Postponement Of The Oasis Review Meet
The Oasis Review Meet was scheduled on the 21st of November at 5:30 PM. However, attendance was not taken till 6:30 PM and the meeting never started as the Students’ Council for Cultural Activities (StuCCA), the General Secretary, and the President were unavailable at the scene. The General Secretary formally called off the meet after most of the clubs and departments had left en masse. The meet was rescheduled for the following day at the same time, but there was no official statement from the StuCCA or the Student’s Union that explained the postponement.
The English Press Club interviewed Rahul Bubna and Abishek Balaji, the President and the General Secretary of the Student’s Union, to find out what had happened. Balaji stated that the meeting was canceled because of a payment issue raised by the Institute with the General Secretary and the President. The entirety of StuCCA was kept in the loop, but only Bubna and Balaji were aware of the complete details of the situation. When asked about what the issue was, Balaji stated that it was a financial matter that the Institute was investigating, and that he would require permission from the Institute to talk about it any further. He said that they were called by Prof. Navin Singh, the Chief Warden, at 5:15 PM on 21st of November to his chamber to discuss the issue at length. When they realized that the meet would not end before the scheduled time for ORC, they formally called ORC off to not waste the GBM’s time, especially with examinations around the corner.
The rescheduled meeting started at 6:30 PM on the following day, after the roll call. Following this, all clubs and departments involved in the fest were asked to sum up their work and raise any issues faced by them.
Issues Brought Up
The National Service Scheme (NSS) brought up an issue with the Department of Controls regarding travel arrangements. On the 2nd of November, NSS was supposed to send three cabs—two to Delhi and one to Jaipur—to return the inventory that they had received from NGOs to organize their events. Despite receiving personal assurances from the General Secretary and the point-of-contact from Controls, they were informed on the 1st of November that the StuCCA would not arrange for the cabs. The General Secretary quickly admitted fault for not assuring them of the travel arrangement in writing. However, he clarified that financial constraints were the reason for not providing the cabs. He said that although he appreciated their social cause, he felt that the cost of ₹30,000 for the cabs was not justified, especially considering how they do not generate any revenue for the fest. He suggested that NSS should aim to collect items from NGOs located near Pilani in the coming years.
The Film Making Club then raised concerns about catering to requests by judges and sponsors to record certain events on a short notice. Accommodating these requests was a difficult task as the club’s workforce was limited. The StuCCAn of the Department of Sponsorship and Marketing (Sponz) clarified that the club was not obligated to fulfill the requests of the sponsors.
Ragamalika raised an issue with the Department of Reception and Accommodation (RecNAcc) on a faulty generator used in the Central Audi for the classical professional show. After running for five minutes, the generator had shut down. This delayed the show by an hour and a half. The coordinator stated that the performing artists had to sit in complete darkness for around ten minutes, which made them appear unprofessional. When the generator was restarted, the frequency requirement of 50 Hz could not be met, which is vital for the quality of the sound output. RecNAcc admitted that the generator was faulty but stated that Ragamalika had not specified the frequency requirement at the time of requisition. The StuCCA took this opportunity to advise all clubs and departments to be very specific about their requirements and not make any assumptions regarding the same in the future.
The coordinator of the Safety and Medical Advisory Council (SMAC) expressed his displeasure with the Department of Visual Media (DVM) as the emergency contacts had not been printed on the back of the outstation participants’ ID cards. He complained that despite the DVM StuCCAn agreeing to this request, it remained unfulfilled. The StuCCA responded by stating that ‘there is no back of the ID card by design’ and that they would look into adding emergency contacts to the ID card in the future. The coordinator also noted that one of the emergency contacts on the app had a wrong mobile number. The DVM StuCCAn quickly admitted this mistake and assured that it would not be repeated in the future.
Shortly after, the Department of Lights raised their concern of having to handle LED screens and other equipment that they had no prior experience working with, at the eleventh hour to display Cisco’s advertisements. The Sponz StuCCAn responded by reiterating that no clubs or departments are required to fulfill last-minute requests from sponsors. He also assured that such incidents would not occur in the future.
Conclusion
Aside from the intense discussions involving the Department of Live Events (DLE), which formed the bulk of the meeting, the Oasis Review Meet 2019 was an ordinary affair. Issues faced by other clubs and departments with DLE took center stage, and the meet concluded with two motions being passed—one, to put DLE under probation and the other, to transfer the responsibility of Production to the Department of Sounds (with the aid of Backstage and Lights, under the supervision of Audi Controls).