As every year, this year also the taekwondo championship that the school holds was held and I along with two of my friends was given the responsibility to organise and handle the whole event. We were expected to write all the certificates for the participants, organise and collect all the materials required for the competition, place the mats on which the competition would take place and also handle all the registrations that took place. We were also expected to handle all the matches with the help of some volunteers and also were asked to deal with all the problems that occurred on the day of the event.

The learning outcomes covered in the activity are listed below.

L2 :

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

One of the main challenges was to complete the writing of 450 certificates within one week and also take care of the registrations that were taking place as there were many age categories and under the age categories there were also many weight categories which made all the certificates to be different. It was challenging as the handwriting of 3 of us really slow and bad so we required a lot of time to complete and then we were also supposed to organize them schools and as more than 10 schools had participated it was difficult to segregate the certificates. We overcame this challenge by trying to leave studies aside and then working upon this in the free slot in this work and also by taking help from our friends who weren’t even a part of this event but just free and so decided to help us complete this. Undertaking this challenge was difficult as we had to do the stuff but once it was dine we were relieved because one thing had decreased which had to be done on the day of the event because generally people write certificates on the stop itself making it to be fussy so we decided to make it less fussy by completing everything before hand though on the day of the event we were informed that few certificates were waste as some schools had backed out last moment. One new skill I learnt was how make people work and also when they won’t have any incentive or any returns because not everyone in this world works for free but then I tried to manipulate them and convinced them to help. I thought it is a new skill because there was a time when I couldn’t do that but now I have learned how to make people work for me and get my work completed successfully.

L3 :

Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

We were supposed to arrange for all the required resources and they all set everything a day before the event for which we even did a stay back at school. For me it was easy as I always find the part of organizing and collecting things interesting as we get to do a lot of small and different things. Planning was easy as the coach of this sport had already provided us with the list of all the materials that were required so we were aware of what is required but then initiating was a little difficult because all things that we needed were from different parts of the school so then we had to divide ourselves into areas that out of three one will go to do the work in block 1 and 2, then the next one does work from block 3 and 4 and the last one does the work from block 5 and 6. After doing this the work that had to be completed was easy and also the work was completed quickly. As now I have organised an event all by myself with some help from my friends it will be easier for me in the future as I will now know what all has to be done before hand and what all work has to be kept for the last instead of keeping the whole things from planning to initiating for the last. It is important to plan things because then there is no panic at the time of event instead everything is sorted so that makes us ready for the event and even the event then is completed peacefully without any problem or heated conversations.

L4 :

Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Perseverance or commitment is highly required in this activity as this is a long term activity it involves a lot of work that has to be done. Also commitment is important because we were supposed to take care of writing all the 450 certificates that were to be given to the students who took part in the championship. Only the 3 of us had to write those certificates and complete the work. We required commitment because all this work had to be completed before the day of competition. Also writing all the certificates was tiring and difficult as we had very less free slots during that time and also our school has really long working hours so I even did not have time once I was home. Even though it included so much I find it easy to be committed to things because I want to complete things perfectly once I take the responsibility.

L5 :

Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

The level of difficulty for working with others depends upon who it is like, if it is someone I know it is really easy to work with them but if it is someone I don’t really know it tends to become difficult and I end up doing all the work as I find it difficult to ask for help from them. As I had earlier mentioned I was to organise this event along with 2 other people who are really good friends of mine so it was easy to work as we tried to minimize the communication gap and also as we are really great friends we knew each other’s strengths and weaknesses so it was easy to bifurcate the work based upon that. As such there was no one difficult to work though we had to coordinate with the sports team before taking any decision or doing any work but it was easy to do all the work together and complete this event as a success. It is important to work together as we get an additional help that we require because not always are we able to do all our work by ourselves so if we work with others it is easier and quicker to complete certain tasks as the workload has been divided. Teamwork and leadership were both important as we had few volunteers from junior grades with whom we were supposed to coordinate regarding the tasks and their responsibilities for the day. All teamwork was important as it was event and if one thing goes wrong everything can go wrong so it was important to coordinate and then decide upon what has to be done further.

L7 :

Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Many ethical issues were included like as it was competition there were chances that cheating could take place as it was humanly possible for us to be both organizing the event and keeping a check if cheating was taking place so we decided to coordinate with the game referees that there should be no cheating and all the games should be played fairly and so should their results be. This ethical issue as such didn’t affect me but it was about the integrity of the event that had to be taken care of thus making a point that no ethics are harmed as they would then degrade the reputation of the competition for the future. Seeing that no cheating took place made me feel good as it was fair to both us as the organizers and to the people who took part in the competition. Another ethical issue was respecting everyone even if they are juniors as we have to work with them in the event. We had make sure that even if those juniors are our friends besides the event we don’t shout on them or vent out our frustrations on these volunteers just because we were the organizers. Respecting everyone and no cheating have always been on my list and I always try to do my best in following these as it makes everything fair and peaceful. There is no change in opinion and I will always try to avoid cheating as much as possible to be equal towards everyone.

Organizing the event as a whole was fun and also working towards this event made me learnt a lot of new things which I hope I can use in my future events to make them also a hit like this one.