What Keeps MYNA Going?

Cultivating and supporting a whole nation of Muslims is no small task, but MYNA is and has been set up for years to do just that. MYNA’s organization is a lot more complex than what the plain eye sees, and once you dive beneath the surface there is a beautiful machine running thanks to the hard work of many individuals who come together to see their dreams of the growth of the Muslim community come to fruition.

Firstly, most of the youth are officers. MYNA has about 60 officers, and most of them serve dedicated year-long terms. They are official MYNA position holders who have to re-apply whenever their terms end. They can be from 12-to 18 years old because MYNA is for the youth and by the youth. The EC is the committee that oversees MYNA but still consists of youths. The EC has to make sure everyone is doing their job, which is a tall task indeed. In each region, there are a number of people on the regional committees. The 6 regions are South Atlantic, South Central, North Atlantic, Pacific, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic. Each region has regional officers, such as the regional chair, who carry out various tasks specific to those regions. All these officers are very important to ensure that programs and such are running smoothly on a local level.

Outside of regional specificities, there are also departments, like the EC, who aren’t region-specific and don’t watch what’s going on in different regions. They simply do what is asked of them, and an example of a department like this is the Marketing department. The Marketing department receives requests to make videos, website updates, social media posts, graphics, or even blog posts to promote whatever may be going on in a certain region (or MYNA as a whole). Ultimately, the goal of departments like these is to do what is asked of them well and satisfy with the work they put out.

Have you read the book “Lord of the Flies”? I have, and the main theme is that an organization without adults is due to collapse at any point. While MYNA is full of officers who are mature and capable of doing their jobs, the adult staff watch over the organization as a whole. While they don’t commonly change what the officers do, they are able to provide a new perspective and as an officer myself, it can be reassuring at times to know that there is someone there to make sure things are going well. The staff officially have positions to look over and advise officers, and they also provide longevity across years and some much-appreciated adult input.

This is how the beautiful machine runs, and without any of these wonderful people, God forbid we think about where MYNA would be.