self reflection

Self-reflection on event volunteering

Helping in the growth of the society is every man assignment. Volunteering is one way of supporting that progress. As it’s my first assignment in volunteering, it was an incredible experience for myself. It started when the teacher divided us in groups and asks us to find an organization to have contact with and have a plan for our volunteering project ready before we start working with that group. It was a challenge for me because I must get out of my comfort zone; I always struggled interacting with people so I have to overcome this problem. After that I asked a friend who helped me in finding a new team called Absher who had some experience in volunteering with takatof and starts there own group which is sponsored by the military. So I contacted them and had my plan ready to submit it.

Absher team organized an introduction meeting and a quick summary on what we will be volunteering in, without explaining our job, which put us as volunteers in a stress mode because we didn’t know what we would be doing on that event. A volunteer is deferent from employees, they don’t know what they have to do until a short notice and most of them are not trained.

So at the end of March there was an event called ISNR, which is been organized by the minister of defense. And absher team was contacted to bring some volunteers who can help in organizing a part of an event, which is the fire fighter completion section.

            As in my experience with events in my job I know what is a well organized event. And I was shocked that there weren’t even close to ready at the day of opining.

The player’s stage wasn’t ready and seating places were not shaded. So they had postponed the competitions between the players three hours later.

The event was three days long I had some obstacles throw these days, like some volunteers aren’t responsible enough to do their job as organizers and guiders. Others like the event instructor who has no idea how to be a leader and take responsibility for his wrong orders.

I learned that having a good tem to work with is the number one requirement in a successful event. Also having a leader who knows how to guide people and takes employees suggestions in the event development helping is also a need for this.

As for volunteering experience some of the good experience that I had with it is I over come the problem that’s involved cooperating with people.

The next time I volunteer in an event or even an organization I will choose a good crew, assign a person who takes responsibilities for his actions a leader and make sure that instructors know about our struggles when volunteering

ISNR Volunteering Event

·      Introduction

In the beginning I’m going to give brief information about the event and its history then I’m going to move forward to the preparations of the event and how each member got his role in the volunteering process, then I’ll explain my role within the event and the challenges I faced and how I acted in order to achieve the best result. Then I’m going to mention what happened after the event and my role in this community.

·      About ISNR

ISNR is a shortcut to the “International exhibition for Security and National Resilience” which is a platform that is organized every two years by the ministry of interior and reed Exhibitions. It takes place in Abu Dhabi, ADNEC where approximately 400 companies from 40 different companies join for three days to compete for the world’s best firefighter title and to exhibit the modern technologies and techniques to enhance security and safety thru trade.  

The event is currently in its 6^th edition and it became the most popular security event in the Middle East due to hard efforts of the government to ensure the high slandered equipment’s in safety and the collaborations of various government and privet sectors throughout the world.

after ISNR event

·      Post the Event

After the event the certificates of the volunteers where mixed with the player’s certificates so the administration decided to make a mini ceremony for the team and give us our certificates and they said they will give some volunteers financial rewards. So few days later the leader created two BlackBerry groups for the team one for team announcements the second for public discussions which we still use until today.  The third group is just for the manager me and three other supervisors who cooperated with me to organize the event. Furthermore we met a week ago to decide whom attended and whom didn’t, and those who deserve the financial gift which were almost 28 of the volunteers as the event manager said. After that meeting the event manager decided that the number was a bit high and he limited it down to 20 volunteers. However the negotiations are still under process.

ISNR third day

The Third day of the Event

The final day of the event was the hardest. There were a lot of guests and VIPs coming to the event so the whole event had to be way better than any other days and my team and I did make sure that the event goes smoothly. However there were some issues as the first day. First thing the weather was windier than both the first and second day which knocked down the fence of barriers so we rearranged the whole structure to make the barrier itself in a zigzag style and the water hose was straight crossing the barrier from beneath.

Secondly the misbehavior of one of the teams which in the break between the first part and the second

part of the tournament, the team went to the VIP section and kept eating from the pistachio and snacks that are meant for the VIPs. Moreover they threw the leftovers on the floor and some remained on the table when there was garbage on both sides of the isle. Asking the nice janitors to clean the mess and requesting restocking of water, snacks and pistachio wasn’t hard because I became a good friend of the event manager.

One of the problems that I had is how to contain the anger caused by some of the local visitors that want to go sit in the VIP section when they have a normal guest pass. In the break time I allowed them to sit there however I notified them once the VIPs come I would be forced to ask them kindly to proceed to the public seating. Once he sat down he came back claiming he’s a VIP so I asked him to leave the VIP area to go to the Public seating but he got upset and left the event area. A similar occurrence happened however I didn’t allow the guy to enter the VIP section and apologized ahead of time for any inconvenience.


Finally the manager of the team requested that the young volunteers to be part of the final ceremony which was not included in the program so I talked with the event manager and he agreed but in the right time so I kept one of the volunteers to stay with them so they can enter at the right time. Finally we had been thanked for our efforts by the general major and several other high officials in the ministry of interior for our efforts and then we took a group photo to remember some of the nice and educating moments that will inspire our future.

ISNR second day

·      The Second day of the Event

The second day was a little bit better, less stress and more volunteers whom decided to show up only for the morning period mostly guys, those who tried to seem that they are there within the event to get a certificate.

Organizing the event wasn’t stable for me the rules and regulations constantly change to create a perfectly organized event. I remember in the days prior to the event the playing team’s friends and coaches ran all the way behind the boarders to support the team and that area was meant for VIP guests and media coverage.  So by the second day I managed to meet with the event manager and the coaches to allow only one person per team whom are playing to either coach or tape the event. This created a bit of a concern because they need both. So I

suggested to move the barrier that separated the teams area and the VIP area a bit forward which managed to satisfy both ends since they can tape behind the barrier and we have a tidy place in the VIP section. Even thou some teams tend to break the rules it was best to put one tough volunteer to hold that gate.  

ISNR first day

·      The First day of the Event

The first official day of the event was a chaos to normal volunteers. The event opening ceremony got delayed due to weather conditions as well as the expectance of H.H.Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed AlNhayan to start the opening ceremony of the event. The volunteers went inside the exhibition building to rest and protect themselves from the windy weather. After contacting the event manager he said he needed help supporting the barriers so I suggested tying the barriers together and with the help of some of the volunteers we successfully managed to do so this made the barrier stronger and durable to windy situation and to enhance that the fire fighters suggested to put a water hose in a zigzag style beneath the barrier to stabilize the legs of the barrier.

After preparing and adjusting for the event ceremony I went to call upon the rest of the volunteers however some of them where missing and the rest were not serious enough knowing that the manager isn’t around. So I talked to them about the importance of showing the foreigners how civilized and modern our country is, and how much the UAE have given us and we should return the favor by resisting the weather conditions. So they became motivated and they stayed for the whole two shifts all the way through the event. Unfortunately from that day forward the number of volunteers stabilized to those whom participated in the first day which were roughly 30 volunteers. Even thou that some of my class colleagues where included in the volunteers list but they didn’t show up not even in the preparatory session.

That day was filled with excitement when the young volunteers did the opening ceremony

dance the whole team had a sense of accomplishment because the kids have been training all day for the past three days just for this day.