New Year wishes from TMC Chairpersons

The Chairpersons of TMC Colombo Dr. Pradeep Edwards, Mount Lavinia Roger Talayaratne, Negombo Gehan Amarasinghe, Wattala Geethal Edwards and TMC’s CSR program ‘Enable the Disabled’ Jezaya Hassendeen have provided brief reviews and good wishes for the year 2022.

Dr. Pradeep Edwards

Roger Talayaratne

Gehan Amerasinghe

Geethal Edwards

Jezaya Hassendeen

Colombo

On behalf of The Management Club Colombo, it’s time to say a big thank you to our members, sponsors, BOM, ExCo and staff for the great contribution given during one of the most turbulent times. The TMC Colombo team amidst all obstacles ensured that the members’ events flow through online platforms by conducting some practical and relevant events. The year started with Approach to 2021 a webinar in collaboration with SLIM where the speakers were Roshan Ferando Past President SLIM, Thilanka Abeywardene the President SLIM, Fayaz Saleem Chairman Mankind International and Jude Joseph MD Laden Group as the expert panel and G.S. Sylvester Senior Consultant as Moderator. Then ‘Identifying the need of COVID vaccinations for corporate managers’, a program was conducted with Prof. Suranjith Seneviratne under the topic ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Myth Busters’, Riza Cassim was the moderator. Another program was conducted With Dr. Dhanushka Dassanayaka Consulted Immunologist under the topic ‘Life with new variants and how to overcome barriers and embrace change’. The final webinar focusing on ‘Disaster Agnostic Marketing’ for the modern enterprise, a program done along with SLIM and the keynote address done by Saliya Withane and moderated by Tharidu Wijetunge Founder/CEO of Endection CFO Ceylex Renewables, all events were well-patronised by the members and others in the corporate world. The year ended with a blast with the TMC Colombo X’Mas party held at Capri Club Colombo in the first week of December and the project was chaired by Duneeshya Bogoda. As the Chairman of TMC Colombo, I take this opportunity to thank my team for the great support and opportunity to lead this esteemed institute and wish all members a Happy New Year 2022.  

Mt. Lavinia

The Management Club Mt. Lavinia as a part of its commitment to develop leadership qualities in management, will embark on rolling out a series of management development programs for emerging managers in Sri Lanka. As The Management Club, we represent the managers of Sri Lanka and having a professional team could we be the beacon of light to help in the professional journey of managers in Sri Lanka. As a first initiative for the incoming year, the team has embarked on setting up a career guidance program for university graduates awaiting to enter the corporate world. 

This program focuses on the key areas, that new graduates need to know as they enter the corporate word. Form developing an impressive and truthful CV to understanding the mindsets of potential hiring companies and learning how to present their skills and capabilities aligned to the corporate needs of prospective companies. Fresh graduates have to understand that priorities of prospective companies, unlike in college or university where individual brilliance is valued and grades accorded to individual excellence, the corporate world favours team brilliance and group performance. 

Therefore, it is as important to share and work in a team as it is important to perform at an individual level. Being able to demonstrate maturity in understanding corporate requirements as well as knowing the simple do and don’ts in corporate life can help emerging management leaders to avoid making expensive mistakes and get a good head start in their career journey. Preliminary discussions have been held with a few of universities to finetune the curriculum and the first batch of graduates will be exposed to this program in January 2022. 

TMC Mt. Lavinia is proud to be able to contribute to the development of future leaders and managers of Sri Lanka and extends this program to educational institutes and universities to help their new graduates get the best change of meeting success in their entry to the corporate world. As the Chairman of TMC Mt. Lavinia, I thank the members of the Executive Committee for their support and cooperation throughout 2021 and look forward to their continued tireless work during our 20th anniversary year.

Negombo

As the Chairman of TMC Negombo, I would first wish all our members across all clubs a very happy, peaceful and prosperous 2022. TMC Negombo too suffered a similar fate as that of Wattala! closure of the host hotel first as quarantine centre, thereafter as a COVID nursing unit.

Therefore, the club exco meetings and activities were restricted. Our members patronised the TMC Colombo Host Hotel for their personal meetings, etc.

All plans for joint event with TMC Wattala, a membership get-together and inviting of member prospects were all ‘put on hold’. We hope to revive all such planned activities in the New Year. We seek the support of the membership to make our 20th anniversary with many activities.

Wattala

As the Chairman of TMC Wattala, I am pleased to provide a brief note on the Club during the year 2021. TMC Wattala countered several challenges during the year under review...

The host hotel Pegasus Reef continued to be closed to the public for most of 2020 and 2021. The hotel was either closed to the public or used as a quarantine facility and thereafter for refurbishment. Our committee meetings and in-person events were severely restricted.

In addition, the pandemic and the resulting lockdown for better part of the year, prevented the executive committee from organising programs or meaningful events. The plans to increase membership and re-constitute the executive committee was also put on hold. In the coming New Year 2022, the exco hopes to renew the planned activities, with the reopening of the host hotel. Together with the exco, I wish our members and those of the other Clubs and their families a peaceful and prosperous 2022.

ETD

2021 made it very clear to us that life holds many uncertainties… it gave us moments to repent and ask for forgiveness. It made us realise that we are the same fighters of survival – the rich the poor the needy and the special people. 

We at Enable The Disabled (ETD) have always worked to bring in a spark in the lives of these ‘special people’ not only during Christmas but all year round. We couldn’t do much as the world was taking a rest… but framework we did… and promised ourselves to continue to serve

2022, the universe will continue to fight the pandemic and move on.

A few long-term major projects that ETD launched a couple of years ago were:

1. The upgrading of playgrounds to make them accessible to children with special needs.

Under this we have completed two such parks and planning to do the same up on the northern part of Sri Lanka. 

2. Fundraiser cum talent show – Dirijaya Prathiba 

3. Biodegradable sanitary napkins project training program for the mothers of the kids with 

special needs. As research has clearly shown that in most low-income households, the bread 

winners are women, this project will enable the women to experience an avenue of income. 

This we hope to launch in 2022.

We at ETD wish all our well-wishers a very peaceful Christmas and a blessed New Year!