Jammu Computer Dealers Association(JCDA)

JCDA was ranked sixth last year, but

it has lost its position and is ranked ninth currently. What were the

major challenges?


There were many challenges faced by the

association. One of them was that, earlier we were not united, as the

number of members associated with JCDA was quite less. But now, this

is no more our area of concern. Our membership drive has become very

strong. We now have more than 100 members in our association. And

these all are paid members, as we charge membership fees from them.

Besides, we are also fighting with the government authorities for the

IT complex, that we have been demanding for quite some time now. We

want a dedicated space for us in Jammu, but as we all know,

government approvals take its own course and time. We are constantly

pushing our cause and hopefully we might succeed as well.

Among all the associations, JCDA has

received good feedback from the members. What were the

members-centric initiatives that you have undertaken? Please

elaborate.


We try to remain as close as possible

to our members — be it in their happier days or even in their

difficult times. We take very good care of our members come what may.

We cooperate with them to an extent that is possible from our side

and stand by them in any given situation. Not only the executive

body, but all the members are in constant touch with each other. The

biggest reason behind the success of our association is that, any

decision taken up by the executive body is wholeheartedly accepted by

all the members. They follow the instructions given by the executive

body even when they don't agree to it.

JCDA scored well on parameters like

timely election, internal meeting, communication mode and social

activities. What were your initiatives to keep constituents engaged?

Please share any of the recent activities that have drawn attention

in the region?


In one year, we conduct four quarterly

meetings, which is our general body meeting. Here, we invite all our

members; in fact, it is compulsory for the all the members to attend

the meeting. We discuss all the issues in the meetings and then

mutually arrive to a particular decision. We also involve ourselves

in celebrations from time-to-time, which helps in creating a stronger

bond amongst the members. We play cricket matches with distributors

as well. I believe that with these activities, members come close to

each other. We conducted an IT expo last year,

which was a great success and gave us a path to scale to new heights.

Jammu has never witnessed such an extensive IT expo that was held

over a period of three days. The companies that participated in it

have given us a very positive feedback and now asking us to organize

it in the same way in the coming years as well. This has been a major

source of motivation for us and we are definitely planning to give

the same experience to the industry again in the future.

Website updation has become a

crucial part to keep members informed. Do you feel that you are

lacking in this area?


Website has been an issue for us.

Earlier, one of our members had committed, that he will do this for

free but eventually, he failed to keep up to his commitment. And

that's why, we haven't been able to update our website for quite some

time now. And again, since election date has been announced, everyone

is busy with that only.

Could you highlight some of the key

achievements in the year 2010? Any welfare activities undertaken by

the association?


One big achievement for us is that

earlier these members used to fight for the competition, but now they

are under the same roof, those activities have highly reduced. Now,

they do not interfere in each others territories. Besides, in a small

city like Jammu, members are more than willing to contribute from

their side towards the betterment of JCDA and take our initiatives to

the next level. Another achievement for JCDA is that, earlier people

used to avoid the election. But now, we are witnessing immense

competition here as well. Today, more and more people from the

industry are willing to fight election. We are also involved in many

social and welfare activities and we have allotted some fund for

conducting those as well. We even have reserve fund for helping any

of our members in their hard times. We do also visit blind schools

and old age homes to celebrate festivals with them.