Editor’s Note: This is a special, wholesome guest-written piece by our MUSA Business and Science Representatives. Show them some love! #MUSAEditorsLoveSOS&SOB

 

Mingle Night was the first event organized by the new Science and Business reps in year 2018.

FROM THE SCIENCE REPS:

Leading up to the event was a whole load of obstacles standing in our way.

It began with our lack of knowledge towards the submission of EMR forms that lead to the delay of our event date. The initial date of 1st of March pushed to 9th of March. Looking back, that was only a small obstacle compared to the rest of our tribulations. The daunting issue here is having to liaise with the vendors and making sure time was right to maximize participation rate of science students. It was initially open for  Year 1 Sem 1 students as we wanted the new batch to recognize each other, as they’ll advance to their second and third years being potential classmates. Starting the social event during their second week of their freshman year would kick start the whole process efficiently.

As participation rate was lacking, the we deemed that it was necessary to open up the event to students from all years. We eventually received 20 responses shy from the 80 we were targeting.

Another crisis that later became a blessing was the unexpected campus-wide closure on the 9th of March. This emergency closedown has caught everyone by surprise, and has made things harder for the science representatives as we already had problems receiving prompt replies from the vendors. We had to inform the students about the last minute event changes and come up with an alternative.

Eventually, the science representatives turned this event around by approaching the business representatives for a collaborative event, as SoB was having their mingle night event on the following Monday. This would be a combination of resources, with school of science contributing pizzas and gelato. After a day-long discussion with the business reps, vendors were informed, and slight changes to games were made. Students from both schools were also notified on Facebook that their event will be bigger, and merrier.

Ultimately, this collaboration ensured a bigger crowd, better games and a huge variety of food.  

 

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF BUSINESS

We were also pressed on time when we realized we needed to submit the EMR 22 days before to seek approval for our event. Luckily, the flow of the event was smooth sailing from then on as our newly recruited sub-committees were able to display their capabilities through the handling and facilitation of the event. Much of the station games that we planned out were ideas contributed by the sub committees, and we are appreciative of that. We look forward to more events like these, with the help of our trustable and responsible sub-committees.

 

THE BIG DAY

Eventually, the day came and we were glad to see the sports centre packed with laughter and buzzing sound of human interactions. Not only were there performances by the Monash Music Club, the food that night could be easily described with one word: amazing.

The cold, chilly weather did not stop the participants from getting their hands on some Waka gelato. Prizes were also given out to the top 3 winners of the station games, but by looking at how everyone walked out of the event with smiles, I would say everyone was a winner that night.

Just to give ourselves a pat on our backs, we would consider both the Science and Business Representatives one of the big winners the night as well, as our first-ever collaborative mingle night was a success.

This is an epilogue where we the science representatives, Ethan and Yi Qi would like to acknowledge the efforts of Business representatives, Zu Peng and Li San for being open to change, and to co-organize a larger scale social night event which was the first of its kind. We hope to see more events like this in the upcoming years in MUSA, joining resources and manpower, strengthening the bond between the schools’ subcommittees and students, coming up with ideas and fun games to entertain a larger crowd, this curse was on the contrary, one heck of a blessing.

This is an epilogue where we the business representatives, Zu Peng and Li San would also like to thank Science representatives for coming up with this new idea and showing ways to better improve our event. We managed to gain a science-y perspective of viewing things and it was a pleasure collaborating with them as well. The business and science representatives would like to express our sincere gratitude to Facilities Management Department for coping with our last minute request in setting up booths prior to the ticket sales event and also for extra equipment rental and equipment set up on the day of the event itself. We would like to thank Mr Zebba for the support and encouragement to establish this collaboration. We will also like to thank Monash Music Club for sending their talented members over to entertain us and all participants that night for being a supportive crowd.

Signing off now, peace! WE WOULD LIKE TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE IN ADVANCE TO THE editors for reading this :D

 

Contributed by: Ethan Wong, Soh Zu Peng, Tan Yi Qi, Tiong Li San.

Photos by Ryan Wee and Derrick Ser