Mobilizing volunteers for MSCC

We don't need to wait till we have a duly elected residents association in place for initiating community-building activities. The current strength of residents is 75 families, which is about 10 percent of the 750 plus apartments in Mantri Synergy. It may well be May 2012 - at the start of school holidays - before we see full occupancy at Mantri Synergy.
Community-building efforts - tree-planting, running the club-house library, mentoring students, Children's movie shows, Weekend DVD film shows - can be initiated, if we mobilize a group of resident volunteers - Mantri Synergy Community-building Corps (MSCC).
To start with, we need data-base, which has contact details of residents willing to volunteer,their expertise and skill sets,the number of hours,weekly; and preferred time of the day (say, Wednesday evening, Sat.afternoon, Sun.morning) they can spare for community activities.
PropCare, which maintains records of residents, can help in collecting volunteering details.This can be an interim arrangement till such time we create a proper Mantri Synergy residents website with a residents directory.In this context, residents at their Oct.23 meeting could consider a proposal we received from ApnaComplex dot com.

Household water audit

I didn't know that water drained out of our air-conditioners is pure. Is that drinkable, Mr Sriraj ? Even if it isn't, that water has many other uses.Mr Sriraj's post prompted me to have a fresh look at our Clubhouse AC units with an eye on conservation.
I counted 12 AC units that account for as many buckets of water,if not more.The clubhouse ACs can all be connected to a core pipe for water collection. Mr Sriraj's idea for conserving AC water ought to set us thinking about carrying out a household water consumption audit.
How about drafting a check-list of possible points of water leakage/wastage in our households.Besides, we could think of conservation by changing some of our ways. For
instance, some of us keep the sink water running while brushing teeth. Using a mug, instead of washing face in running water,can save water.
When Mantri community gets going, we can persuade school students in our complex to volunteer for household water audit on weekends or during vacation.Volunteers can run through the water audit check-list at their own flats, and also those of their neighbours, and report to PropCare any plumbing or other repair work that might be needed to check leakage.The student volunteers can also suggest steps residents can take to conserve water.