Student Life

Alhamdulillah! I feel so relieved that the Arabic Debate Demonstration is over. It went on smoothly and with not so much difficulties alhamdulilllah. This program has been haunting me and making me worried for the past few weeks! Its because this is the first program whereby the club is organising completely by themselves. Who knew organising just a small program like this requires a LOT of work. Let me list down the step-by-step procedure on how to organise a program.

First of all. We have to create a working paper (proposal) of the program. Its just basically a few sheets of paper that briefly describe whats the whole program is all about. Date, time, venue, no. of participants, budget needed, etc. BUT there are also a few formats that we have to abide. For example, in some cases the font size must not be too big.. not too small.. no grammatical errors.. and the whole thing has to be written in a formal language. This is because after we have done the working paper, we have to submit it to the Deputy Dean of Leadership and Student Activities Department (LSTAD) for approval. By right we're supposed to submit it 3 weeks before the actual time of the event, but in some cases like our debate demo program is just a small program and we don't need any budget for the program, they accepted our proposal even a week before the actual event.

Then, while waiting for our working paper to be approved. We have to form an organising committee for the program. The organising committee consists of the Programme Director, Assistant Director, Treasurer, Secretary and Bureaus like the Bureau for Publicity, Mulitmedia and Technicals and many more bureaus. The number of bureaus needed depends on the nature and scale of the event.

When our proposal is approved (we will receive a reply slip from LSTAD), there are more things to do! First, we have to go the the Administration & Services Unit to do the booking of Venue and also props like PA system, mic, tables, chairs, etc. And then the Publicity Bureau will have to create and post up Posters in the campus to promote and create awareness to the students that we're having this event at this time, date, venue etc. The posters have to readable and understandable by the students and most importantly the design of the poster has to be attractive and eye-candy 8D so that it can attract a lot of attention. Location too have to be strategic! I think its better to post them on the walls at the staircase rather than on notice boards because MAJORITY of students DON'T reads notice boards! Yes i have to admit neither i read notice boards -.- If our event requires a budget then we will have to get the cheque from the Finance Department. If there is a need to do a rehearsal for the event, it needs to be held a day before the actual event.

Now during the actual day of the event, the organising committee have to arrive at the venue at least one hour before the event begins. This is to ensure that everything is in place and to avoid difficulties during the on-going of the program. During the event itself, the organising committee needs to make sure that the event goes on smoothly. If any VIPs or VVIPs are invited, we must honour them and make sure that they feel that they are honoured.

After the event has ended, the organising committee has to stay back for a while at the venue to clean up the place and ensure that the venue is how as it was when they first entered it. So don't leave anything behind. The secretary also has to produce a Report of the event and also the Financial Report of the event. Any balance from the budget received has to be returned to the Finance Department :( Posters that are pasted have to be taken down not more than a week after the actual event. We might get compounded if we just leave the posters there :O

So thats it. The procedure of organising an event or a program. I think it is a really tedious and a troublesome work for lazy people like me -.- But what to do right? These are protocols. I might even missed some parts or maybe there's some additional steps to the procedure. Like if we want to seek sponsorship from organisations outside the campus. Then there is more work to it.

Organising the Arabic Debate Demonstration taught me a lot actually. We must not look down at the activities or events being held by anone anywhere we go. Because whenever there is an event, there are the people who organises them. And those people have to undergo a lot of hardship to organise the event. So if they need you to be the participants or audience to make their event a success, then you should help them by getting involved with their event.

I also believe that we will also be rewarded by Allah if we get involved in these events because we are helping our brothers and sisters in making their events a success. Especially here inside IIUM campus. Most of the events being held here are beneficial for the students. So that is more the reason why we should join in and get involved with the events.