Term Review: G. Sec Soc Cult
As the election season approaches, we caught up with the current General Secretaries Social and Cultural, Vaibhav Dusad and Aman Choudhary and talked about status of their proposals, workings of Gymkhana and their takeaway from the tenure.
VAIBHAV DUSAD
Proposal one:
It was mentioned in your proposal that there will be workshops and training sessions for people wanting to take part in the Inter IIT Social and Cultural Meet but nothing of that sort happened. What is your opinion on this?
This point was mentioned in my budget when the proposal was drafted. But when I approached the institute administration for the same, they denied sanctioning the budget for this.
Do you consider this a fault on part of the administration?
Obviously. When I prepared the budget of 8 lacs and they sanctioned only 2 lacs without even taking my opinion into consideration, then I believe it is the administration which is to be blamed.
Although eventually I was sanctioned the entire budget of 8 lacs, but this happened on 13th of December 2017, which was too late for organising any workshops since there was hardly any time left for Inter IIT.
The administration is a very vague term. Is there a particular junction within the administration where the slack occurred?
The problem which the Gymkhana faces at the grassroots level is the lack of people to represent the interests of the people involved in Social and Cultural, and Technology events. For Sports there are the PTIs. Once a proposal is made, they are the ones who follow up with the administration and oversee everything. But for the events of Social and Cultural, and Technology, there is no such interface. No one asks about what happens within the system. What people see is only the outcome. That’s the issue.
Proposal 2
You mentioned about an online portal dedicated to the booking of Kalidas and Netaji auditoriums. No such portal is up. Why?
The academic section is up to it. They have already designed it for the booking of classrooms. We are yet to add the auditoriums section to it. This portal will be accessible by students and professors alike. So a verified and effective payment portal is to be included. We are halfway through and ample work is being done on the same. The assistant registrar is also trying to help us on this project. Once all these trivial issues are sorted, you are very soon going to see the portal.
Various workshops and society introductory seminars were organised. But what we witnessed is the clash of timings. This way the freshers had to choose between societies and couldn’t get a complete glimpse of what every society has to offer. Why’d this happen?
Gymkhana allotted the time for introductory seminars to all the societies. And even after this, if clashes did occur, then this year, to compensate, we had a complete induction seminar for all the freshers wherein there was a separate section addressed towards the social and cultural aspect. They were briefed about all the societies by their respective governors. Since events like Inter IIT, GC and Spring Fest come under limelight very late, information about these events was also shared.
Proposal 3
An annual information brochure briefing the freshers about the culture of the institute was promised. What progress has been made regarding this?
It’s already in the process of being published. The General Secretary Social and Cultural committee will take the initiative of finalising it. Both the GSecs are required to submit a combined report regarding all the cultural activities in Kgp before our tenure ends. And this report will be utilised in designing the brochure. But as a GSec Social and Cultural of the Gymkhana, I understand the budget constraints that we have and hence there won’t be any print issues of the brochure. It will be mailed to everyone.
AMAN CHOUDHARY
Proposal 1
The only open mic event that was conducted was for the purpose of Inter IIT selections. Your proposal states 3 open mic events to promote the culture of Stand-up Comedy. Also, Stand-up Comedy was not included as an Open IIT event. What all problems occurred?
When the open mic event was conducted in the month of November, we observed that a lot of preparatory work is required to develop the content the participants deliver. Since the audience wouldn’t turn up for a second open mic with same content, it required more time. Taking all this into consideration, we have planned another open mic for this month.
For adding it as an Open IIT event, I am sure it will get a place next year and probably as a GC event in the future, depending upon its popularity and turn up.
Proposal 2
What is the progress on the construction of a soundproof Institute Music Room?
I am glad to share that the administration has approved the space for a music room, a dance room and a dramatics room in the old Gymkhana building. We are making an indoor stadium and rooms will be allotted for all these cultural activities separately.
Proposal 3
You also proposed three online events, ‘Primetime, Aakrit and Snap it’ and an online poetry competition was conducted as a part of this. What about the other two?
Instead of a photography competition, a time-lapse competition was held at the time of Illumination. Considering that there are quite a lot of events which are still leftover in the GC. There are nearly 15 events leftover in the GC. Considering the perspective of the students, it’s quite a packed schedule. Online events don’t require a lot of time but there are only a few students who participate actively in them.
What about the postering event, Aakrit?
It is actually based on photoshop. There are very few students who are familiar with the software. We can conduct a workshop, but still, there are a lot of events leftover besides this. There aren’t enough students willing to participate in this.
Common questions
TSA: One major issue which popped up in your tenure is that the Inter IIT selections were not transparent as it was claimed by many. What would you like to say on this?
A: In an institute which has around 10000 students, you cannot satisfy everyone. I strongly believe that the selections were done transparently and openly for all events. I would like to highlight a point that we conducted workshops for the literary events, based on which the students for the contingent were selected.
While the selections were going on, Aman and I were there and we were looking after all the things. There were a lot of students who were not a part of any society who got a chance to be a part of Inter IIT, especially dramatics.
In case of Stand-up Comedy, we organized the open mic, and for literary (poetry) we invited a judge from outside to ensure smooth selections. We had some budget constraints. We tried to conduct a workshop for dance for which we could not get the budget at the right time.
TSA: Regarding the operational problems, we have been getting inputs from the governors of various societies that there is a very lethargic process of getting the budget approved prevailing with the Gymkhana currently. What’s your take on this?
A: Even the GSecs face this problem. Even we feel that getting the budget and the advance from Gymkhana is a very hectic process. For that, we think that a similar post to that of the PTIs for sports needs to be made at the Gymkhana.
TSA: Currently, who is the person-in-charge of the SocCult budget?
A: There isn’t a specific person in charge of the SocCult. Basically, there are the PTIs involved. A PTI basically doesn’t know about Social and Cultural and the problem is that no one interacts with them. No Governor goes to PTI asks for the budget details.
TSA: So, on part of the administrative problems that you face, do you take it as the administration as a whole or only a specific part of the administration?
A: We would say that there are different problems that we’ve been facing, so we can’t point out a single part of the administration. It is the way in which the institute has been functioning. So, we can only suggest better ways to the next GSecs to ensure a smooth functioning of the entire set up.
TSA: Anything special which you’ve experienced during your tenure as the GSec? Any major hindrance or any particular instance that you remember?
A: The major chaos which happened was that we didn’t have a venue for the star-nights of Spring Fest. The only option we were left with was Tagore Open Air Theater. With even one month to the fest we were having no other option. So for that we had to meet the administration a lot of times pushing them everyday, pushing the contractor; same with all of the institute staff, electrical staff, director, president of the TSG and the chairman of Springfest, whoever we could meet, we were pushing them.
The great part is that they were very supportive and at last, everything was done just with a day left for Spring Fest.
Apart from this, we were trying to change the entire structure of the Social and Cultural General Championship based upon the Inter IIT. We have already shared the proposal with all the governors and the hall GSecs who are currently reviewing the proposal and it is expected to be enforced from the next year. A lot of new events are being added and a lot of the old events which are not having a lot of participation shall be scrapped.
TSA: Anything you want to share from you tenure?
A:We earnestly request the administration and the next Vice President, Technology Students’ Gymkhana, to appoint a coordinator from the staff to coordinate all the Soc-Cult and Tech related issues. Because, the absence of a post like that is pushing us to do a lot of things; more than what a student representative is supposed to do. If we have an in-charge like the PTI, that would be very helpful.
