Immersion Day! Failure or Success? (The Day Before)
(Note: I think AnonBlogs has a word limit on their posts because this was initially just one entry, but AnonBlogs wouldn't let me post, so I HAD to break it up into 2) :(
Yesterday was my first planned event for the stupid club. I thought it was going well until the day before Immersion Day. 3 days before the event, I’ve already got everything; I got the catering, I got the extra snacks/supplies, and rented out the space at the park. All that’s missing is the…invites. That’s technically not part of my job description in this club. There’s one specific guy (VP of Professionals) that’s supposed to send invites out to our company sponsors and another guy (Director of Newsletter) that’s supposed to send out invites for just the club members. At one point, I get scared thinking I missed something and that it was my job, so I double check with the club president but she reassures me of my suspicions.
It was the day before the event and I have heard absolutely nothing. Other club officers are coming up to ME and asking if I know anything about Immersion Day. One club officer says a company emailed him asking about it since they believed the date of the event was on September 18, so this gives me a clue that the VP of Professionals hasn’t been doing his job. This whole time, I believed Club President had done her part and let the other officers know of all the details on this event so they can spread the message. I urgently text him about updates for it with the excuse that I’ll need a head count from everybody to estimate for catering. He surprisingly gives me a list with 7 professionals, names/company, and emails. Odd. We have over 20 companies sponsoring us and usually 2 from each company comes as a representative, but this year we only have 7… Understandable. Like I’ve said in a previous entry, it is super inconvenient to have this Immersion Day event on a Tuesday, so I’ll take what I can get. Maybe he just forgot to email that one company.
Another club officer comes up to me after my class and asks about details for the event. It’s literally just the time and location. When I was doing my event, I’d kept the club president informed on every step of the way; when I got my permit for the park, when I ordered my catering, what I bought, etc… I had faith that she would pass along the information since that part was not in my job description. I relay the information onto the club member and she replied, “Oh it’s from 4-6? Someone told me it was from 6-8.” So not only are there some people that don’t even know if the event is even taking place, others are COMPLETELY MISINFORMED.
I make a phone call to the Director of Newsletter to ask him about why there have been no emails coming out once I got in my car. I word it in the nicest way possible without even a hint of annoyance and he said, “I don’t even know anything about it. I just know it [here] and at 4-6.” YES THIS IS ALL THE INFORMATION HE NEEDS. TIME, DATE, AND PLACE. Through gritting teeth, I tell him that it’s enough and he can go ahead and get the email ready since it’s less than 24 hours before the event even begins.
He responds, “I’m not really even sure how to write it out. I don’t even know who to send these to since I don’t have anyones emails. Club President told me the list of people was in our Google Drive but I can’t find it. I’ll just make a draft and tell the president to send it out since she has the list of people.”
I wanted to cry. Drafting an email is so simple. How can this man not know how to do it? We’re even required to take a class on writing emails and he can’t at least remember? Since I was in the car, I just gave him the benefit of the doubt that the list of members wasn’t really there, but when I got home, with just a little snooping, I was able to find it so clearly. Whatever. I take that as good enough and leave the rest up to them because it’s not like I can just do the job for them.
I get home and get a text from Club President that she’s so sorry that she can’t make it to the event tomorrow since she forgot she has class from 4:30-5:45 on Tuesdays… This was my first major concern from 2 weeks ago when Club President said she wanted Immersion Day on a Tuesday. Can I even salvage any of these pieces? This is also a great time to let everyone know that the 2 days before, the Vice President jumped ship. He bounced from the club so this means we won’t have a President for next semester until further notice. I check my inbox before sleeping and no invites were still yet to be sent out, and this was 16 hours before the event. Fuck it.
~
I had planned to skip class this day but my one class was holding a quiz. Since that meant it’d interfere with my setting-up time, I had to enlist the help of my friend, Metal, with the promise of free food for the whole day. Surely, I could’ve just asked other club members for help, but right now it’s looking like I can’t rely on them a whole lot. I picked Metal up bright and early at 8 in the morning. On the way to school, we made a pit stop for some bagels (mini fun fact but I love bagels. Lox bagels are my favorite <3). At school, he waited for me in the school library until I was done with my class. I had only had 2 hours of sleep the night before so focusing in class was difficult. The quiz was a piece of cake since the teacher allowed for open book and open notes. I picked up Metal from the library, and if I knew then how much trouble this day was going to be, I would’ve apologized so much more.
We make our first stop at the clubs storage unit. I didn’t need much except for some party games. I was an idiot. I should’ve checked the club storage BEFORE the day of the event. The “party games” I was told of consisted of Twister, 2 deflated bouncy balls, ring toss, and a badminton net. These games are so fucking lame. I was embarrassed to even bring these out, but what can I do. It’s too late now. We pick up some extra stuff such as garbage bags and rubber gloves, and made our way onto our second stop.
The supermarket- Very simple. We just needed to pick up ice for our cooler for the drinks and a block of water. This is 3 hours before our event and finally it’s when Club President reaches out to ask how the event is coming along. This is also when I checked my email to see NO INVITES. The event is in 3 hours and no one even knows of its existence. Okay that’s a stretch. We did have an Information Night the Friday before and there was a quick PowerPoint slide inserted for this event but I think only 25 people were there to see it when the club is supposed to have ~50 members (officers included). I try to ask her for updates on it and she replies utterly confused.
So, as it turns out, the draft the Director of Newsletter sent to her that night, she thought that was the actual email and that it had been sent out to everyone. I wanted to cry so bad. Luckily, they were right next to each other since they were working at the booth for some school event, and immediately sent out the email to “everyone”. I say this in quotations because in their mass email, they forgot to include the emails of the officers, so club officers still don’t know any details of Immersion Day that is beginning in 2 1/2 hours. They quickly realize this and send a separate text into the group chat for club officers. Slowly, the event might be turning around…VERY SLOWLY.
Metal and I are done at the supermarket, after packing everything in the car, we walk to the sandwich shop right next door to pick up our catering. We get there right on time as they’re just finishing up. Now looking at two boxes of sandwiches with the invite list in mind, we both think there’s going to be a lot of leftovers. Oh if it only stopped there. My dumbass had also ordered 2 boxes of pizza. It’s a quick drive down the street, but now we’re really thinking there’s way too much food. As I get the pizza, I make a realization that having sandwiches out in the open on a hot summer day may not be the best idea. I make the plan to turn back to the supermarket and grab another bag of ice to keep the food from going bad.
As I’m parking the car, I get a text from Club President in the officer group chat, “Hello hello :D how does everyone feel about a second info night that counts for immersion day and info night attendance.”
Replies come in quick praising that idea since most of them can’t come due to scheduling conflicts with their classes (like I fucking predicted but nooo Club President really wanted it on a Tuesday even though I triple checked it with her). So now, people have less of an incentive to come, and with Club President doing this, it’s also to save her ass since she can’t make it and Immersion Day is supposed to be a “mandatory” event. Right now, I’m just thinking there’ll be 7 professionals coming to a dead party where Metal and I will have to do our best to entertain them for 2 hours. This was my breaking point. I’m doing my best setting up an event that no one will even go to, so in the future, this club can set up their own fucking events. I did my job, so why the fuck do I need to suffer from incompetent coworkers? I’m quitting this stupid club. It seems that everyone is jumping ship and leaving me to fight (with the professionals attending) this battle alone.
TLDR: this is not looking good for me.