Ramadhan Festival: Student Leaders' Iftar: Sebuah Catatan
"But I'm afraid that I cannot do it well," I expressed my anxiety and worriedness over the position. Accepting this offer would be history in my life since it's going to be the first time ever for me to create my own team and become the program manager. Never in my life that I thought this chance would come.
"Fatin, this is going be a good exposure for you. This is the time for you to step out of your comfort zone, Fatin. Anyway, if you don't wanna do this, tell me earlier so that I can find other people." Rahman gave an open-ended question to me.
Thinking that this is a limited opportunity, that my society or any other societies had never given me (yet), this is gonna be a new experience - and pressure. If I rejected the position, I would never be getting this again. It's once in a lifetime. Hence, the "Yes, I'm excited to do this, but I need your guidance in doing it."
"Well yeah, let's do it. You're the Programme Manager, and now, you are the boss."
"Remember, this is your event. You take care of everything," Rahman emphasized a little bit more. Then Rahman started explaining all the possibilities, probabilities, and he commended me to think of all of this.
"What if the attendees come late, what should you do? You should call them. And what if there are people that do not register, but they want to come? You should think of all of this."
The pressure begins.
That night, I started writing down the job scopes, listed down the names and approach them. Alhamdulillah mostly accepted my offer. It's just that MC, muazzin and the doa reciter I haven't found. And, thummalhamdulillah, Teah brought along Mael who both the Emcee and Muazzin can be. But that was only like three days before. Hahaha.
The most crucial part was registration and PR. Somehow, I forgot to include PR in the committee list. I ended up dumping PR job scope to registration and Special Task. Ali, Ely, Hafiz, and Teah, if you're reading this, please accept my sincere apology.
We started off with a simple briefing on Sunday night. Thanks to Rahman for suggesting Hussein as the Program Coordinator. Hussein is a chill guy. Well-composed. Baby-face (as described by Ely). And that night we had a meeting together in hybrid mode. Somehow Ely thought it was going to be at Aminah Cafe. Haih Ely. Then we just proceed with the meeting. Hussein chilled me out by repeating " This is an iftar, it's going to be easy, right?"
Then that Monday, Ali, Ely and I started listing and approaching the clubs and societies. We planned to have five per club, but then more clubs came onto our lists, forcing us to reduce the number to three per club. We thought to close the registration on that day. But more clubs are yet to respond. We need to re-open again the day after that so that we can fill up the seats. Ali, Ely and I pulled out the candles to lit up throughout the night. Three a.m. is late for me. But I needed to. This is what perseverance means.
One day I asked Rahman, "Don't you feel tired doing all this? Pulling up all nightery etc?"
Then he answered, "No, I feel like I'm contributing." Aw.
Long story short, I attended the Iftar to commemorate Abdul Hamed Sulayman and his contributions to the Ummah, two days before our event. I got to see the flow of it, what I need to apply for my event, and the shortcomings that we can avoid during our event. Oh, and I met @avicennaalattas, someone I followed on Instagram. It feels surreal.
Rahman asked, "How does it feel to meet someone (quiet) famous on Instagram?"
And I casually said "Waw!"
Then Rahman just laughed.
??? Nvm.
The night before Student Leaders' Iftar, we had a simple rehearsal, to check the flow of the event, and to practice emceeing and moderator things. I needed to finalized the registration things because Rahman needed to see the full list of it. The tension increased. I answered with higher tone. Rahman made phone calls to Shifa, Mahbub and some other people form Revivers to confirm their attendances. He also made phone call to Ibn Sina to call out some other photographers.
"This is the Arab style, make phone calls, ask the things, and then khalas!" Yeah, practical and effective, but being a people pleaser I am, I can't imagine phone-calling people post 12 a.m.
Soon, I made two to three phone calls made with Ali, to confirm things about the registration. Actually Ali have prepped everything, from the attendees list, to the VIPs lists. Its just Rahman didn't see the link. And Alhamdulillah, the tensions toned down.
Suddenly Rahman stood up and disappeared. And out of nowhere Rahman came with Wardah paperbag, and handed it to me. "Appreciation for PM" he said. Then I'm going from gloomy face to smiley face :D , transitioning in 5 seconds. And of course, I thanked Rahman for that goodies bag from previous event.
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On the other side, (I just got the MC text on Wednesday from Hashem, sent it in the group and) I forget to brief the MC; Mael; about the flow. Then Mael thought it's a finalized one for the event. So he didn't make any changes. So that night, we had to re-do it together. Mael and I looked for the Emcee texts in Google. I clicked a blogspot.
Then Mael suddenly said, "Eh blogpsot ni boleh guna lagi eh?"
I looked at him, side-eyeing, "Eh kau ingat blogspot ni dah takde guna ke? Benda ni permanent tau, it will stay here forever. Apa kau ingat twitter boleh bantu kau nak buat text emcee ni?" I defended blogspot, because I'm one of its users :> Then Mael just nodded, agreeing with me.
While me made was making the Emcee text, Rahman also popped up with another possibility "What if during the QnA session, there is no one to ask question? And what if one person asks 6-7 questions at one time? I would be the one asking 7 questions at a time. I made a list of them and asked on the spot. And what if there are many people who want to ask at the same time? So, these are things that you need to predict. Have you thought of them?"
"They are student leaders Rahman. Of course, they would come to ask questions. No doubt. That would be ridiculous if none of them asked a question. For the second case, we need to remind the Moderator Amirul to mention earlier that it should be only one question per person," I had my say on this. Meanwhile, I have Amirul's extra questions in mind.
"For the third case, yeah I think I can handle this, easy thing, easy thing," Hussein said.
3.15 a.m. We checked the flow and everything, and finished.
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And the day comes. Before going to Wadi Budi, I finalized the MC text, printed it and took a transporter there. Upon entering, once again, I'm shooketh, because everything there is already assembled. The chairs, tables and VIP set. Bravo Evoke Catering. All what is left is just for the technical part; aircond and PA system, and waiting the food to come.
At 5 o'clock, the attendees started coming. I thank Ali for getting everything done and organised superbly well for the registration part. I can say everything falls into its place, nicely. The event run smoothly and there are no hiccups (in the attendee eyes) at all.
However, I, as a Program Manager, was doomed at one thing. During the QnA session, to my surprises, no one woke up to ask question. I thought to myself, "Oh crap, is this what Rahman meant? C'mon anyone, wake up and ask question." I couldn't sit still. Apparently I myself too, don't have any question in particular, because I wasn't listening attentively to the talk.
Rahman looked at me, and woke up, walked to the mic, at the Emcee's rostrum. Here's another mistake. We forgot to put the mic at the middle of the hallway. Oh shoot..
Rahman asked. "In 10 years, how would you foresee IIUM in achieving its vision?" Then the answer goes a long way as the Deputy Rector is a kind of someone who would keep talking unless you grab the mic.
I was sitting at my place, and doomed. Cursing myself for underestimating Rahman's suggestion. I can't hide my face anywhere. I looked at him, and he just acted normally.
Oh how I wish I can turn back into time and asked Saif earlier to ask question...
Another remarkable event in this event is that I got to text Hafeez Zainal personally on Instagram (clapping and cheering sounds on) and met him in real life! He's really humbled in the chat and real life guys.
As the event ends, we did a post-mortem, going bureau by bureau, and had a little taaruf at the end. Weird huh, having taaruf at the end? Never made by people I guess.
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Post-Mortem Time!
So I'm just gonna paste it.
PM
- no Assistant
- have PR - vip
- prep qna and PEOPLE
- should have called the clubs after messaging, to notify them. plus, tinggal sekejap ja masa utk finalize.
- patut ada usher utk students.
Prep tech
- no prob
- earlier setup for pa
Registration
- too many flaws
- PR
- cannot finalize the numbers
- approach earlier
- POA n Masterplan - by PC
- misscomm, misunderstanding.
Example: susunan seats
- the way to approach them:
Media
- change of information : earlier
Hafiz
- move earlier
- recruitment of committee
- rehearsal : not all see the flow of programme: change of tentative.
- proper f2f meeting to see flow of programmee
Catering
- no
- Jiha - nak usher, goodies - lambat inform: people want to eat- chaotic
Moderator
- short days
MC
- the script : not edited: no vip
- specta should prep mc text
Doa n Tilawah
- pening sikit
PC
- great
Advisor (Rahman)
- universiti mmg buat kerja tiba2. (goodies)
- ignore the mistakes and move on.
- the bureau should know everything about their job
- international and locals.
Oh and Rahman ended his speech with "Remember, trust is earned, not given. Remember that everyone." Yeah he's really good at motivating people you see.
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I think that's all. And I wanna dump the photos here :>
Good Society - the new and well-established society. Focusing on empowering four aspects:
women, education, and - I forget. Oh and there is Hafeez Zainal, the one in the brown jacket.
My lovely committees!
Outcome of this event is that we learnt that not all foreigners are hampeh. These guys are work-together-able you know.
Sorry guys habis lewat. Harap-harap korang tak terbabas teraweh malam tu.
We dispersed at 9.15 anyway.
0.5 as usual. I think, I can be the 0.5 pro already.
with Rahman. He was the one giving me opportunity, believing in people.
One conversation between him and his friend was "You know what, he (his friend) was the who picked me up from being a stray to I'm nowadays, MashaAllah" and then they laughed together, savouring the moment. They are really humble people, I tell you.
The moon that night. Magnificent. I assume this as the reward for our hardwork :D
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Thank you for reading. Kindly leave a comment below so I know that "Oh my blog got visitors, eh?"
Salam Ramadhan Mubarak, everyone!
- Sunday, 9th of April, 6.11 p.m. -
*update: Hussein followed me on IG!!! Well I didn't expect that, because I thought he didn't care about me. hahhahahhah. coz he looks like someone who keeps his circle small. His followers are only 300+. So yeah I'm honored. Hihi.
*Anyway actually aku macam nak cerita about my conversation dengan setiap orang. Tapi tak tahu nak selit macam mana hshshs. So I'm just writing the ones that are impactful ja lah.
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