Introduction
The fundamental character of any volunteer is that there is a constant desire to express, plan, discuss, debate and in turn organise the event irrespective of problems back home or support from alumnus. It’s with that basic desire I am writing this article in order to share my experience (Get2Gether 3.0) from a humble, light-hearted, simple Get2Gether 2.0 to a successful, loaded, grand, tiring and emotional Get2Gteher 3.0.
Inspirations
Right after Get2Gether 2.0, we were very puzzled in terms, what should be our plans as volunteers. We had ample time for the third attempt as v wanted to continue our job in order to keep in touch with our beloved school and socialise with all our old friends.
To me every Get2Gether has to be a learning experience i.e., understanding pulse of alumni, coming out with creative ideas and how to face the financial challenges. Let me tell u, after becoming a volunteer, I really learned a lot. I learned how to come up with cost cutting measures, I learned how to face challenges, I truly understood d value of money and I was also able to understand the nature of many people.
Before planning Get2Gether 3.0, we were only looking at the fundamental definition of a plan and what makes it grand. Out of the influences of great events like Get2Gether 1.0 and Get2Gether 2.0; what we have realized as one of the consistent ingredients in these events was ideas and the life behind them, which makes it more than what we see visually.
Development
Planning is the most laborious phase in the process of organising a Get2Gether as you have to constantly keep answering the critic within to justify each and every idea, step, decision and suggestion that keeps the event evolving and revealing. In my view its lot easier to organise a college fest without feel, focusing on the programs rather than organising a Get2Gteher where a feel of nostalgia has to be evoked and lot of meaning has to be added. We committed ourselves, to evoke as much feel as possible without compromising on the grandness of the event. Yet there was some insecurity in our team on the idea of evoking that nostalgic feel each and every time we organised Get2Gether. We had this insecurity till the event date.
Towards the final draft of the plans, volunteers were ready to organise the event but concerned about the financial assistance. So I had to repeatedly remind the volunteers about the various sources through which we can get the money.
Once our volunteers were confident, we started to implement our plans. Thus giving birth to Get2Gether 3.0
Finance
No doubt, that we had more than what can chew in executing this kind of Get2Gether with little financial assistance and very few volunteers, it almost had to be a mammoth attempt. The only way we could organise it successfully was by getting some great ideas into play that can make the event colourful.
Based on the response and my own analysis, I can conceive three reasons why we didn’t get proper financial assistance for the event –
1. Many might have thought giving money is not required; as school will give complete financial assistance.
2. Many just postponed their plans of giving money to us because they felt Get2Gether’s are not so important in their daily calendar of events.
3. A crazy mad dog had spread a wrong message among his friend that we were misusing the funds of Get2Gether.
So we realized that these reasons have to be proved otherwise in order for us to organise the event successfully. We decided to go ahead in organising the event despite the financial risks. Very fortunate to have a principal and chairman who were at times more passionate about the Get2Gether than the alumnus themselves.
Once we decided to go ahead in organising the event we thought we should never retreat nor surrender. We started implementing our plans step by step. Since we didn’t have enough money, now our major challenge is to keep the budget of the event as low as possible which itself is a 20-30% risk if the event doesn’t get financial assistance on the event day also.
Thus our planning for Get2Gether 3.0 started with serious doubts on financial justification of the event.
Stage 1
Having a great idea, we thought it would be a sin if we can’t do a proper planning before hitting the floors. But in our alumni association, there are more talkers than walkers. I kept losing my time on false promises from many alumni and one fine day we realized that we have to carry forward into implementation of our plans with a rough shot list of volunteers since the budget meter was already started ticking. It was with the immense confidence that Madhu (Director of S.K.V.E.S. Alumni Association) had on our volunteers, we pushed ourselves forward, half-prepared. He wanted a good Get2Gether and at the same time didn’t want to give a free hand for waste spending. Thus the most challenging job of our life; organising the Get2Gether 3.0 started.
Stage 2
Right from day one of “getting permissions from school” to “preparing the video footage on tigers” we had to face a chaotic atmosphere in fighting for quality of the event on one side and keeping the budget under control on the other side.
Initially it was Anil and Vishwas who got involved actively in organising the event. But, after few days, we had to take a break because of our busy schedules. It was during that unforeseen break, a fortune happened. It was Manjunath, Roopa and Vidyasagar. They were great; not because of their innovative ideas but because of their sensitive reception of the “Save Our Tigers” initiative. They were great, not because of their constant feedbacks, but because of emotional attachment they had to the event.
Later Pradeep joined the party. He came up with some of the coolest designs and animations that would help the event to be more colourful. Without any hesitation he would answer my phone call, even when he was busy. He had some of the coolest set of ideas and he did his best in mailing the invitations to the alumnus.
We regrouped and we connected with each other like age old friends right from the moment we started speaking. Though we had re-started with a lot of excitement and enthusiasm we still had very less amount of money in our hands.
Special mention to Girish. I still remember how much care he takes to get the perfect working stills of the alumnus. He was very helpful in preparing the “Behind the scenes” video, which came out so well. He makes sure that the video footage and still photographs come with best quality. He handles the cameras like a mother holds a new born baby. He was really helpful in negotiating the orders for mementos too. I, Girish, Roopa and Vidya Sagar roamed the busy streets of B.V.K. Iyengar road under the scorching sunlight to order the mementos.
And Lohith. He is a rock star. Though he was very busy with his civil service exam preparations, he was the guy who used to always enlighten me. He patiently listened to what all ideas we had, and he used to bounce back with better ideas. At the initial stages of implementing our plans, he was not present physically, but he made sure that we are taking the best possible routes in achieving the task.
These were very few of our pains and struggles we faced initially, from our busy schedules to not so encouraging finances, with several ironical decisions made to save a penny. Everywhere the problems kept haunting us with more spending throughout the project.
Thus, with little money in hand and lot of problems around, our final stages of organising the Get2Gether 3.0 had started.
Stage 3
With a lot of baggage and dried pockets, we had to carry forward to keep up the quality of the event and live up to the demands of the plans in terms of feel, entertainment and meaning. We had the toughest phase of our journey during the final stages of organising. I call it toughest because there was too much time wasted and too much of our work compromised. Yet we did our best in maintaining the integrity of the event.
Special mention to Anil and Vishwas. These two guys never get tiered. They keep on working and working. I don’t know how many times these two had missed their meal while working for the event. Manjunath and Vidya Sagar did their best in coming up with the most creative ideas. When we went totally blank, these two people would enlighten us. Sometimes I felt that how nice it would have been, if I had the brains of these two people.
If it was not for our volunteers, Shamanth, Harish and Kalyan; I sincerely doubt if Get2Gether 3.0 would have come to the launch date. They are the coolest people I have ever met in my life and they are very sensitive and sensible human beings. No matter how much we tortured them, during the final stages of the preparations, they were still with us till the end. With a total budget of 40 thousand (thanks to Shamanth, Harish and Kalyan; with whom more than 2 thousand worth of last minute savings could be negotiated), we launched the Get2Gether 3.0.
With considerable deficit, we were keeping our fingers crossed about the attendance to the event, amidst many problems, entirely depending upon the mood of the alumnus on that day. Our plans of launching Get2gether 3.0 had been done, with our minds and bodies tired, hopes rising at every step of the way.
Response
It took us a couple of hours to really believe how much of an impact the event would have on the alumni. Two hours after the event started, we were confirmed that the event had a decent turnout and will take at least two more hours to expect more alumnus. Historically these kinds of events take time to sink in to the minds of alumnus since it depends entirely on how the talk has spread about the event. We could have been a bit smarter by giving a better publicity to the event. It’s a vital lesson learnt!
Conclusion
Out of all the great personalities embossed in my heart that kept us moving forward, the first person I would like to thank is Madhu, to whom I would answer a call any day keeping my personal needs aside. The event is an unquestionable proof of his unwavering character and uncontaminated passion for a meaningful event.
With an immense response, applause and pouring congratulatory messages, our bodies are healing and our minds are gaining focus towards the next step of arranging Get2Gether 4.0.
From the depth of our heart we like to thank the following people: Bhavana, Girish, Harish, Kalyan, Lohith, Madhu, Pavan, Pradeep, Sandhya, Shamanth, Sindhu, Chaitra, Rajakiran, Manjunath, Rakesh, Roopa, Santosh, Shourya, Vidya Sagar, Anil, Ashwini, Srinath, Vinay, Vishwas, Prajwala, Madan Kumar, Khizar, Shree Surya, Abhishek, Tejaswini, Akshith, Bharath, Rajath and Suraj. This Get2Gether would not have been possible without their support.
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