GARBA FEST

Garba fest was my CAS project where me and three other girls came together and organised a Garba evening to raise funds for the Manuni Organisation. This organisation provides undergarments and sanitary kits to girls who don’t have access to it. This event took place after our school hours and we made it compulsory for all participants to come in traditional clothes to keep the event’s cultural value and also give out the message cultural events are fun when you actually value it and spend it with your friends and loved ones.

L1 Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

I learn promotional activities and designing stuff online for marketing. During the planning of this event, I was delegated the responsibility of making our posters that would be stuck around the corridors and also design the passes for each person coming to the event. Me along with my colleague, we came up with several designs we liked and then put up a vote of which design was the best. Accordingly we finalized the passes and the poster for the event. I am not very good at finances which is why that responsibility was give to the other 2 people. However, I made sure that I sat with them and went through our budget. I also made an effort into understanding how much money would be required to reach our break even point. It was smart of us to delegate people responsibility of things they are good at, but we all also made sure we went through all the work each person did.

L2 Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

The transport department was coming out to be too expensive for us. Therefore, all the people in the group had to set up a meeting with the department and set out a negotiation with them to satisfy both the parties involved (Us and the transport department). The negotiation was definitely a task since the transport team also had its own needs. We managed to reduce the cost for them but it was still over budget for us. Therefore, we as a group decided we could reduce a food item and compensate for the extra money we are paying to the transport department. Since it was our own event, we were personally invested in this event. The negotiation helped fuel us to always take decisions that were the best for our event. This helped refine out negotiation skills and it will surely help us if we have to negotiate professionally in the future.

L3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Because we wanted to keep the essence of garba in our event, we created an entire decoration team and decided what colors to incorporate and how to decorate our location so that it feels like a traditional garba event. This task was given to volunteers and together we made a plan. We formally set meetings for our own group itself so that we could get reminders notifications about the meetings and the tasks to finish. This helped us extensively as with all the other IB deadlines, we could also stay up to date with all of deadlines we had set for ourselves for the organisation of this event. We also sent emails to our teacher coordinators as to keep track of all the information that has been communicated and prevent miscommunication from happening.

Minutes of the meetings taking place were noted down on a spreadsheet that was shared with all the organisers. This helped all of us stayed updated of all the tasks that were done and the ones which had to be completely. The planning was a big advantage as it helped us be prepared for all the meetings we had with the Event Head, the Transport head and the Kitchen head.

Permission from our DP head was taken to get time off of our classes just to decorate the assembly and finish the final things to be done for the event. Thanks to all of our friends who volunteered to finish all the decoration and the last minute check for food, transport and bathroom allocation. It wouldn’t have been possible without them.

L4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

We were facing issues with the budget as mentioned earlier, and it was too much work for us. Managing and coordinating our times with the teachers and the other volunteers was getting difficult. I personally am very passionate about garba and it is my favourite festival. I also love event management which together helped me kept going for the event. All the member showed great perseverance when times got difficult. Our friends supported us and we executed a great event after all and everyone enjoyed!

L5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

2 members from our group including me were given the responsibility of marketing this entire event. The other 2 were handling the finances. When we designed the posters and showed it to our other members, we had differences in opinions as to which one suited the theme of the event the best. There were quarrels regarding what poster to go ahead with. We made sure that we listened to all the opinions even with the differences and as me and my other teammate were in charge, we took the final decision. Even on our common whatsapp group, there were a lot of fights as to what decision to take regarding the finances and the transport routes to be provided to the students however, all of us were wanting our own opinions to be heard, which is why after every quarrel, we settled down for what seemed best for the event.

Having 4 people work for this together definitely helped us out also since it is always better to have more people working on a larger project. We all were like a support system for each other and working together also helped us get our tasks done faster.

L6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

We realized that people are losing the essence of celebrating festivals. Not only garba but also festivals like Holi and Ganpati. People forget the meaning behind actually celebrating these festivals and these festivals have now become a way to earn money for one’s own advantage. We also sold passes however, we donated all the funds raised to an NGO. My group realised that garba had lost it’s essence. People didn’t know how to do the traditional garba therefore this was a platform for people to come together, teach each other, dance and have fun together. This issue is rising in India where people are forgetting the real meaning behind festivals and even elsewhere in other nations, with the passage of time each nation is losing its cultural value in a way.

L7 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

We had decided that we will donate 80 percent of the funds raised to the decided NGO. It was only after the event that we decided to give away all the funds raised. However, before that one issue I faced was that I wanted to keep a bit more proportion of the money we earned to us because it was my very first event. I was proud of myself and my team mates. After finding out more about the Manuni Organisation I retrospected and realised that all the money is going towards the betterment of the society which I was later satisfied with whatever amount we as a team decided to give away.

All the participants had to come with a pass. Even if it was our closest of friends coming to the event, we made sure that they all bought our passes. No bias towards anyone was practiced. Only this way we could have met our requirement and this way we were also able to stay professional and even.

This event is always going to stay in my heart as it is the first event I have ever organised on my own (along with 3 other people). The experiences I had will definitely help me in the future; that is taking charge of the work that has to be done, giving constant reminders to other people so that your work gets done in time, taking minutes of each meeting you have so that you don’t forget what has been already discussed and also try and enjoy every step of organising an event. It was an outstanding event, everyone loved it. So, hats off to my teammates and all our other friends who gathered and volunteered to help us pull off this event. Overall, it was a great learning experience for me where I grew as a person.