Community Initiative (4) - Family Day

I attended the Bandar Utama Family Day Carnival at BU3/1 Community Hall last Sunday. I must said that the event organised by the Bandar Utama Residents Association was the biggest ever organised by a CBO that i have attended. Various fun-filled, friendly and informative activities were there for the big crowd. According to Mr Lim See Meng, the organising chairman, he and the team have concentrated full time on the event for the past three weeks.

Organising a community event can be a difficult task or an easy jobs, depending on what level of impact and participation. It can be a small gathering with free food or it can be a paid event for like-minded people to gather. It is very much subjected to the target group we are talking about and the objectives that we are trying to achieve. For example, for the purpose of introducing a new subject such as implementation of recycling activity, a lot of efforts is needed to convince the residents that it is a worthy project. On the other hand, we do not need to make a special effort in inviting people to attend to object any new development project constructed in front of their house. The people will take their initiative to organise and to attend to such briefing sessions. People are choosy in participation. They are only interested to spend time for things affected them directly rather than to attend to functions that have invisible impacts on them. This is a challenge in community development.

My perception on this changed after witnessing the big turnout at Bandar Utama. I believe if an event is well organised, the people will come forward no matter how. It will definitely require wholehearted collective efforts, and importantly innovation and creativity. Perhaps for a successful community event organised by MBPJ, such approach should be applied. We could learn from the community or even to out-source to the CBO for helping us in organising such events.