Anand Utsav was an event we specifically organised for the Ancillary & Admin Staff, as this being our last year in FS, we wanted to share our gratitude towards the staff in a rather meaningful way. Anand Utsav was filled with games and activities planned to make sure the staff members get a break and take some time to have fun.
LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience
Throughout Anand Utsav, I learned how to keep all the updates organised, as planning was key to making sure our event would be successful all of us made sure we all had collaboratively prepared a sheet in which we would plan everything, create lists and make sure that all our updates were understandable by Falguni & Aayushi Ma’am too. In order to make the sheets more organised I would always go out the way and highlight or bold items, create sub-sheets for everyone’s better understanding and to be more clear of what we are yet to do.
LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences
Our CAS project was actually delayed by 3-4 months, the event was supposed to take place in early 2022 but due to COVID it was again delayed to the beginning of Grade 12 term 2. During those months, we had completely forgotten about it. None of us worked on it or paid any attention to it until grade 12 began and it hit us that we still have to complete our CAS project. We had lost our commitment and completely forgotten about it, which is why completing this event till the end felt unreal. When we were planning this event around 5 days before it didn’t seem like it was actually going to happen at all. We were all jumbled up, had to change almost everything due to the timings being cut down to 1 hour and much more. It did not seem like that big of a deal until we actually realised that this is an entire event that WE have to make sure succeeds and that we had already committed now so there was no backing out. It felt scary to commit, to know that if this event flops everything will be on us and that everyone will be disappointed in us, it was a huge commitment.
LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively
Our core team consisted of 6 members, we all had different opinions on a lot of key things. Such as finalising where to keep the event or what games to finalise or whether we should pay for some items or not. Communicating with each other was definitely a hard task to do, there were times we reached quite a lot of disagreements so working our way though that was definitely a challenge, but by having team members who understood each other and patiently waited as well expressed our point of views definitely eased that process. Everyone on the team had their strong points, something they were better at that made it easier to sometimes divide the tasks and have the work done quickly. During our disagreements there were times some of the members were not ready to backdown from their opinion but there were always 2-3 members who would mediate and make it easier for the other side to understand the opposite point of view. I believe that understanding how to work with a team was very important, to sometimes have someone else’s idea chosen and not yours was something that I personally needed to understand and get used to.
Anand Utsav was successful, it was in fact so much better than we had ever thought it would be. I had no idea that I could see the staff smile so brightly, laugh with so much happiness and be so playful with each other. Anand Utsav will definitely be one the most unforgettable experiences. This idea has struck us by accident, one day during our free slot we were just randomly talking about how hard our schools’ staff work for us and just while talking we came with this idea and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am so thankful Anand Utsav’s core team, the volunteers, the teachers who helped us in making the event unforgettable.
Anand Utsav Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GvwDag8WKEjQhoL1_y721eNbNhfKpcWp