1. With Waheguru's grace, the 2011 Annual Gurmat Parchar Samelan was held at Sekolah Menengah Teknik Klang from Dec 18-24, 2011.
2. Some 900 participants and 400 sewadars participated in this Samelan. A group of 20 Naujawans, mostly Samelan veterans, were entrusted to review the earlier Samelan programmes. They were asked to make changes where deemed necessary to make the camp more enjoyable and enhance the effectiveness of the learning process.
3. Some seemingly bold new ideas were tried out. Based on written feedback received and the Samelan team's own review, on the whole, the feedback was positive. However, some new programs were not well received or did not meet the objectives expected. These will be discontinued. For some other new programs, the execution fell short and need to be improved. [To view some feedback, check out Samelan 2011 Facebook].
4. While the Samelan participants feedback was mostly positive, some parents have voiced their discomfort at certain changes. They have urged that these be discontinued. They also wanted more emphasis on Inspiration Session (IPS) sessions which have become a regular feature of Samelans and which are enjoyed by most who attend. These are kirtan and talk sessions.
5. All the feedback received, positive as well as negative, will be tabled at a Samelan Review session to be held at Sabha House this Saturday, Jan 28, 2012 at 2.30 pm. Efforts have been made to inform all of this impending review. We have made announcement via our popular Facebook page and also through emails. Do come and participate in this review. Feel free to express your views honestly. As usual, we must ensure we do it politely and respectfully, maintaining decorum at all times.
6. The Sabha Jathedar or the Samelan committee heads used to chair past reviews. This time, to enhance the process and further ensure the review is handled professionally, our former Jathedar Harwindar Singh has kindly consented to moderate the session.
Come one, come all. Let’s make this review a successful one. I am confident the outcome can form the base to draw up future Samelan programs so that the learning process can be further enhanced.
In one of the discussions on the Facebook for Samelan 2011, they asked if the camp met your expectations. I shared the following thoughts:
ReplyDeleteThe ‘exam’ question here is: Did Samelan 2011 meet your expectations? My family and I participated the camp. As a member of the Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia executive committee (exco), my answer is a big YES. And I say this ‘yes’ in all gratitude to Waheguru.
Let me explain. For some years now, feedback is the Annual Gurmat Parchaar Samelan – a signature event of the Sabha -- was getting boring, stale. It’s the same stuff year in, year out, participants complain. At the same time, some were pushing for greater involvement of the Sikh youth.
This year, the Sabha Exco, under the leadership of Jathedar Amarjit Singh, decided to address the 2 issues. Sabha exco member Sardar Mohan Singh, a long time Sabha sewadar, was assigned the job of managing Samelan 2011. This is a huge task. He roped in youth leaders to come out with a fresh programme. The move addressed both issues: injecting freshness into the annual Samelan and the greater involvement of our youth leaders. On that score, the organisational objectives were partly achieved.
Now, allow me to talk about the process and the programme.
PROCESS
Our youth leaders were invited to participate in the process of creating a new Samelan programme. Many came forward. Some, for reasons best known to them, chose to stay away. The youth who came forward were challenged to come out with new ideas, new ways. “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time,” Barack Obama had said in one of his campaign speeches that led him to the White House. The Sabha Exco had taken the challenge to imporve the Samelan programme. It had empowered the young leaders to work on it. And who are there young leader? They are our kids, our brothers and sisters. They are the products of the Samelan, with a good number of them having attended samelans before they knew how to tie the naalaa of their kecheraa.
The Samelan programme was duly reviewed and revised. It was then presented to a meeting attended by the Sabha Exco and other senior Sabha leaders. Again, some sewadars invited chose to stay away. But a good many turned up. They heard the young leaders, and they gave their views. Hence, due process was observed.
PROGRAMME
The programme we had at Samelan 2011 is a working draft for us to further improve. We saw it played out. It has its strengths, and weaknesses. In an endeavour as large as the Samelan, they will certainly be many weaknesses, many shortcomings. It’s good to hear genuine voices eager to participate in improving the Annual Samelan even better. Fateh!
Being part of the Samelan for almost 15 years now, I can proudly say that it has come a positively long way from when it had begun. I’ve experienced being a Mighty, a Miri Piri-an, a Jatha Leader and Mighties Penji. Though last year Samelan was my first time being a Mighties Penji, the experience was still as special and overwhelming as when I used to be a participant. The excitement of participating in a totally new Samelan environment took over the anxiety of being a role model to the younger kids, but nevertheless, we surely did keep up to the expectation.
ReplyDeleteIt was a new experience for all Samelan goers as the activities were tweaked to form a whole new perspective. It was a learning experience for both the adults and the younger generation. Being a participant myself, once upon a time, I had no idea the sweat and hard work put into to pull off this huge of an event. Now, being in the organizing team - the sleepless nights, the endless meetings, the countless items to be bought… has definitely made me appreciate the hard slog our elder generation had to go through to come up with activities and projects that is fun and at the same time, has a learning element.
A parent came up to me and said that it was the first time her child had agreed to stay throughout the Samelan and she couldn’t thank the Phenji’s and Virji’s enough for making it a truly memorable Samelan for her and her 11 year old daughter. There were many other parents who shared the same thoughts. So, as the jack pot question lingers in everyone’s mind - has the Samelan meet my expectations? I personally feel that it has. It went beyond my expectations, keeping in mind that it was our first time collaboratively organizing this yearly event. Yes, there were drawbacks and certain implications that didn’t allow some activities to be carried out the way it was suppose to be done. But, that’s how everyone learns and learning by doing is the best way to learn. If we (the younger generation) were never given this chance, we probably wouldn’t have learn as much as we did today.
From the bottom of my heart, I would like to thank the team that has pulled this off together as ONE and my greatest heartfelt appreciation to the elder generation who gave us the opportunity to be in their shoes and take charge. Fateh