Propo: We Invite, They Participate || Baroda || FP'23
“FootPrints!” Since
last 22 years it has been one of the largest national level technical event
held at the Faculty of Technology and Engineering, the Maharaja Sayajirao
University of Baroda and prideful legacy continued by MSU’s engineering students.
It is a student organization working for the last 22 years with a new team, new
ideas, and new enthusiasm every year. FootPrints is a platform where all engineering
students get a chance to showcase their technical knowledge, presentation
skills, and any skills they have never explored to the world before.
Every year thousands of students
come from all over Gujarat and outside states to participate in it and witness
this unprecedented heritage.
So, there must be a
question here how do all these students know about the FootPrints?
The answer is that
every year, two months prior the event, Team FootPrints visits all the
universities and colleges of Gujarat and interact with the students directly to
convince them to participate in our event and showcase their technical skills
to the world. This whole process is known as "Propagation"(PROPO).
Any event enhances the beauty of the people who attend it; without people, the
event does not look magnificent, thus without participation, what is the point
of having competition? As a result, the more participation, the more
spectacular event becomes, and because the work of bringing participation is
done by propagation, so it is a very important part of the event.
The story of propagation begins with propo training. The
majority of propagation is done by first and second-year organizing team
members, who are trained by propo ccs. During training, the team members are
first given a speech that contains basic information about the FootPrints and
the event in it. The team members must prepare this speech in such a way that
they can speak continuously without getting sidetracked by anything, and in order to
achieve this, every effort is made to include speaking while exercising,
dancing, playing cricket, and other activities in training so that they don’t
get distracted and to keep them focused. One of the main goals of this speech
preparation is to convey all the points to the team members that they might use
during propagation, as well as the importance of maintaining consistency in
their speaking. The team member has to stand up and speak in front of the
entire team during this training, which boosts their self-confidence and helps
them overcome their fear of public speaking. Along with the speech, team
members are informed about events from all technical and non-technical
departments, as well as Kaleidoscope guest lectures and workshops. There are 51
events in total, and team members must remember their every details without
making any mistakes. When the team members have properly prepared all these
things, training to improve their convincing skills begins, in which one team member
considers the other team member to be a student of one college and convinces
them to participate in the events. To make matters more difficult, different
situations are presented, forcing them to think in new ways in order to
communicate. Many of these exercises are carried out during propagation
training.
Hearing about this training gives the impression that it is very challenging, which it is. But we can guarantee that you will not be able to learn what this training teaches you even if you take an MBA course. Although it is true that we cannot persuade everyone, but, having the belief that you can persuade everyone will be taught in this training. Our training lasts about a month and a half, and our actual propagation begins in January. We start by going to all the engineering colleges in Vadodara for propagation, and then we move on to colleges of other cities.
![]() |
One Day Propo-Trips |
We have propagation in approximately 200 colleges. The
number of teams is sent to each city one by one, based on the number of
colleges, with 4 to 5 members. Once these trips have begun, they will continue
until every city has been visited. Except for Saturday and Sunday, every day
members of our team go to their assigned college to propagate. On any one-day
trip, all teams leave Vadodara early in the morning by taking a train or bus to
the destination city and arrive before the college begins. After arriving at
the college, permission is granted from the staff to conduct propagation and
set up the registration desk. The registration desk is set up as soon as the
permission is granted. After that, one team member remains at the registration
desk while the remaining members visit each class in turn and begins
propagation. The team members go to each class and give everyone a basic introduction
of the entire event. They tell them all the highlights of the event, what are
the benefits of coming to the event, they create hype about the event in front
of them and finally, they tell interested people to visit our registration
desk. Once all the classes have been covered, the members return to the desk,
and from there they do personal propagation by going to each student they see around
the college campus. There are two basic rules for our propagation: first, the
team members cannot sit until the propagation ends; they must keep propagating;
and second, all students who come in front of their eyes must tell them about
the event at least once.
![]() |
Registration Desk |
We used to do propagation by going to the college canteen
during students' lunch breaks where we try to divert their minds in our event
and bring them to our registration desks to fill our forms. Throughout the
trip, other students on the bus and train would inform them about the event. We
propagated in a rickshaw, we propagated by going to the garden, we propagated
by going to the mall, we propagated by standing on the road, we propagated
everywhere, it is a different kind of fun. We used to have time after college
was over, and we would visit their hostels to spread the word. It is also
possible that some colleges would not grant us permission to propagate, in such
case we would paste our posters on their notice boards. Due to covid situation
when some colleges would remain closed, we would collect students phone numbers
and join their WhatsApp groups and conduct online propagation as well. After propagating
all day, the teams would return to Vadodara at night and submit their entire
day's collection which includes all of the participation forms they filled out
throughout the day, as well as the collection of participation fees that was to
be handed over to the seniors. This collection period is very interesting
because, in one hand, all of the teams are submitting their collections in
turn, and on the other hand, there is a debate over which team brought the most
collection. Sometimes these collections would run until 2-3 a.m. at night
because someone would make a mistake in filling out the form, someone else
would make a mistake in final calculation, and someone else would make a
mistake in some online transaction, so the entire collection would have to be
taken again. All of this is quite hectic, but the fun that we have had in it is
something you can’t express in mere words, it's a feeling.
We also take two-day trips to many cities, and it's a lot
of fun when the entire team goes for the propagation. We take our own bus from
Vadodara the night before the prorogation day. This journey is filled with
insanity. We play some games in this that we've been playing in our FP for
years. You could also say that it is a tradition that team members participate
in every year; such games do not occur anywhere else; we will not be able to
explain these games in detail here, but whoever participated in them will never
forget them. When everyone falls asleep on the bus, their funny photos and
videos are taken out, and the fun continues while the entire journey comes and
goes. We stay in some Dharmshalas for these two days and have fun there as
well.
![]() |
Two Day Propo-Trips |
The event's most difficult phase is propagation for all team members; we have to travel from city to city on a daily basis, and there is tension to increase participation. The propagation is tiring, both physically and mentally. But I can say with certainty that the majority of the team members have fond memories of the propagation event. Whether or not propagation provides something to the team members, it certainly provides good memories to keep them together for life. Exploring new cities every day, meeting different types of people your age, trying famous food items in whatever city we visit, visiting famous places, and doing all of this with our team members is the most enjoyable thing to do. During the propagation, some participants become our good friends, and some become so good friends that we feel like we've known each other for years. In some places, those people started doing propagation themselves; as long as our desk was there, those people stayed the same; this was also a unique experience for us, previously, the person we didn't even know became a very good friend. But with some of them, we developed such a bond that when we visit their city or they visit ours, they would make an extra effort to meet us. And it wasn't just a one-time friendship; they remained good friends even after the event.
![]() |
Best Propo CCs!! |
When it comes to propagation, the training and experience
of propagation have increased my confidence more than anything else in my life
up to this point. I did propagation in the 22nd edition, and if I simply tell
my propagation experience, I can say that I did not propagate but lived. I've
been on all of 22nd Edition's Propo trips, and they've all left me with
memories I'll never forget. That SASSIT's exam cancellation Propo, PPSU's
record-breaking Propo, Mehsana's legendary trip, MARWADI's Propo by standing at
the gate all day, that never-ending scams, those late-night collections, that
mosquito pizza, and similarly many more memories are there. Yes, these things
will not be understood by everyone, but all the team members of the 22nd
edition who are reading it will definitely understand this, and a smile will
definitely come on their face after reading this. It is
difficult to sum up the propagation in words; here we have made a small effort,
and we hope that whenever old FootPrints team members read this, they will be
reminded of their Propo times. And I'd like to tell any future team members not
to do Propo just for the sake of doing it; instead, try to live it and see what
you get out of it.
0 Comments