Tuesday 22 April, 2008

Clubs and SIG’s.

Yesterday while reading Rohin’s Blog about his stay @ IIM A, I had come across a term, SIG or Special Interest Group. I had heard about the SIG’s in IIM’s before also through Pagalguy.com and also from a few books I’m reading about the life @ IIM. One of those is Joker in the Pack, a very good description of what to expect at IIM’s in the two years I might spend there. I’d known about the clubs and SIG’s putting up presentations in front of the newly arrived juniors. Now I thought about what if the same thing happened in our college. What will the seniors pitch to attract the new freshers’ to their SIG’s and Clubs? This is my take on the possible clubs that could be there in GECB.

1 Quiz Club

Since I was a member of this club and possibly ran the show for a long time along with Abhilash sir, I feel that this should be right on top of my list. I feel it’ll be Dhiraj putting up the PPT for the Quiz club. The 1st slide should be about the origin of the club, winding back to 2003(copy pasted from the Quiz Club Community description). Then the next slide would be two smiling poses of me and Alen, for being the most successful team that has represented GECB in various fests and TV Programs and also for winning a few of them(am I asking too much from the PPT?). Next up would be the BENEFITS of joining this club. YES benefits, assuming that our juniors are so illiterate about what quizzing can be, lets think that they need to be told this. The 1st and foremost benefit, they get to escape the ragging sessions on Friday’s coz of the quiz club meeting:). I feel that would be the best benefit for any junior to join this club. Secondly they would have the benefit of going to any fest and ogling at all the gals and buildings in the OTHER colleges and then cursing themselves or their parents for selecting GECB. Then lastly Dhiru can also tell how much money they get by going to quizzing(only if they win it). After this I think a stunning speech from Praseeth would be the finishing touch.

PS: Forgot to mention that Quiz Club can be an excellent bullet point in your resume.

2 Readers club

Something that exists only in the virtual world in GECB, I rate this as the 2nd most useful club for any college going guy/gal. I feel for this the PPT would be hosted by Soji, Sindhya or Hari, assuming he’s not busy with other projects:). Here since there is no MONEY or GLAMOUR involved, I don’t think what they can tell the juniors in the benefits. Maybe they can enlighten the juniors about the pleasures of reading.

3 Placement Cell

Something that I’ve cherished all my student life in GECB are the numerous biriyani’s I’ve had because of lifting a few benches or getting a cigarette for the guys who come to interview in the placement weeks. Thanks to Remesh sir, we’ve had a great placement cell (don’t know the status since he left it). I feel the placement cell would be best represented by Abhijith (not me, but the one in my junior batch). He’d possibly say about the free biriyani’s you could get, and also the number of free question papers, real interviews viewed from outside, contacts with HR people (coz u had shared your biriyani with them, or got them a cig the last time they visited the college), also a look at all the résumé’s of your seniors (so that you know what-not-to-do). This would also mean getting to know how to setup the LCD projector and laptop within 5 mins and getting to know a few things about amplifiers and microphones :)

4 Music Club

We badly need this in place in GECB, I feel many a talented singer and musician walk the hallowed portals of GECB and its high time we recognize these talented guys and gals and get them together to form a band or an orchestra and hopefully put up a good show in Dhwani 2k10 :). For this club I think the best person to put in the sales pitch would be Abhinav (mainly coz I don’t know someone else who sings and plays an instrument and is so good at both).

5 Mudravaakyam Club

This is something that we are in sure need of in the college. The rallies in the college aren’t what they used to be in the old times. We hardly see more than 20 people in them these days. So I feel this club needs to be formed and for this both SFI and KSU can come together and form a single club and derive members out of this whenever they have a need. The sales pitch can be lead by the Chairman of the union assisted by some vaagdanam’s like a seat in the elections for the one with the best voice and so on.

6 Lover’s club

Boy-oh-boy, ithu njan engene marannu! There’s a great need for a lover’s club, or union. They should have some kind of freedom of expression as well, isn’t it? For pitching this I don’t know whom I should name. So many names are coming to my mind, but I don’t want to get kicks in my butt from my dear friends. Also some might name me as well in this game. So you decide who should come for this.

7 Free Software Club

I think the club already exists in college, and if I’m not wrong Suraj is the one leading the pack. So guess he’d come with some free CD’s of Ubuntu to lure the juniors to join up. :)

8 Gundukaad Gunda Liaisoning group

We definitely need a group of students to maintain a good liaison with the people in the colony, mainly to avoid hiccups in future while organizing many fests and intra college events. I don’t want to name anyone here, again for the sake of my good health.

Comments please.

PS: If I missed anything please mention in the comments.

8 comments:

Hari said...

:-)Exhaustive review of all our "clubs" indeed.

But you missed the "Arts Club". (Maybe 'coz you dubbed it, the Music Club). Btw, where's the "sports club"? :P

Gundukaad Gunda Liaisoning group... lol!!

Rohin said...

the reason why clubs and SIGs are very important in IIM is because they are CV points. And every1 is desperately trying to improve their CV's as shortlists are company shortlists are based on them, and only limited number of people are taken into each CLub/SIG.

In GEC, people have to be interested to join. So I guess the focus should be on generating an interest. And the best way is through participating in Fests.

Freshers will join if only they see anything happening on campus. One of the reasons I, and maybe even Abhijith and the other few people in my batch participated in fests is because wen we were in 1st year, we had a great S6 batch that were very enthusiastic about fests and used to win regularly. WE had a lot of encouragement and suport from them.

So its upto the seniors to get the juniors into sports/arts/quizzing etc.

Abhi said...

Well said Rohin! That Something is missing in the college now! The somethign called as Encouragement!

Abhilash Suryan said...

"That Something is missing in the college now!"

I disagree!

Rohin said...

Does anyone read this blog?
Cos it seems like its the same 2-3 people who comment.

Anyways, if we have a faculty that supports extra-curriculars, then it is important that the students themselves be motivated to participate.

Believe me, you gain a lot from fests. You gain monetarily :), and you also gain a lot of confidence. I personally can testify to that fact.

I remember when we were in second year, we got a day off on a friday cos crossroads was starting that day. That crossroads there was a pretty good participation from our college.

Even Dhwani in 2003/04. Very strong participation from us.
It is so much fun when a large group from one college go and participate in every other contest in a fest. It becomes more about fun and after a while it becomes addictive.

Juniors .... cmon ... go to fests. Conduct something in college. All this matters. Extra-curriculars are important for your resumes.

Abhijith said...

Had some troubles wit my net connection . SO couldn't log on frequently .

Agree 100% with abhi on the point of the clubs needed . Me, along with sreehari , sandeep and a few other guys in my class had tried to start a Soft skills club some time in the previous semester . Somehow we couldn't go forward with it , the reason being many of the students didn't seem interested . I think our juniors can take some initiative and go forward with these ideas .


@Abhi : I tell you , those biriyanis that I got as a part of placement is something I'll always remember about my college life .

Spartan said...

i too agree wid the idea of introducin clubs to our campus.....but arent these too many??i mean its lik there should be another club for co ordinatin the co ordinators of all these clubs........when goin for fests and all...these clubs need to b organized rt...
abt the music club...i think....this is the rt tim to start a band...many of our juniors r good at handlin instruments..
v had an english club..in s3...jus the ones in our class..to improve ones speakin skills..we did a few debates and speech cessions...but eventually it faded off....an english club or a communication skills club wud b a nice suggestion...i guess....
and a cheering club....(not a mudravakyam club) wud b a nice option....keepin in mind the number of students in our clg...a cheering club can better coordinate all the cheering stuff when goin for fests.....and tat ll bring a better focus to all the cheerings and save a lot of energy.....

jithinferrari said...

Yes, extra-curricular activities are very much needed in any campus. Joining a club of your interest will surely give you more soft skills in life along with the fun .
But our college has only a limited number of students plus we don't have any facilities.(the most heard cliche in tis coll)
To overcome these major drawbacks is a daunting task that requires more than just "interest" & "encouragement".At present I am sorry to say we are not faring well. Well hope for the best.

 
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