College fests and culturals are what make college life interesting, bearable, exciting and/or stressful for many. It is not anymore just another activity that features in the college calendar every year. For many years now, the scale and grandeur of the events have just gotten bigger and better with colleges vying to outdo each other.
Roping in sponsors, bringing in celebrities, handling budgets in lakhs — even crores in some cases — ensuring participation and performing reasonably well in academics to ensure the professors’ cooperation in missing classes… being a cultural secretary is no easy job.
Handling pressure
“The biggest challenge is handling the pressure. There will be a time when all deadlines or work will come at one go. You cannot say ‘no’. The good thing is you know it’s because people trust you to do a good job and the bad thing is something has to be done first, so prioritisation is important,” says Neha Samuel, cultural secretary, Women’s Christian College, Chennai.
Besides organising their annual inter-collegiate fest — Festeve — Neha has to look into sending teams for other college competitions, organising cultural events within college, sending students to participate in TV or radio programmes, seniors’ farewell, juniors’ welcome, arranging for permissions… the list is endless.
It is only possible because of one’s ability to multi-task and also earn the support of one’s professors and college management. “My teachers are very understanding. In fact, they even call me when am not in class just to ask me to come and sign the register,” says Neha.
Mohammed Ihsam Ali, the cultural convenor of Madras Christian College, has also been fortunate in this regard. In fact, he says that his teachers even adjust the dates of internal exams to ensure he is around to write it. That is because he will be missing a lot of classes owning to the preparations for the February 2013-scheduled annual fest Deep Woods already in full swing. “Our sponsorship proposal is out, pre-invites have been sent out already to make it easier for outstation colleges to plan their travel and we are finalising on the bands that will be performing for our rock show,” he lists.
Most of the cultural secretaries, along with the rest of the student cabinet, are chosen through a democratic process that involves election campaigns and voting. Hence it sure helps to have been seen actively working and involved in cultural activities in the previous years; not necessarily being a part of cultural teams but simply helping organise events and pitching in with ideas.
Experience counts
Ravi Chandra M. and Ashwin, cultural coordinators of IIT-Madras, owe their confidence to the experience they acquired in the previous years: “We get groomed very well over the first three years of our institute life. Both of us were actively involved in both Shaastra (annual technical festival of IIT-Madras) and Saarang for the past three years, as volunteers in our first year and then as coordinators, besides organising department and hostel-level fests.” It is this experience that gives them a heads-up on handling a team of about 900 working for the student-run ISO 9001:2008-certified national-level cultural festival that’s a five-day, Rs. 1.5-crore cultural extravaganza which sees a footfall of 50,000! More than 50 events and workshops are organised during the five-day period.
The learning that comes from being a part of a massive experience like this is multifold. Especially for formerly introverted Mohammed Ihsam Ali. “Talking to a lot of people from corporates to students, presenting the budget to a crowd shooting questions at you is all part of the learning. The exposure I’ve got has taught me money and time management, team work and leadership.”
Choosing the right people
It was the case for Yasar Arafath, cultural secretary, College of Engineering-Guindy, too. “The toughest challenge was to take decisions on choosing the right people to organise an event. I made a point to choose those guys who were really sensible. In many ways, the experience improved my communication skills. I got to know many celebrities and people from different walks of life.”
If you thought the benefits are limited to one’s personality development then think again. It’s a great value-addition to one’s CV, in a scenario where mere academic achievements are not impressive enough. Like the IIT-duo explain: “It (in the CV) shows good leadership and managerial skills — handling huge teams and budgets, and the ability to take initiatives.” And you thought your college cultural secretaries were just having fun!
