On a cold Saturday morning, 22 people travelled from far and wide to meet at Idara-e-Jaaferiya mosque in Tooting, South London, for the Annual Committee Meeting of the IUS IHBDC. Amongst the crowd was Aimen Al-Diwani, the head of this campaign and Ali Jaffri, who was another prolific member of the committee. As it was my first time there, (I had joined 2 months before), I had no idea what to expect. It seems like I wasn’t the only one, as some had only joined a couple of weeks before.
Looking back at it, there were many highlights of the day, which started with Aimen leading the icebreaker activity where we introduced one another and made new friends. We then had a break for salaat, followed by snacks. Next came the campaign summary, which was split into different sections. One section I remember clearly was the social media summary, delivered by Haroon, as I never knew how much social media affected the campaign, for example we found out that our most liked post was the IHBDC debate with the Scottish national party which was viewed over 4000 times. Then came the food, which was a choice of deliciously cooked lamb and chicken wraps. Mouth-watering indeed!
The awards were given after, for fields such as best “handyman” and best “lone shark”. I liked this part as it gave all the newbies an aim for next year. (I’m hoping to win IHBDC best chai drinker next year…).
We then split up into the relevant sub-committee groups, such as Ambassadors and Web Development, to talk about our progress and plans for the coming year. We ended with a nice surprise visit from Zahra Shirzad, Trustee of IUS. She gave us a workshop on leadership, which included activities such as making a Rolls Royce from crafts supplies and a heated debate on whether leaders are made or born. The debate still continues today.
Overall, it was a great success, an enjoyable experience, and everyone benefitted from this. I know I did.
Self-account by Maisam-Reza M Khaku
