‘This BOSM, we’re streamlining everything’, says a confident Gautham Raj, the coordinator of the Department of Reception and Accommodation (RecNAcc), when asked about changes from last year. As the name suggests, RecNAcc deals with accommodating the multitude of outstation participants that partake in the fest, along with the arrangement of all third-party inventory required by clubs and other departments.

In addition, for BOSM, they are assigned the task of ferrying outstation participants and accommodating the travel plans of the performers. They were handed this duty in fairly recently (2015), causing travel to be haphazardly managed last BOSM in which a post-paid model was in place which led to unnecessary confrontations and disagreements with participants. This year, with the help of PayTM, they have packaged registration and travel into a pre-paid scheme, making things more convenient for participants and organizers alike. Furthermore, since different teams have different needs, they have diversified the collection of vehicles available for transportation.

Pre-BOSM, RecNAcc’s work mainly entails paperwork and cutting bureaucratic red tape. A month prior to BOSM, Memorandum of Understandings are signed with all the third-party vendors for travel and inventory. They must also acquire the institute’s permission to use common rooms and to set up equipment for stalls and department tents at Gym-G.

Gautham was initially skeptical of the whole ‘coordinator experience’. ‘The satisfaction when everything falls into place and when the big picture comes into view makes all the work worth it’. He’s grateful for the help provided by his fellow CoSSAcans; ‘The CoSSAc has been very understanding and my interactions with them have been pleasant.’

When asked about the future of the department, Gautham proudly exclaims ‘The first year batch is very enthusiastic; they are finishing work well before the deadline. The department will be fine.’