You were in the organizing committee for the school funfair

Topic: You were in the organizing committee for the school funfair – Describe the experience.

Outline:
1. Describe the organizing committee you were serving in.
2. Describe the meetings and the other committee members.
3. Describe the problems faced in the meetings.
4. Describe how the committee was divided into smaller groups to solve the problems.

The tradition in my school is to have a funfair in the middle of each academic year. Every year, a representative from each secondary two class will be nominated to be in the organizing committee. To my surprise, I was selected to represent my class. The meetings began about six months before the actual event. The person who was selected as the Chairman of the organizing committee, turned out to be the school’s top student. Unfortunately, she lacked leadership qualities. She was unable to control the meetings. Almost every committee member had her own ideas, thoughts and opinions and not one person was willing to compromise. Each insisted upon her own ideas being implemented. Several meetings took place and much the same happened. As the weeks passed, little progress was made. Some of the members blatantly criticized the others’ ideas. The meetings were a time of utter chaos and were wholly unconstructive.

When a presentation was made of our proposals to our principal, she was quite impressed with the number of ideas but she was displeased that we had left the decision of which idea to implement to her. She refused to get involved and insisted that we come up with the solution ourselves.

Someone finally suggested that we split the organizing committee into several groups and each group be in charge of a certain area. Therefore, three groups of four people were formed, to take charge of the food, decorations and the ticket sale. It was much easier now to work together. Compromises were reached, and each group came up with brilliant ideas for its specialized area.

The School Funfair finally turned out to be a great success. I certainly have realized the importance of compromise in group work.