I spent last Saturday morning at UniKL-RCMP, Ipoh, manning our exhibition booth during their Open Day. On Thursday I got a call from the organisers saying that all the booths are to be ready by 7.30 am, and we could start setting up our booths on Friday after 2 pm if we wanted to. I figured I might as well set up the booth on Friday so that we didn’t have to rush on Saturday morning.
But when I got there at 3 pm, the organisers themselves weren’t really ready yet. Yes, the tents were there but that was about it. So my colleague and I just put the posters on our exhibition boards and left our things under the tent. The organisers did say they hired extra security for the day.
Like it or not, on Saturday morning, I still had to leave home early. Promised the same colleague to meet up at the booth at 7.15 am so that we could get everything set up by 7.30 am. Again, when we went, the organisers themselves weren’t ready. Our table was not set up yet, and I ended up carrying the board for the table myself from another tent. We still had to wait for the tablecloth from the organisers before we could start arranging our brochures, collar pins and key-chains on the table.
Turned out some participants only came after 8.30 am, and the official opening only started at 10 am. Duh!
My colleague had to go off by 9.30 am as she had to attend another function elsewhere, so I was manning the booth alone until the next shift of volunteers were supposed to come at 11.30 am. While waiting at the booth I decided to send text messages to my clients to inform them of the arrangements for our coming Family Day. Kak Mar called me back immediately. She said she may not be able to reach Ipoh by 8 am and asked if it was okay if she arrived a bit later, maybe by 8.30 am. I understand for some of them especially those staying quite far, it will not be easy to reach Ipoh by 8 am. But since the volunteer fetching Kak Mar, will head immediately to the venue of our Family Day in her car instead of joining the rest to assemble near our centre before boarding the bus, I suppose being a bit late for Kak Mar is okay since it will not affect the rest of the group.
Then Hana replied my SMS. She was in another state, sending her daughter to a private college offering UiTM courses. Hana did call me before seeking my opinion if her daughter should accept the offer (the college would arrange for PTPTN loans, but the registration fee of RM2,000 was to be arranged by the students themselves by seeking help from either Baitulmal or whatever state Yayasan). It had been a few times already that Hana’s daughter had been getting offers from private colleges. I told Hana it was up to them to decide whether to accept or not, but I made it clear that our financial assistance for the children’s education only covers up to secondary school… in case she starts asking us to help out with the registration fee etc.
Looks like they decided to take up the offer after all. I suppose she did manage to get help with the RM2K registration fee. So it’s bye-bye form 6 for Hana’s daughter.
On Sunday, as I had promised earlier, I went to visit Azlan, Sofie’s son who got the offer to IKM. There’s still a balance in his sponsorship account and so I used up the balance to buy postal orders worth RM350 which is required as registration fees when he reports on 25th June. Azlan wasn’t home when I went to visit, he was working, so I passed whatever necessary to his Aunt Rozi. According to Rozi, Azlan had yet to start filling in the forms etc. Neither had he done his medical check-up nor opened up the required bank account. And he plans to work until Friday, 22nd June. Gosh! So when on earth is he going to do his medical check up, open up the bank account etc? Apparently, according to Rozi, he did take 2 days leave the week before. Supposedly, he should have done whatever that needed to be done. Rozi had to go to work (she will need to take leave when sending Azlan for registration on 25th and she has taken so many days leave already when Sofie had to be hospitalised and after Sofie’s death), and since Azlan is big enough to do things for himself, she left it totally to Azlan.
But the 2 days he took leave was wasted doing nothing. Nope, no medical check up, no opening of bank account. In fact he hadn’t even filled in a single thing in the form! I guess he thought there was still ample time. Or he expected his aunt to bring him around to do whatever necessary. Sigh…
I told Rozi to tell Azlan that it is by order of yours truly that Azlan must stop work immediately to settle whatever necessary before he goes to register for the 2 year course. I think by tomorrow I’d better check again to see if anything had been done at all.
1 comment:
That right there did not really went smoothly. That sucks, because you then have to face unnecessary hassles that you would not have to face if the organizers were just doing what they were supposed to do.
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