“FC
66”, an acronym for “Foundation Course 66”, is a Facebook Group, of which I am
an active member. It’s a closed group of officers of Government of India who
did 66th foundation course together (243 in no., in the year 1999). In India, after clearing the
Civil services exam, all the officers belonging to different services, are
required to do a foundation course before joining their respective services.
The aim of the foundation course is to promote ‘esprit de corps’ amongst the
various services officers.
FC
66 group was created by one of our batchmates in the year 2009. The initial aim
of the group was to get connected to the batchmates and to have a get together
on completion of the decade of the foundation course. The response that this
group received was overwhelming. It was the tool for many of us to get in touch
with batchmates with whom we had almost lost contact. It created a lot nostalgia,
which was the moving force for the group initially. However, soon the community
ideas of belongingness, sharing, concern for others and promoting common
interests became the strength of this facebook group. Members shared their
success stories in respective areas of work, their ideas about current national
and international issues, challenges of bureaucracy and many more things.
What
makes this group a real community was the concern for other members. Just a
post in fc 66 that a member needs any support or clarification on any issue, there
would be a lot of prompt replies. When I was to join the Central Government
ministry at Delhi (Capital of India), I just posted that I need help for getting
admission for my kids in a good school (One of the toughest things in a place
like Delhi). A lot of advices and offers of help poured in from members of FC
66 group posted at Delhi, which made me feel as I am having an extended family
at Delhi.
It
was in this group that one of the members floated an idea of having a welfare
association to help any of our batchmate, who is in distress. After lot of
discussions and exchange of ideas in the FC 66 group, it was finally decided to
have an Officers welfare association of our batch. The result was creation of “Civil
Services Officers Welfare Association of 1999 batch” – the first of its kind of
association in India, of officers from all the services having just one thing
in common i.e. their batch. All this became possible because of availability of
FC 66 group. Today FC 66 group has 181 members. For me FC 66 group is not just a
virtual community but a real community, which is actually promoting the esprit de
corps amongst its members.
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