development and then return.
5 Leadership grooming.Are you willing to undergo (in principle) a training program of about 3 months sometime in the future (not yet determined; the cost will be met/subsidized)? This training program will act as a foundation course for the policy alignment and the leadership development. Please return when you are
willing to participate in such a program.
6 Willingness to declare the assets. Higher levels of disclosure are needed on the Freedom Team than in a normal setting. Are you willing to disclose your source of wealth and your family’s assets publicly at a later stage? Please prepare for disclosure of your assets at the appropriate time, and return.
7 Personal integrity. Do you comply with, and are willing to continue to comply with the highest standards of personal integrity? See explanation here. Please meet these criteria, and then return.
8

Communication skills. Have at least a Bachelor’s degree and working knowledge of English as well as one Indian language (alternative demonstrations of such working knowledge would be acceptable)?

Please finish your Bachelor’s degree and gain working knowledge of at least one Indian language and return. OR Demonstrate the working knowledge and understanding of the language skills for undergoing the Level-5 Leadership training. Demonstrate your working knowledge  Demonstrate your working knowOR OR de 

9 Active communication using FTI Forum. Have you gone through the Forum Guide and details of how we communicate? Do you agree to communicate actively and contribute to FTI goals using these methods? [Only in very exceptional cases do FTI members communicate over phone. Once you join it is incumbent on you to keep abreast of what is going on in FTI. It is your responsibility to read and understand these documents before joining. While FTI members will help you in the initial stages you are expected to have done your homework before applying to join FTI.
Do you agree with all the conditions above?
Yes

No

If you don’t agree to these conditions (and even if you do), or have some thoughts on them, the Freedom Team would appreciate your comments on how these conditions can be improved for not missing out the genuine Leaders of high intellect and integrity.

 

Policy snippets – parked or disputed

April 4th, 2009 by

This section has been removed from the main FTI site today (4 April 2009) to avoid misunderstandings among passing visitors. The aim is to resolve these matters and convert them to regular FTI policy, after which this blog can be deleted.

Read the rest of this entry »

FTI Blog Management – internal guideline

April 2nd, 2009 by

Word versions: Ver 0.02

  INTERNAL_PROCESS-blog-management-1-02.doc (75.5 KiB, 2 hits)
You need to be a registered user to download this file.

  Ver 0.03

  INTERNAL_PROCESS-blog-management-1-03.doc (76.0 KiB, 1 hits)
You need to be a registered user to download this file.

Basic technology

Blog vs. Forum: The idea of using joomla.com type forums was discussed (Joomla is a CMS (Content Management System) framework rather than a user forum software.) It was decided to implement a test blog first on the religious freedom policy and review if we need to shift to a forum instead.

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Focus areas and Team Leaders

April 1st, 2009 by

Word: Version 4 March 2009

  A-FOCUS-AREAS-and-teams.doc (172.0 KiB, 9 hits)
You need to be a registered user to download this file.

(As at 4 March 2009)

There is no limit on number of team leaders in a team. Everyone else can help as appropriate.

Please enter your name wherever you want to contribute. Extend/modify this document if necessary.

Note: Only word versions are available. Please update on FTI Google Group and also upload latest version here.

New members – Please start here (public read only)

March 29th, 2009 by

Back to main page for New Members

Welcome to FTI! 

You are here because you are a leader. Leaders don't need to be told to do things. They just go ahead and do whatever they know needs to be done. Therefore, as part of a team of leaders with similar goals for India, you are expected to jump right in and start doing whatever you think needs to be done on FTI. If you find something missing on FTI, or some defect, point it out so it and get involved in fixing it. You must act on your beliefs. <

As a fist step ensure your biodata and contact details are provided on on the blog. This is not visible externally, but will help members to contact you.

Mechanics of working together

We communicate on FTI mostly on the Forumhttp://freedomteam.in/blog/forum. To log in, use the FTI Blog username/password emailed to you at the time of joining FTI. The Forum guide can help you understanding how to use the Forum: http://freedomteam.in/blog/forum-guide. Also try this.

Make sure you have a GMAIL account!

It will give you access to the FTI Google Group (to which you can't post till you become full member, but you have access to all documents). On gmail, create a label for FTI usinghttp://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=118708. Set the label to archive the message (skip Inbox). Create a filter for FTI on gmail using http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=6579 . Now all mails from google group should go to label.

FTI has a number of other Google groups but most of these have moved to the Forum. Here's a list of the archival groups (some are still active): FTI Managers | FTI Backoffice | FTI Finance Committee | FTI ARMC | FTI Disciplinary Committee | FTI Adharshila |Adharshila Steering Committee | Freedom Partners FTI General BodyTowards a Great India | | FTI Future Leaders

Find out about other members. Get to know about them here, with more details once you log into the blog. Update your information also. For updating your information log into the blog using the username/password you should have received. Then go to "profiles" and fill up all relevant information.

How do I know what is going on? 

You have access to FTI's internal blogs (i.e. posts not made public). A number of guidelines are posted on these internal blogs. How do you find these? Log in to the FTI blog, click on 'posts' or 'edit' under Posts, and you'll find the list of FTI blog posts. Select 'FTI guidelines' under 'View all categories' box. That will take you to the key guidelines. 

Some tips!

Do take some time to read various documents and understand what is going on. Read about the draft internal processes and strategies, also available at FTI Google Group under 'files'. Most of that material is now uploaded on blogs, but a copy has often been kept there for convenience. 

Speak to someone from FTI: Mr. Shantanu Bhagwat has kindly agreed to speak to new members over Skype. Write to him at jai.dharma@gmail.com with the subject: "FTI new member: wish to talk" and arrange a suitable time to speak. You can also contact nearby FTI members over the phone, from the "contact us" page on the FTI website.

Mentoring/ buddy system: If you have questions please write to the person who vetted your application. He or she will provide you with more information. Alternatively, write to the main Forum. Your questions are valued but do show some concern for others' time by having done some homework yourself.

How can I get involved?

You can get involved in many FTI activites. 

  • Apply to join FTI sub-groups (as you applied for FTI main group), e.g. join the team the Accounts Team of FTI that will manage our accounts as we establish and operate a Trust. Write about your interest to the person who vetted your application. He'll direct you approriately.
  • Help review/ update rules for the FTI Trust, such as membership rules. Read the FTI brochure carefully and propose changes where you feel it should be improved. Also review FTI's website and propose changes. Review all draft documents and propose changes (note everything published or proposed is only a draft until accepted by 1500 full members).
  • Write articles for the FTI magazine. We currently publish once in two months. This has become dormant since late 2010 and will depend on your efforts to resume. 
  • Read the draft policy development process blog, and start developing/proposing policy in a structured manner. Research world best policies and educate each other. Since FTI aims to implement world-best policies, members of the should spend 80% of their spare time reading up the best books and journals in the world. Educate other members on what you have learnt. Our job is to absorb the world's best ideas and to implement them. World-best policy cannot be delivered without knowing world-best research. Write articles on what you have learnt.
  • Work on the ground. This includes work through your own group/party/NGO but also starting groups like Freedom Partner groups or Adharshila
  • Participate in the fortnightly telephone meeting organised by FTI members, or organize extra meetings if necessary. Take minutes of these meetings. Contribute!
  • Suggest innovative ways to network.
  • Join/ link to the following public groups:

o        Youtube

o        Orkut

o        Facebook ('"Freedom Team of India" Supporters' Group)

o        Linkedin (search for and join the 'Capitalism and Freedom' Group)

o        Twitter

  • Write about FTI on your blog/s. That is one of the best ways to spread the message.
  • Add the FTI symbol on your blog – for examples, see:

http://sabhlok.blogspot.com/ or

http://sagarone.blogspot.com/

Recommended

It is strongly recommended that FTI members subscribe to the following blogs

The sky is the limit on FTI. We depend on each other's commitment and support. Just jump in and DO whatever needs to be done.


[1] This information is work in progress and does not purport to fully cover the wide range of activities happening on FTI.

VERSION NUMBER

 

Version 1.02 Version 1.03 (with tracked changes)

[I've not created a Word document this time. Previous versions available on the system under relevant IDs noted above.Sanjeev 26 April 2011]

 

Outreach strategy (public read only)

March 28th, 2009 by

DRAFT ONLY!

Word versions:

  STRATEGY-outreach_strategy-v0.03.doc (107.0 KiB, 374 hits - March 28, 2009 11:12 pm)

  STRATEGY-outreach_strategy-v0.04.doc (85.5 KiB, 441 hits - March 28, 2009 11:12 pm)

To support the overarching with appropriate outreach (ground work or direct engagement).

Objectives

  • To network with other like-minded groups
  • To develop support groups
  • To do ground-work

Phases

1.      Before political launch (pre-Convention)

2.      After political launch (post-Convention)

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Overarching strategy (public read only)

March 28th, 2009 by

DRAFT ONLY!

Word documents: 0.09 (with tracking)

  A-STRATEGY-overarching_strategy-v0.09.doc (161.0 KiB, 340 hits - March 28, 2009 8:33 pm)

| version 0.10 (version 0.9 tracking accepted and new material added)

  A-STRATEGY-overarching_strategy-v0.1.doc (129.5 KiB, 352 hits - March 28, 2009 8:34 pm)

Vision:

An India where everyone is guaranteed equal opportunity and equal dignity, and has the freedom to pursue his or her own happiness under an accountable and participative government.

Mission:

1) To find and develop at least 1500 leaders and support them in winning at least 300 seats in the Lok Sabha (and similar overwhelming majorities in state assemblies) under the banner of freedom.

2) To support these leaders in leadership development and to develop policies and strategies that they can use appropriately.

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Communications and marketing strategy (public read only)

March 27th, 2009 by

DRAFT ONLY!

Objective: To provide support to the overarching strategy through a strategic communication and marketing focus. This will include all communication and marketing to achieve, specifically the following goals:

  • Attracting 1500 member leaders by 2011 and 500 by end of 2009.
  • Supporting the outreach efforts (see outreach strategy) as appropriate through communications and marketing
  • When appropriate, ie. when 1500 leaders have assembled, creating a strategy to spread the political message of change that can be adopted by these leaders.

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