Couldn't resist writing this blog after attending a college day function few days back! It was for 3 days with one objective each day. Conducting it for 3 days with different committees to look after various functions like stage preparation, decoration, prize distribution, cultural program, food, transport, discipline, etc. is certainly commendable. A strong and cohesive coordination among these committees was very much required for a smooth running of these events. Kudos to all those who were involved in those committees.
However, there are many things that could have been done better which would have brought in more professionalism into the whole exercise. Am mentioning a few of them (primarily focusing on the formal stage function) though to limit the length of this blog entry:
1. No. of people on the dais or stage - Ideally, those people who are going to speak in the function (where the no. wouldn't exceed 5-6) will be sitting on the stage. Those who don’t speak, who do not have any reasons to sit there, shouldn’t be sitting there, whatever may be the relationships that they have with the organizers or sponsors; it certainly doesn’t set the right encomium for the stage. I thought it’s only on the first day. To my surprise, I could see it happening all 3 days.
To top it, they were being greeted with flower bouquets by dignitaries and their names were also mentioned during ‘vote of thanks’ for their support! That looked really funny :-) Remember sitting among the audience is not a disgrace; rather, sitting on a stage without any momentous reason, well ...!?
I have seen in a NDTV program, where our former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam sitting among the audience when a debate over a hot topic was being discussed with many businessmen and other dignitaries on the stage. In fact, for some time he was sitting on floor of the stage whilst other dignitaries were sitting on their chairs, when he was putting across his side of the arguments. That was a quite amazing program!
2. Prize / certificate distribution – A simple one. If there are too many people who are eligible to receive the prizes, usually the top category ones are given the prizes on the final day, managing rest of them in an earlier function say, at each college level. So that, the main prize distribution will complete in 10-15 min. Believe it or not, the no. of people who were called on the stage to receive their certificates was, hold your breath ... 450+!! I pity the chief guest who gave away these awards and appreciate his patience.
3. Reading the reports on the stage – another common sense. It’s a usual practice to read school / college reports during such functions mentioning the highlights of various activities done in the school / college for the previous year. Audience will start getting restless if it takes more than 5-6 min to read the report. Again, believe it or not, around 10 – 12 reports of various colleges were read on this day which were very ‘dry’ to listen to. Apparently many reports started with the lines, ‘this college started on so-and-so day and year, by so-and-so, with ...’. Just a few highlighting points with 1 min per college would have been more than sufficient. Rest of the points could have been displayed on the big screen that was used for the function. God saved the people (both on and off the stage) from boredom that day!
4. During its ‘final review’ meeting (just before the event), I could see a convener still using PPT of the previous year’s function, editing it and fixing the mistakes in front of 40-50 people from various committees (as if it was being edited for the first time this year!)
The chief guest on the first day had advised students to have ‘common sense’ which is very important when they are coming out of the college. The whole function seemed to contradict his very words!
Yes, I know it’s easier to criticize about anything so long as you are not part of it. Well, I don’t intend to do it here and that’s not the objective of this blog too. Having firsthand experience in organizing functions at various levels and committees, having seen them being conducted professionally in other occasions, I think I can take that freedom to express myself to improve things in future - that's my humble submission.
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