10th June 2010, Saturday
Outside Lecture Theatre 3 of the JC side of the RI campus, we erected our makeshift booth from tables and chairs from a nearby classroom, fixed the position of our 2 posters, one an A2 informative and another a montage, placed 4 big boxes of 60 umbrellas each hurdled by our bags, and took out a smaller box (12) from the first big box. It was a Saturday and we’re selling umbrellas in an almost desolated school. J
Out of the 3 groups, only 2 emerged. My group was there all the time because we had emailed Mrs Yap that we are interested in taking charge of the sale of umbrellas. And I’ll never regret that solo decision. The first lesson I learnt, beautiful and breathtaking it is, that sometimes you just don’t need to follow 2nd thoughts, just go with instinct. This worked J
Apparently, the Raffles Parents’ Association (RPA) had organized a Career Talk Session on Law entitled: HELPING PARENTS UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS REALLY LIKE BEING A LAWYER - MYTH VS REALITY. (Please refer to http://rafflespa-talks.blogspot.com/2010/05/rpa-career-talk-season-2-law.html for more information regarding the seminar). So we had a rush for our first ever umbrella sales, having a time frame of around 48 hours to prepare what we required for our booth.
The procedural process was that I was emailed a statistics excel sheet for me to keep track of the sales of the umbrellas. Initial batch: 500 umbrellas, at $15. The cost price: confidential. As advised by Mrs Yap, we had decided to touch up on the two posters after 3 months of hibernation, pasting back the corners and fixing bits and pieces. Darryl and I had also learnt a new way of presenting our project, via prezi! Thanks to Mrs Yap. Unfortunately this didn’t work on the day itself due to the requirement of internet connection. This was sad L I worked all night till 4am for the prezi…
So it can be said that I did pick up some useful set of skills.
Ahmad and I had also worked on our beautiful WISH board, making a montage. After a comment by Mrs Yap that the words weren’t visible etc etc and that Mrs Yap had kindly helped us print photos of the Recce in Danang and Water Testing at Sing Poly, ingeniously we had improvised and made a montage, covering the dirty bits. The poster looked brand new in its designed outfit by Ahmad. Thanks Ahmad.
Prior to the Saturday, I had also learnt to give out consignments to group members. There’s this sheet Mrs Yap had kindly prepared that stated who was given consignment, what date, signed by, received how many, amount collected, signed by la la la. Till this moment only Giang’s and my group had been assigned. I think we had given out so far more than 10 small boxes, 11 maybe. Each had 12.
We kicked off our Saturday’s sales with a helpful announcement by one of the RPA members, forgive me for not remembering the name, who had publicized our umbrellas and got some parents to purchase the umbrellas for us. Mrs. Yap mentioned that he was very instrumental in this sale, due to the collaboration with RPA and also the sales of the umbrellas.
Sadly, without the prezi I had nothing to present the project with to the parents that were present in the LT. However due to the pressure-filled circumstances and the fact that I do want to take this chance to be in charge of the project, I had to, needed to and wanted to make a presentation in order to raise awareness regarding our project and this sale. I needed to show my worth in this group, and the abilities I have, the responsibilities and capabilities inherent within me.
I wanted to be there, not just for self-momentum, but to be there for people to remember that it was Dinie who lit up the stage in an impromptu speech.
Yes, the speech was impromptu. Yes, I should have prepared earlier. Nope, I think I did it pretty well, considering the fact that I was vibrating bottom down and that I drove my train of thought pretty well. Not to forget Mrs Yap, the RPA guy mentioned just now and also Ms Ho who had generously supported me and gave me encouragement. And I’m proud that I pulled it off well. Mrs Yap had commended me later on this J
Anyways I asked and received the help and acceptance of RPA members to set the stage up for me. It wasn’t a one man show, there are so many people who deserve to be up there with me, to be mentioned under the gratitude list. And no to forget those that had prepared a script to present with the prezi.
The sales was… I dunno eh. We thought we would sell so well it would tip over 180 that we bought 4 boxes. This was with the assumption that the whole LT of size 800(!!!) would be overflowing with hordes of enthusiasts. We were wrong, yes we learnt that we shouldn’t overestimate, but yet, it was still good that we were optimistic and just brought extra in case. As few people came, approx 80-120, we sold 46 umbrellas in total, which I think is quite good considering the fact that firstly we weren’t selling anything else so it was a limited and unattractive sale for those who don’t need umbrellas, and also that there were very few umbrellas. The sales collected was $691/-, with $1 donated by a kind gentleman who did not want change for $16.
As we were unable to relocate everything back into the HML as Mrs Yap had to leave, I had to delegate the remaining merchandise and whatever else among my members and also Giang’s group. (For the record we met Giang’s group after the seminar, except Anh Vu who assisted us before the talk) I had recorded so and so on these piece of unused survey that was also where Yue Heng had written down the accounts.
So it can be said that I did pick up some useful set of skills, and hone others. My impromptu speech, delegation of jobs for the preparation of booths and systematic way of dealing with the remains of the booth was something that I improved on and practices. Nonetheless, I had learnt to use an excel sheet, do records and count and keep money for accounting matters. I wouldn’t have learnt this had I not been in charge of the sale of the umbrellas.
I would also like to state finally that I gained a couple of friends from RPA, as a result of interaction with these people who had so generously collaborated with us for our first sales. I had gained the contact of Ms Ho, who had so kindly suggested in giving me updates to RPA activities and also to post up a blurb on our project on the RPA blog. If I had learnt anything from here, I learnt that it pays to be a people-person and that there are many ways of publicizing our work and cause, through associations with other groups for example. This is not to mention the mode of media, where posting on the blog means that we are making good use of the technology we have at hand.
Rounding up, I would like to say that this is the longest reflection I had ever writtenJ. In mentioning gratitude, first and greatest goes to God The One And Only Who Begets Not Nor Is He Begotten And None Is Like Him, whom without whose will I wouldn’t be so happy and successful... All praise and glory be to God ruler of the skies and the earth.
Mrs Yap, tribute goes to you for your support and encouragement in this opportunity, you are very instrumental in the knowledge I had gained from the sales and the procedures as well. To my new-found friends of the RPA committee who had firstly allowed us to set up our booth, helped us rally support for our cause or helped me in one way or another.
My group mates, thank you for your support and involvement in this last minute sales, even though it’s a Saturday and you guys stayed back etc etc. Come on as one with a common vision of success we will lead our projects to higher altitudes; we will be the pioneer for future batches who will look up to us.
We can and we will do it.
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