Managing An I-Café Association

You might have noticed the subject ICA 101 in the page-navigation bar (topmost part) of this weblog. The section is intended to be the knowledge base in planning, organizing, leading and controlling (managing for short) a local Internet cafe association (ICA). I have to state that among the various subjects that I discussed here in my blogs, this is the one I consider the most important. At the current status of the industry, many of you may have realized the importance of having a legal association that would work for the benefits of the players in the industry. Some of you may even have already experienced being a member or an officer of an ICA.

As a former internet café owner and officer of a local ICA, I wish to continue my discussion on how to manage the association. Let me forewarn everyone that what I have here are my personal ideas on the above subject which I based on the experiences and happenings that occurred during my incumbency as a top local ICA officer and my observations on what is presently happening to many ICAs.

First of all, an ICA, being a non-profit, non-stock organization should not have any profit or financial gain objective in its operation. While it needs money to operate efficiently, building up an ICA’s fund to the point that members will seem like guarding their officers on the issue of allocating and spending the money must be avoided. This is precisely my point when I blog about “must ICAs collect fees from members?“.

Secondly, let me emphasize my observation that being an ICA officer is a thankless job. Yes, as an ICA officer, you have the prestige of being called such and have the privilege to deal with local authorities in the name of the association but in the eyes of your co-members of the association you are just an ordinary guy who could be suspected of having a personal agenda in leading the group. It would always be wise for an ICA officer to be above suspicion in all his decisions especially about disbursing the money of the association.

Lastly, an ICA officer should use his being unpaid for doing his job as an excuse for his being unsatisfactory or negligent in the performance of the duties of his position in the association. After all, he knows that beforehand and that no one can prevent him from resigning his post if he is no longer happy working on it or if he feels he is incapable of doing the job.

In my future blogs about this subject, I will discuss about issues that an ICA must handle and what it should not. I personally believe that handling some issues which an ICA should deal with are what is causing some  current misunderstanding in existing ICAs. Watch for them but in the meantime, I wish to hear your comments and remarks on what I have here about managing an ICA.

NOTE: Your comments are welcome here but you may wish to proceed to Café Forum for your questions and comments.