Making Assyrian Conventions more Fun and Beneficial, once again!
By: Ashur Sada. Feb. 20th, 2006
We are 6 months away from this year's convention in beautiful San Diego, and
people are already excited, and can't wait. But are our convention really
fun and useful anymore? not if you ask a lot of the people who went to the
recent few conventions. They may have had fun, but they will also tell you that
it was a big mess and an embarrassment for Assyrians. Our conventions are
moving away from the original purpose for which they were created. While
these conventions still help in getting Assyrians closer to each other, they are
also helping in making our image a not very good one. Action need to be taken
immediately, otherwise, our convention will soon become a thing of the past.
Eliminate Bad Behavior
What constitutes bad behavior? how about someone who presses every button on the
elevator on purpose, to make it stop in every floor and in turn frustrate
people? Or how about someone who throws the big and expensive Plasma TV in his
room, down the window? these and many other examples are just a small fraction
of the many things that happen on the floor, and give us a very bad image.
This bad behavior need to be eliminated, and its main sources to be held
responsible. To start, any person held responsible for an offence or a
misdoing, while in the convention, should automatically be banned for the next
two conventions. Related to that, and without which bad behavior screening
wouldn't be possible, convention officials should rely on the use of badges and
make it a must. That is, every member should have their photo-holding badges
worn at all times. This way, other people can quickly report bad guys to
authorities. In fact, they should go further and create a central database, that
will contain the names of all convention attendees. This database should contain
records from previous years as well as the current year in question. Any
misconduct by a certain person would be logged in this database. Over time, a
clear pattern will start emerging about the misbehaving person(s) and that will
lead to their expulsion from the convention and a two year future ban from all
conventions.
Make it more Useful and Educational
To say or suggest that our Assyrian conventions are not fun, is a far cry from
reality. Because in reality, the convention is a fun place and time for people
to be. But that is not the problem. The problem is that conventions
have become just that: fun and chaos, and not much else. The educational
and informational parts of it are slowly being pushed to the brink, with less
and less attention being given to them. You often hear that educational
sessions and lectures are attended by far fewer people than the parties at
night. It doesn't have to be that way. In a sense, we should be thankful
to be able to gather this many Assyrians in one place, from all around the
world. If there is any good time to reach this many Assyrians, it is in
the conventions. Instead of wasting most resources on parties and picnics,
more should be spent on the educational part. Lectures, presentations and other
forms of public awareness should be reviewed by convention officials, in order
to draw a larger crowds. For example, and as an incentive, people who
attend such educational and political events, as well as sports events, should
be given an automatic discount to enter into other activities, including the
evening social functions. And to make it more interesting for people,
convention officials should try to invite the most popular and influential
celebrities in our Assyrian political and media world. And why not go the
extra mile and hold political debates between politicians, and here is one to
start with: Sam Darmo from Ashur TV vs. Sargon Dadisho from Betnahrain TV!
Fix it now before it is too Late!
Assyrians have already been banned from more than one hotel, in various cities,
following all the chaos and mess resulting from their use of these facilities.
This trend is expected to continue, unless some of the recommendations above are
taken and enacted. The convention as an event, needs to be reevaluated
completely. Convention officials have done a pretty good job over the years and
decades since the first convention was held. But the focus has slowly been
shifting. It has been a shift from making the convention a place where
Assyrians meet one another and get something useful and good done, to a place
where you try to make the most money possible in the shortest span of days
possible. And for others, to get to meet the most girls or guys in the span of
few days; it is our version of the 'Super Dater.' Failing to take proper
measures to make conventions more useful and professional, will lead to that
shameful day: where Assyrians will have to go back to holding the convention in
a small banquet hall, with everything and everyone crammed in a small space!
|
|
