Administering Polaris and Post-Polaris

Polaris preparations had begun even before our new term at SYBMM had begun. But it was almost one month before the festival, that the whole class was roped into the Polaris process. All this left me deciding which event to head or which department leader to assist.

Just then, my classmate and friend who was also the DCP for Admin and Finance for Polaris approached me with a proposition of taking on the responsibility of becoming the Admin Head for Polaris.

One condition which was announced to me right at the start was this that I would have to dedicate all my time to Administration and would have to practically miss all the events which were scheduled for the festival.

I gave this condition a serious thought because missing events was a big compromise to make. But, at the end, my determination to work for our college fest, helped me decide in favour of Admin.

What followed was a big Surprise for me and the rest of the official (and unofficial) Admin team.

With the Admin handling the registrations of participants and most importantly scoring and certificate writing, fulfilling the requirements of Admin was quite a task.

Calling of Contingent Leaders (whose call list was perpetually missing), issuing POPs to participants, collecting-keeping-and-tallying scores, answering queries, learning the schedule for the day, were all under Admin.

Oh yes, not to miss Crowd Control, which was a shared responsibility between Security and Admin and which is something why I lost my voice. :(

However, amidst all the commotion, the noise, the cheering, the frenzy, the coordination and communication barriers, the walky talkie conversations and a lot more, there was a spirit to make Polaris larger than life. And this is exactly what drove the Admin to do everything within their capacity to work under pressure and yet appear cordial and approachable.

Polaris and Janice have helped me fall in love with what I did. I admit that I went berserk during the fest with all the work that was pending. But when the results were announced, I felt a sense of relief and satisfaction. I knew, somewhere at the back of my mind, that those results were a consequence of the number game that we played as Admin, all through the final day of Polaris.

Those three days gave me an opportunity to become friendly with our FYs, socialise with people from other colleges, re-connect with long lost friends, have a party with my current college friends and do so much more, while I was heading the Administration Department for Polaris 2011.