College events are organized on the basis of the collection, co-ordination and co-operation among the students. Though Milaap has a huge success from an external angle but it is not so internally. The crisis aroused is purely because of the lack of effective co-operation.
I strongly request sir, to include milaap as practical exercise for CAC along with blogs and posters. This will resolve the problem of non-cooperation during the event to large extent. Problem of free-riding will be taken care of by the instructor who has proven ability to do so ( remember the evaluation of RRM assign.).
35 comments:
I very well agree with you Ajay. It is surely a perfect e.g of collective action and cooperation in our vicinity.You can clearly relate to the classroom study of CAC. As you can see cost and benefit of cooperation and free rider problem in a practical way.
Who free rides in such event??? And what is the incentive..?? Is part of the appreciation of a successful event going to the free rider a great incentive? I think it is just a matter of choice of cooperating and being a part of collective action.
Free riding in activities like Milaap should not be judged from one angle only. Less paticipation in event can also be seen as failure of leadership to motivate and include majority of people in the event. If you look from another angle, it can be lack of planning and co-ordination also. So mere blaming only free riders is not proper.
@ Lahane. The biggest question is who will evaluate the collective action?
I agree with Ajay. If included as a practical exercise for CAC, it surely will ensure higher participation from all the participants. However, at the same time, such a step will defy the whole purpose of such events. They are meant to bring people together automatically. Pressurizing them to be a part of something will simply kill the joy as it will become more of an assignment sort of thing.
At the time of exams/assignment submissions, if there is any issue to be clarified with the teacher, the acad comm members spend their time doing the same and the whole batch benefits....
The hostel secy (the guy without a comm) is summoned over a variety of issues from leaking taps in bathrooms to arranging transport when someone is ill....
And these are only few examples of the costs borne by few and benefits for many.
If we start insisting that everybody should bear equal costs for everything, how would we make that work?
@Nivedita :
What would be your suggestion to avoid such a situation ?
Not having representatives and let everyone fend for himself/herself?
@All: I agree with Ajay on the point that having events like Milaap as an assignment would increase the participation but in my opinion, it would force people to cooperate, which is against the whole point of having such an event.
The obvious benefits reaped are the contacts that one is able to build with the illustrious alumni and also the recognition from them.
Now people are raising questions on the quality of leadership and lack of coordination.But,these questions were never raised earlier by such type of people.Scene is clear.Now,since representatives have resigned and there is a very few chance of returning them.People are attacking them.It's a clear sign of opportunism.
I agree by Nivedita and Aastha that our representatives have sacrificed their own interests for the collective gain.And,everyone is obliged by that.We should appreciate it.
Some people who did not contribute towards Milaap may not be regarded as uncooperative. Before putting this allegation we need to see that they may have been bogged down by academic pressure. Everyone's intelligence level isn't same so they need to put in more effort to succeed in their academics.
Moreover helping in Milaap preparation isn't a mandatory activity so evaluation of 'problem of free riding' does not arise. Let us not judge our contribution towards these functions through grades if we really want to enjoy working for these.
SHASHVAT SINGH (30044)
@Abhijit
I gave examples to suggest that there's no perfect solution and i don't see a fool proof way using which the costs will be borne by all involved. We spend 2 years on campus...sometime or other each of us will contribute to one or other collective action. Making it mandatory would just kill the spirit of cooperation and invite resistance.
Just like pareto principle, where 80% of the ouptuts are governed by just 20% of the inputs, the success of milaap'10 can be attributed to the sheer hard work of few people. But, if you see the contributions for pre-milaap work, they happen to be from the 'happening' zone of student blocks and participants who spend most of their time in that zone. why so? also one cannot extract work forcibly and if it's done it will not match the standards.
there is a lot said about it but the evaluation in this case would not be possible my friend. i was in cultural, so giving you an example from that. i took part in 8 dances out of 11 and out of the remaining 3, two were exclusively for girls. so will you say that other dancers did anything lesser than me? i donot think so. they put equal efforts as i did.
so if u can elaborate any other measure to evaluate please
@ Ankit G.I agree, evaluation of such task 'll be difficult but not impossible. let it be a research question before instructor.
@ shashvat: There is no question of forced co-operation as participant can opt out before the event (as happened in blog exercise)and this in turn 'll help the heads of different committees to actually know the strength of the volunteers.
@Hari: How many volunteers allocated for different points in Anand run turned up? The ratio of irma volunteers : outside volunteers was dismal and to be precise it was 6:43. I hope this can be avoided through this exercise.
@Ajay
Effective co-operation can be achieved when there is at least an outside chance of a win-win for the people participating.
'Milaap' as an event failed to generate equal participation from everyone because:
The objective of the participant in general may or may not meet the objective of the event. Afterall, it was just an an annual alumnii meet.
The experience of our representatives at the NDDB office is not irrelevant.
Decide together and scrap the event.
Or, invite just one batch officially.
कर्मणये वाधिकारस्ते मां फलेषु कदाचन: ।|
In any case people who participated knew that they are doing it out of their wish than compulsion..
I think people are complaining because they realized they had bitten off more than they could chew (but boy did they chew it well and digested it too,the praises heaped on event managers by alumni were testimony to that !! )
It is naive to expect all to participants to chip in especially when the terms are egalitarian (give, give, give and dont expect anything in return..)
The motivation for some was long term networking, for some was repute of the institute, for some it was 29 Vs 30 thing , for others
it was sheer hospitality and hospitality alone..
I dont see how these can be rated/graded and as Ankit said the issue of aontributing more or less does not arise because they all(whoever did)put in whatever they could..
I disagree with the idea of Milap being organized with the expected benefit of making contacts with illustrious alumni;infact a lot of ppl who worked hard to make it a success were the ones who nevr interacted with alumni.Milap was more of a celebration of life at Irma,& probably this grave disparity in the objectives of the different ppl working for Milap was the main reason for its incomplete success.When we as a batch had different views on the aim of organzing Milap,when interactions did not create unanimity of thought and action,can we still name it collective action?i guess it was more of just directed action.
[30093]
@Priyanka
Your post gives a new dimension to the event.
For many people it could just have been an issue as personal as celebrating life in IRMA.
How do we expect collective action in that case. If we do, how do we justify evaluation of the collective action?
As i said..FOR SOME IT WAS.. FOR SOME IT WASN'T about networking..
Another aspect that took the 'toll' (if i can call it that) was that it was spread over two days.Most of the alumni meets are a single day affair only.
The collective action comes in giving the alumni a comfortable, pleasurable and memorable revisit to the campus. The alumni need not to come seeking potential employees for recruitment in Milaap.The praise which we get and the happiness which we can give to the alumni as a result of the collective action in form of working together for putting up a good show is the benefit .
@upahar
I think you would agree that the main objective of Milap as an event was not intended to be as commercialised as building contacts with alumni.Infact the tagline we used so much to propagate Milap,’The joy of being together’,connotes celebration of days spent at IRMA by those who were once here.I do agree that reasons behind contributions may vary with people-it may be called collective action as well,because whatever may be the underlying reasons,people did work for it.But i would still definitely hesitate to call it successful collective action.
[30093]
@ Priyanka:
My point was just that the benefit reaped by many people, free riders included, is the contacts he was able to set up with the alumni.
For many, as you pointed out, it was just a way of celebrating life here.
a lot has been said and discussed...
I just wanna say that it was true that no one forced any one to come and co operate and so those who worked, they worked because of the personal choice...
many people are saying this.. i agree... but i am not able to digest the fact that when it comes to credit sharing then most of the people who worked never turned up... they had other things to do...
This is amazing... I remember RAJU sir.. this is a loose win situation...
And so i totally agree with th epoint of Ajay..
Since Milaap is the event organised by PRM-30 so it becomes the responsibility of each and every member to make it a big hit.
But as we know that in collective action there are people who think that if their cost is more than the individual benefit, why they should engage in that.
but at the same time it gives a great opportunity to learn the human individual behavior and group behavior for collective action. As there is no compulsion that every body has to be a part of working committee, there were free riders.
so i believe that that in the long run the free riders will face big problems as they are going to be managers and here were not able to manage even a single event.
this is one of the thoughts which came to me while working for milaap. it was really sad to see that some participants came out and participated in the activities and no doubt the incentive given to us in any form could have increased the participation. but everything cannot be linked with incentives and things related to the batch should be done as selflessly and should be viewed as the success of the whole batch and of the institution and not with the view of individual success.
aditi (p30001)
We cant build 'networks' right now. What do we have to offer in the network? people who aimed for networks shall be losers, more than anybody else, I agree. But, events like Milaap cant be evaluated. They seem to be unfair for evaluation.
I disagree with this though of making participation in MILAAP as an evaluation criterion for CAC. MILAAP is just not a collective action by the students and alumni. The spirit of the IRMANS , the true enthusiasm of the student participants , their efforts to come out with their best, results in the success of the event.
Whether the matter is of events or culturals all require an inner true feeling to contribute..... any compulsion from outside will only adulterate the basic idea and culture of organising MILAAP.
i agree with u in the 1st instance, but how can we expect cooperation from whole of the batch for an event(if happens could be a miracle). Don’t you think that even managing all would create a more problem than help in achieving them? Evaluation might be good, but that might worsen the situation with all ppl coming into and in a way forcing themselves into the work and to have a say in everything which would create more conflicts than serve the purpose. I believe need for cooperation cannot be forced into all individuals unless perceived by them.
The low level of participation form the prm participants shows the practical difficulties associated with collective action. Classroom sessions often fail to reflect the reality. The tendency of only a few participating in an event has been there in society for a long long time.More over since the participation was voluntary no one can complain of non participation from others. The joy of working despite difficulties and the experience that we gain out of it is invaluable. That is the outcome of any event.
sanju, 30038.
@ Shashwat
I agree to you since different people have different talents and skills but it all boils down to one's honesty of intention. Some danced, some were in the back breaking job of decoration, some handled the finances, some managed the catering part and Milaap having been a success is entirely due to relating oneself to the cause.
It was heartening to see people who had never ventured in any event before helped and contributed.
I guess such events can give us a clear picture of the magnitude and effort to convince one to contribute and also once the process starts people chip in with their efforts.
Further adding to Khokhar, i want to state that every body has sentiments and emotions. If the incentive of success of MILAAP is given to those free riders being a part of batch then it hurts the sentiments of those who devoted their time for Millap leaving behind Fun, Rest, Study, Travelling, Assignments and Projects.
IF those free riders staying in campus during Millap get grades of quiz "A+" just after Milaap and most of them engaged in activities get only "C" or even below "C", again it hurts!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Anshuman. good that you raised the point. I does not hurt but gives a sense of pride if the event has got successful because of you. Contributing for it, even if you have reduced your grades, it does not matter much. Feeling bad about others who free rode and got good grades with appreciation is immaterial. Everyone of us knows who has contributed to wot extent
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