Skill Marathon – An Experience

As one by one the concluding tasks of the Skill Marathon are getting completed the excitement is slowly wearing off. Skill Marathon was a unique event organized by iVolunteer which had the entire team excited and anxious at the same time. For me, it was a very new concept, something totally unheard of, and to get an opportunity to work on it was very exhilarating.

I was coordinating with the various NGOs and Social Enterprises, helping them define their volunteering requirements, understanding the deliverables they are expecting so that the same can be shared with the volunteers for setting the right expectation.

During this entire process the best part was to realize the projects we had received from 7 different organizations were as different as the causes the organizations worked on. We had projects ranging from updating the website to a small training on bookkeeping, from business development plan to SEO, from social media revamping to designing template, from PPT creation to product designing and so on.

Though exciting it may sound, there were hurdles at all stages, which at times slowed our pace a little but, could not dampen our spirits to make this engagement a success. For instance the concept was new for all participants and it was difficult to explain it to assure that projects can be completed in half a day and completing 20 skill based projects in half a day is a viable model.

The project requirements were reworked with fresh developments every day. Some projects had to be dropped, lot of organizations were not clear with what exactly was the end deliverable that they were expecting from the volunteer. Once that was done finding suitable volunteers for the projects to meet their revised needs was another Hercules task.

While we were getting grips of the situation with the match making one of the NGO drop out because they were not were not available on the day of the engagement and another one just couple of days before.

Inspite of all the challenges on the day of Skill Marathon, 19 out of which 17 projects were completed on the day itself and the 2 were to be continued offline. It was amazing to see different organization and volunteers connecting with each other and the vibes that were building in the premises were eclectic. Every project completed increased our confidence and reduced our apprehensions. At the end of the day when the organizations left happy with their projects completed and the volunteers left satisfied and asking for more such opportunities, we knew the day was a great success.

All in all, though the journey was not very easy but it was surely very exhilarating and satisfying.