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for those who would like to read our post-mortem thoughts, here goes:

Venue

Food

Events

Logistics

Protocol

Technical and Equipment

Decorations

Publicity

Money Matters

Survey Results (last updated: 18/9/2008)

General

Final Thoughts

once again thanks for those who have responded. your feedback means a lot to us.

to those who said that Malam was just bad all the way and that you might/will never go to Malam again, thank you for your raw honesty :)

i do feel really bad and with deepest regrets, on behalf of the team, i apologise that we did not manage to make Malam an enjoyable one for you. however i do hope that you will give the team next year a chance to prove themselves.

to those who said that you had a great time - your encouragements do mean a lot to us - to know that our efforts have not gone entirely down the drain. thank you! :)

Malam means a lot to me personally. and that's why i do take each comment very seriously and think and reflect. your comments have shown us what we've done right, what we have not done right, and helped us to learn from our mistakes, and also to accept failure as a stepping stone to success.

in all, thank you for helping me grow up a little bit more ;)

have a great week ahead and hope to see you at the AGM on saturday! :)

Post-Mortem

We just had our post-mortem and final meeting. The following posts will be some responses to the survey and also some matters that we have discussed.

all in all, i hope that the following posts will be helpful to you if you are thinking of being in the Malam committee next year. Even if you are not going to be in any committee, perhaps the following posts might give you some insights on organizing events and running projects.

before i start rambling, grateful thanks to those who have seen me through and giving me a chance - especially Mark Hii and Seng Cheng and Prakash and Joshua (year 2006 Malam coordinators). Also once again, a thousand of thanks to the team! your dedication and commitment made things happen! :)

i won't be able to share everything here on the blog. But i do keep everything in a folder so feel free to grab the Malam folder fromme and you would have lots and lots of information there :)
Please do feel free to have a chat with any of us if you need more information etc. Especially to those who are going to do Malam next year - we will be more than happy to spend some time with you to share our thoughts and help in any way that we can :) Coz that's the spirit of pass it on :)

Post-Mortem: General

in general:

• Great MCs u had there!
• MCs!!

thanks! Navin and Chu May will be really encouraged to hear this! :D By the way, this is the first time that they are emcee-ing a function. am grateful to the friends who have suggested Navin and Chu May! and also super grateful that they agreed to do it! yay! :D

• Nice attempt... Also good job on reducing the ticket price, I know u guys put much effort in that, perhaps put as much effort in the actual event itself, that's the part the audience see and feel...

thanks for the acknowledgment on the ticket price :)

anyway, in all honesty, i think we did put in as much effort as we could for the actual event. well, perhaps, taking a step back and putting myself in the shoes of someone who has perhaps attended Malam quite a few times, well, i might perhaps say the same thing. or perhaps this is your first time attending Malam. well, i dunno who you are, but imagining myself as a guest and an audience, ya, perhaps i might say this too. coz thinking back - not everything was really up to par :p anyway, do refer to the post on performances :p and thanks for your honest feedback! :) it's great!

on another tone, for my team and my dear friends, kindlye bear with my honesty and perhaps even biasness as i say this: yes, we might have fallen short of your (and some other people) expectations, but for four full months - the team has sacrificed a lot to make Malam happen - that effort is already worth applauding. the sleepless nights, the stress, the sacrifice, the commitment, the meetings they have to attend, the plannings, the effort to bring people together for rehearsals etc etc... :)

however, i always have to remind myself that sometimes it's the result that matters.. it's like i could have poured hours into studying but still not do well in my exam.. :p so regardless of the effort, sometimes it's the result that matters. so perhaps, my efforts weren't still enough. the irony of life?

anyway, please bear with me and hope that you will be able to understand my sentiments for my team :)

constructive criticisms leads to growth. so ya, thank you again for your i do believe that we are capable to do better and with all well-wishes, may the team next year pull off a great show!!

• Very well done especially the team members' effort. Keep up the good work.
• Job well done.
• Great job. Well done.
• Bernard looks cool!
• generally well organised. :) Loved the level of commitment put in by the comittee
• It was a well-thought out event! You guys gave much thought to making it like "home"...and the jokes were funny as!
  

i have a feeling that the above comments are mainly from those who have been seeing the team working and preparing for Malam :p anyway, even if you aren't, thanks for the encouragements. and to those who have been seeing us through the whole Malam process, giving us the moral support and encouragements, especially my flatmates when i was so stressed with the financial part, THANK YOU very much!!!

Final thoughts

start early!

i was late in setting up the committee and applying for grants. grr. i suffered the consequences.

so ya, if someone decided that i'm wise enough to give an advice, it would be:
start as early as you can!

especially for the grants! even if you dun have a committee yet - it's okay - as long as you have your top 4 and a sponsorship team - get the money and MAS ticket in A.S.A.P.!!!

a BIG team
one of the reasons of having such a big team (yes, about 30 of us) was so that we could involve more people in organizing Malam. that's 'home' by itself.

if you were with us during our Malam prep, you might have witnessed firsthand the unity and teamwork amongst the team was just so.. warm! that was home.

most of the team are 1st and 2nd year students, some of them have not attended Malam before - that's also why we brought them into the team - you always need to start somewhere. also we need to 'train up' new leaders. can't always be the old people doing the work kan? :p

dear team,

thank you for teaching me things along the way! it was great getting to know each of you better. how to relate to you; how to handle and solve issues; how to respect; how to care.. and even how to have fun amidst the stress :)

i hope that each of you have picked up a few skills along the way; gained some new experiences; made some new friends... and had fun! :D may Malam 2o08 be a sweet memory for you! :)


btw, i know the excuse of time and budget constraints might not be very acceptable... things such as.. aih. we are all students also ma. need to study for tests and do assignments leh! aiyo. no money, how to be grand ler? bili-bala-bili-bala... anyway, one thing that made me proud of the team is that despite their busy schedule, despite the budget constraints, they still managed to work within their limitations and they were still very committed to doing what they are supposed to do. despite the flaws and weaknesses, despite the challenges we have to overcome, i'm glad that we all managed to pull through!

also, not forgetting the CMSA 2008 committee who helped out in any way they could, thank you! :D

and also, to each of you who have been visiting this blog and bearing with my long posts, those who have seen us through and gave us advice, those who have done the pre-Malam and post-Malam surveys, and most importantly, you gave us a chance and attended Malam 2008,

THANK YOU!!!

come to think of it, aren't we all in ONE BIG TEAM? working together to achieve a single goal - bringing home closer! :D

go team! :D

anyway, this might or might not be the final post for the blog. depends. haha. perhaps the team next year will continue on with the blog; perhaps not - it's up to them. we'll see.

thanks for visiting this blog! good luck for your final few weeks of the last term in uni!

(^^)9

Post-Mortem: Venue

Most people thought that it was average.

We had comments saying that the hall was too wide with the reference point as the stage. Guests sitting at the sides of the ballroom were not able to see the performances clearly. A person suggested that it would be better to get a squarish hall rather than a long one.

Had a few comments saying that it was congested. We should also work on the seating plan. Someone mentioned a careful consideration of the location of charis, tables etc for easier viewing. And also allocate strategic space for performaers to dance and move in/out from performances.

the story:

once again, APOLOGIES!!!!!

man, i've been saying a lot of sorry's. but sigh, well, still, sorry.

anyway, these are some thoughts and explanations from us:

• we looked out at least 4-5 venues before deciding;
• btw, CHCH has a limited number of hotels that has a hall that can fit such a large number of people (i.e. more than 150 people);
• after taking into account as many factors we can think of (you can see me if you want to have a look at our analysis folder :p), we decided that though this might not be the best, but it would be the best amongst the rest - not only in terms of the package that they offer us, but also the overall ambience was really cosy;
• basically we have to work within our limitations.
  

some lessons to learn from:

• where would be a better venue?
• make sure that we get to use the venue during the day - and not only an hour before the event. it's a long story for that - but anyway, hope the next committee will be very insistent on this the next time :)
• anyway, having the venue during the day will definitely give us more time to solve unexpected problems
  

A friend suggested to use the UCSA ballroom instead of a hotel ballroom - which wil probably save money and even make things grander. Also, the location of the UCSA ballroom is quite good for most students.

the story:
i had a wee chat with the ballroom manager. however the cost was about the same as renting the hotel ballroom we had this year. and since most people in the survey said they would prefer the hotel ballroom - so ya.

anyway, i think this is definitely an option that the next committee should consider :)

Post-Mortem: Food

my response will be in blue...

• food refill process too slow. couldnt get any chicken or lamb until Ka Mun came to us.
• clarify on buffet table settings. allow for seconds. soup run out. hmm.
  
• Food delay
• Just the waiting for the food.
  
• Besides having to wait until 9pm for the food, there is nothing much to complain about. Just one thing, I didn't like the soup. Hehe. ya, i heard about the soup - it was okay initially but it went cold and lumpy eventually... sorry about that!
  
• You know that food was so slow...we were really starving! Maybe provide abit more finger food on the table next time... so we can munch to alleviate our hunger...

i know it wouldn't help much, but sincerely, sorry, sorry, and sorry.
we have e-mailed the hotel and are waiting for a feedback from them. we are really regretful for what has happened about the food flow; but we have also learnt that from now on, whatever agreements that we have with our events manager or whoever's in-charge: always write in black-and-white! be as detailed as we can get! keep asking and clarifying!

anyway, overall i think the food was still quite yummy - especially the lamb curry! :p

• VIPs were too late! Had to wait for food. there's a story behind it. sigh. anyway, thanks to the person who suggested that we could perhaps pick up the VIPs so that everything can start on time. will bear that suggestion in mind :)
  
  
• I think Lam did a very good job by giving out vouchers and entertaining the people as they wait for their turns to get the food
• I also like the idea of having many vouchers and surprises on the day. It helped easing up the hunger while waiting for the food.

once again, thanks Ka-Mun!!! :D

• Heard the chocolate cake wasn't bad.
• Food was quite good and filling too!!

whew. thanks for some positive feedback :p

• Serve some Malaysian food.
• Should have Nasi Lemak! Haha...

i miss proper malaysian food too! but anyway, let me explain a few issues here and hope you will understand why we aren't able to serve Malaysian food :)

1. The Food & Beverages law here do not allow outside food to be brought into the hotel;
2. The hotel does not allow for outside caterer;
3. If you want to get an outside caterer, normally we can go to a community hall to do so - but there comes a whole lot of other issues - too much to be handled and i dun think we are ready to do so;
   
4. At the moment, we do not see a caterer who might be able to provide for such a capacity. Even if they can do the numbers, what about the financial costs? what about the quality of the food?
   
5. have a chat with Ka-Mun :p

anyway, if you want some good Malaysian food, can always check out the Malaysian halal food shop on Riccarton road!! it's called Malaysian Flavours and it's a few shops away from Cash Converters! :D

anyway, thanks for the feedback. perhaps the committees to come could consider working on this side, i.e. serving malaysian food - but ya, these are our considerations and we decided to stick to something that can help save manpower and time ;)

Post-Mortem: Events

Performances

Fashion Show

• Fashion Show:
  
• Fashion show was great! Should have more of those kind of performances in future rather than always singing and dancing.

i thought it was fun too ;) i remember when Bern mentioned about the fashion show, i was quite sceptical. i told him that it has to be different from the typical cat-walk thing - hehe - being quite bossy then :P but they managed to pull it off! huhu. someone told me about trusting and i'm glad that it was a risk well-taken ;)

some people asked: how about the ibans and kadazans and bidayuhs? urm. maybe next times? there might be quite some issues involved though.. talk to Bernard for more information :p

R.A.M.
for those who have been here long enough and have seen lots of R.A.M. performances which are really good in my humble opinion, i would say that this time round, it wasn't one of their best performances.

however, given that:

• most of the dancers were first-year students;
• most of the senior dancers have graduated and gone home; or either that they are final year students;
• the president of R.A.M. met with a serious car accident and has been on wheelchair;
  
• the main and perhaps sole choreographer had a 5-day field trip during the Malam week...
  

so ya, what happened to R.A.M.? that's what happened. but let's continue to hope and pray that they will be able to get over these tough times. i call it a 'gap issue'. Hopefully with more students coming in next year, R.A.M. would be able to come back again! Gambate!! :D

Boy Band
i am not sure about you but i had fun :p not that i am a boy band fan.. but ya.. these guys were cool! :D

Unplugged band

yes, we agreed that the singing was rather... long. actually, perhaps the next team can come out with something more entertaining that mere singing. hmm. wasn't special enough.

Rehearsals

• more involvement of the tech crew during rehearsals;
• should confirm and prepare earlier;
• punctuality very important;
• be more well-organized and planned during rehearsals.

Overall

• I expected better performances, but I guess it would be too much to ask from fellow students...
• Better performance, more variety... I don't think the theme actually came out during the event...well, maybe the advertisement videos...

yes indeed, i believe that we could have done better and there is indeed much room for improvement. thanks for bearing with us :)

a few of us attended a charity culutral night hosted by the Canterbury Medical Students' Association. it was an awesome night and we had so much fun too! will definitely learn some stuff from them ;)

with regards to the theme. well. urm. apologies that we might not have done enough to bring out the theme. some said that we did live up to the theme. but ya, it's good to know that some people think otherwise.

i think it's much more than just the performances that will bring out the theme - perhaps it's the overall and general atmosphere of the night. personally i feel that the team has worked hard to do what they can to bring out the theme - and i applaud them. but well, perhaps it just wasn't enough or perhaps not what you expected. but ya, we can always do better and will always have room for improvement. so to the next committee: good luck in choosing your theme and hope you can bring it out well! :D

Audience participation
we really wanted to get more audience participation and we had a game ready. but due to time constraints, we cancelled it.

with regards to having best-dressed or beauty queen etc, i personally wasn't keen with that idea.

firstly, time constraint. from what happened during the night, dun think we will have enough time to do one.

secondly, the organization of it. what would be a 'fair' way to decide who is the winner? who chooses the winner? if the crowd, how should we do the voting system? etc etc. might not be too much effort - but it's too much effort for me :p

thirdly, from previous experiences, i found it rather... meaningless. coz i can't see anything constructive or purposeful out of it. ok, maybe it could be fun - but we need to have good crowd participation for it to be fun. i wasn't ready to gamble on that so we didn't do it. but ya, next time round, this is for the next committee to decide.

Lucky draws
many people said that Ka-Mun really did a good job! especially the suspense for the MAS ticket grand prize! three cheers for Ka-Mun!!!

Dance floor

• lack of time... so ya.. oh well..