FootPrints from the eyes of the team members || MSU

3 years learning experience and unforgettable memories for lifetime || FootPrints

By Team FootPrints ||

What will you learn as an OT/CC??

OT and CC ?? probably you might be wondering what is this OT and CC and what to learn from that. As we have been in the journey of FootPrints, think beyond lets think deeply.

Just as the newly elected President and the PM and ministers, the local mayors. In FootPrints also there has been a hierarchy in the team behind this 3-day extravaganza. Starting from the top, there are Co-ordinators , just as the laws are approved upon the discussions and are sent to the President, we have 4 Co-ordinators who approves the new things going to initiate , the improvements in the exisitng structure, management and experience. Just like the President, they listen to all the things and finally approve based on their experience and knowledge. While their suggestion and approval is the key, their on ground involvement during the three day event is no less than others. But during the pre-event preparation they supervise, suggest, and guide the team. They are from the final year of engineering hence they are exempted from the pre-event workload mostly.

Team  FootPrints'22

Coming down the triangle, next comes the Prime Ministers in action! Here, we have 2 two Prime Ministers at FootPrints rightly called as Head Organizers. They are at the top of the think tank of the contemporary team for a particular year and look after all the decisions to discuss with their team members as well as the co-ordinators. They look at the finances involved in the event set-up and have a role to improvise and push the fellow team members to grow out of their zone to do something new. They are and are not in all the departments at the same time.

Now, we are at the final stage of the think tank the Core-Committee Members or the CCMs. They have different names but we call them CCMs. These are the students that strive to think, innovate, experiment, and implement the new, improvise or better the old and try to add a new feather in the best and the newest possible way to the event and for the event. All the things we see throughout the three days right from the Opening ceremony to the Final showdown of the entertainment zone, there are a lot of emails, phone calls, discussions, MOUs , painted hands, conflicts, brain storming and fun involved in it. Managing the 3^rd year, each department have CCMs that constantly try to break the boundaries and try to think beyond.

The OTs are here for the intro and so for the work to do. The last part of the hierarchy are the OTs or more rightly said the Organizing Team members. The largest chunk of the team with the most thrilling works from local sponsorships to propagating in different colleges of Gujarat, getting partnerships, decorating the campus, late night stays, unexpected stayovers and many things which only they decide to have. The OTs are the rookies who understand, assimilate into a new world in their own way at their own pace, in both Engineering and as a managing member. We see new characters building in students. Some emerging to be brave to be on the front face, some quietly strengthening themselves at the back and the result we get is the event worked upon by students entering 20’s from the teens deciding their own path and vision which becomes visible in a 3-day fest.

The CCs and OTs are the phase where several individual grow into a personality which will reflect in their future years to come. Starting from the OTs the freshers along with their immediate seniors, who have just came into this college world are not aware about the things coming towards them. They are the ones with a lot of questions and also the most excited ones to find their answers. After figuring a little about the college academics mostly students tend to explore the other part for which they are generally more excited like the seniors, getting along the gender counterpart, thrills of hostel life, being worried but carefree at the same time. When the event kicks in suddenly these students seems to have got a goal for at least a year for which they work tirelessly without any actual returns. But the thing they get in return is actually something invaluable, an art to balance. Imagine having a submission after 2 days, you are stuck at around midnight with your hands painted with more shades than a peacock might have in its feathers! You go home around 3 in the morning. Again get up at 10 and by 11 again in the class and this continues in loop and on top of that you have to spare some extra time from your already small sleep quota to your assignments. But still, we do it, not just once or twice but for at least 6 months. Such a training only makes a student like a non-Newtonian fluid the as the punches come swiftly it becomes hard. We also get a glimpse of the outside world. It is a rare sight for a 19-year-old to be setting a meeting with a person running a shop or a company from last 25 years and make a deal worth a few thousand bucks in a matter of a few days that too without any connections purely on your own, and when you hold that cheque which might not be of 6 or 7 digits in number but for you it becomes a catalyst boosting your confidence exponentially.

Well, the story doesn’t stop here or rather it has just started. We all love travelling and exploring but how about doing that with your friends that too with the money you have raised. That travelling through local fully loaded buses and trains seeming like it will burst out anytime. No breathing space, all brothers and sisters showing so much love towards each other almost hugging each other for a few hours till the destination comes. From sitting at your home and getting comfy in your beds or at the hostels, now we are standing in another district at odd times of the day and travelling to a new college trying to convince them to come to yours and have a 3-day guilt free experience in your city. These makes a student spontaneous and reactive to immediate situation or what we called ‘jugaadu’ in normal sense. The street food of the new place, going to a fellow team members house in that city and dozing off at random times during the day are the sweet side effects. We learn to work as a unit, a team handling any conflict which seems like a cross border conflict whenever anyone from our team gets into trouble or an argument.

The world is full of colours and so does are the hands of an OT of Footrints. Perhaps many of us have painted the most during these six months. It explores the creative side of your brain. Mixing colours for the right shade, that right strokes of a paint brush at the borders. Giving a pinch of different colours to create depth in a standee or a character in a poster. The imaginative rivers are bound to be overflowed in this section and getting to see some new Picasso’s in making.

Doing some many extra things one should not forget its core and fundamentals. FootPrints being proud in being a National level technical fest gives its members a chance to bring the new technology in its campus lobbies for all to see. To understand their future studying in the college for four years. Having fun through learning is good but learning and make it fun-loving for others is even better and that is what is done here. We feel our knowledge was worthy enough for many to learn with fun.

For the ones who have done it once gets a added new role to balance things together, to teach a newcomer and get him work and to give results to your senior just like mid-level employee in a corporate ladder. Who would ha e that the such internship will be hidden in a college event team and that too where you can enjoy with your seniors along with the work almost daily is a good combination to have.

This way the journey continues, from adjusting the banners, placing signboards, getting the rooms ready, the seminar halls ready to function, the stalls being set, the data being tracked, the website, the prototypes , the rules and the list extends till the last minute.

As, we all have heard that engineers can do anything except engineering, for us that anything and everything was FootPrints, best thing of our college life.