Team Player

This morning I had the pleasure of meeting with a woman from the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) to discuss how best to handle sponsorships and donations for the Red Dress Gala & Fashion Show I’m organizing for next February. She was extremely helpful, and as I was telling her more about my event, she suggested I set up an event committee. This isn’t the first time someone’s brought up this idea. 

I know that planning a gala dinner and fashion show is a lot of work for one person to do, but I struggle with the idea of having an official team of helpers. 

One reason I chose to host a red dress gala for my individual professional project (IPP) is because it’s an event I’ve organized before, but never had the opportunity to see through. A university student group I used to be involved with started to plan a similar event back in 2010. Unfortunately, there were too many people involved and things weren’t getting done when they needed to be. It can also be hard when there are too many clashing personalities working together on such a big project. Because this event didn’t go smoothly, I’m a tad reluctant to work on this gala with multiple people involved. It’s hard relying on different people for different things because no matter what happens, everything will come down to me. 

Another reason for my skepticism about working with a committee is the fact that I want to get as much experience from this project as possible. I’ve learned a ton of new skills during this year of CreComm, and I’m anxious to put them all to good use so I can strengthen them at every possible opportunity. There are so many aspects of this gala event and I want to be deeply involved in all of them. 

At the end of the day I guess I want all of the work done for the gala to be my own. Not because I don’t think I can work well with others, or that I’m above needing any sort of help, but just so I can prove to others and myself that I can do this; that I have the skills and the ambition to take on a big project and carry it out successfully. Not only is the success of the event important because the proceeds are going to a great cause, or because it’s failure would mean a later graduation date than expected, but it will be my calling card for jobs that lead me into the career of my dreams. 

No matter what’s happened in the past or what can happen in the future, I know the smart thing to do is to seek out some help. It is a big task and although I feel I can handle the workload on my own, what I have to realize is that once I get a big girl job, I’ll always be working in a team. Sure there will be challenges and not everything will go according to plan, but who says I won’t come across those obstacles on my own?  Having help doesn’t mean throwing in the towel or accepting defeat; it’s what I need to do. 

So I guess you’ll be the first to know, I am now looking for volunteers to be on the red dress event committee. 

Details coming soon!