Did Get (h) me, Get me?

A year really went by!! The year where Get(h)me, gets you is actually ending in two days and oh boy the things I can look back into.

The year started with a whole lot of unfamiliar terms like RMIS, RI dues, PHP, IPDRR, etc. As well a set of confusions that any president would encounter in the first few days, months. If you are a president-elect or a new president who’s reading this, fret not whatever you’re feeling is pretty normal and it too will pass. Well, the RI Year 2022/23 of RotaractArts started with a whole bunch of projects and initiatives organized by the Executive Committee (EXCO) and the Board of Directors (BOD). Everyone slowly got accustomed to their respective roles; not to mention the general members and the junior batch joining the avenues who eagerly pitched their ideas. This was something that motivated me, and I guess everyone else as well. To be honest the year was not at all a walk in the park cause carrying on a mission and a vision for an entire year needs constant motivation. Not to seem all “bleh” but there were times where I too had to find that motivation because you just want to be a general member and not the president who would eventually have to overlook everything.

I know I will get two more speeches in the transition meeting and in the 14^th installation (as if the new committee haven’t already had it with my talking all the time), but this will be the documented expression of gratitude to my team.

Starting with the Board of Directors! My! My! The drive these people had to carry on all those projects, reports, hundreds of call partners, and sponsors of projects were next level where they made me feel that I needed to up my president game.

Jayani, our international service director whose calls I would never take with the loudspeaker on. Keep the financial crisis aside, she got the chance to travel virtually to both India and Pakistan and had fellowships and random meetings with them. Though your position came to you as a surprise, let me tell you, we made the right decision “Ms. International.”

Sarasi, if you have seen her, you’d know why she was our Ms. Professional Development. You would see a girl always with a smile, elegantly dressed most of the time. Apart from the little panic attacks she has, she did a fantastic job. An additional thank you for the 122.3km trip to Kandy for “Writing Clinic 3.0”, that is still a core memory of the year.

The director who HUSTLED this year – Buddhimali, our Community Service Director. We all know this is no easy avenue to manage. You will not believe me when I say that she travelled to Polonnaruwa twice and that too with rations. To add to this, you managed the District Project “Yaaluwa”, which was a full-on rollercoaster. Absolutely great job and hats off! (still don’t know how you did it)

The avenue with firecrackers! By this I mean both the directors and the projects! Oshini who was our director (until she decided to ship herself off to Canada and be all fancy), brought extra energy to the table with new projects such as “O’Santa” and “O’Spooky”. Not forgetting that she didn’t miss the chance of adding the first letter of her name to these project names. In all seriousness she is the loudest anywhere we went to the extent where we pretended, we didn’t know her. You’d think we miss her cause she’s in Canada. NO, because she would let us in on the news with all those video calls, TikTok’s, and messages. After Oshini left, we thought of giving the reigns to the younger ones Baagya and Jehan who went onto be the Secretary-elect and the President-elect respectively. Their training by coincidence started a few months back and they made sure to keep the energy levels of Oshini up and running. Last but not the least of the BOD, the other half of the Club Service Avenue, the Membership Development Avenue run by Anuruddhika and Yasal. We needed ones who would reach out to the other undergraduates without any hesitation and trust me these two were the right choice.

So, team thank you for keeping the spirit of the club colorful!

The other half of the team, my EXCO:

Starting with the two that would be revising and editing this in a couple of minutes. Our grammar police, Tharini and Shihara. The two beautiful ladies (now don’t cringe ladies) who you would see sitting in the greens area with their laptops open. Just tell me the reason guys, how come the Editorial ALWAYS nabs the perfectionists? (ya’ll just sus). Anyways, kudos to both of you for initiating the publication of  trilingual articles, which has been something the club wanted to do for several years. If you haven’t checked do go check our blog now! You will see what an effort these girls have put into it.

The Sergeant-At-Arms, Ranmali who would go missing or rather vanish from the face of the earth sometimes. But when the responsibility is given, she would be the one to take it up and do it.

The one with whom I still have some things to settle, Dinithi, who handled all money matters. I would be right in saying that this was one of the most stressful jobs of the team because it wasn’t a financially easy year. All of this while handling the excel sheets with all the accounts which were mind-wrecking (I still don’t get the numbers). I guess, let’s audit the accounts and wrap up the year. Thank you Dinithi for taking up the challenge and truly doing a wonderful job.

Moving on to the two assistant secretaries, Heshani and Udani. These two were the right and the left hands of Tharu, where all meeting minutes were taken and reported. Both of you made the hustle a bit less!

The Co-Vice Presidents (VP): one is my girl since grade 3 and the other is the one who would sit with me in lectures. Kavindi and Yohan, I am glad that you too were my VPs for this rollercoaster year, who else would rant and make my DCM proxies? What I felt was that no matter what happened both of you were at my side irrespective of the situation and this calmed me in any ugly situation. Something I can guarantee is that the year maybe over, but these two will stick with me. I mean, Kavindi has done so for the past 13 years, and Yohan and I would continue to do so since we are always figuring out who was whose foreign minister in which year during foreign policy lectures.

To the Tharu, the one who did the hard and the confusing part of the forever-troubling administration. I still struggle with RMIS and this one is an absolute pro at it! Thank you my Secca for handling the bizz and for tolerating me because I would not have been the easiest president to work with hehe. I don’t have any idea how you will have the energy to do your next big job, but I am sure you will be wonderful at it.

Ciao old ones oops and welcome the new ones! Jehan, Baagya, and Co. One whole year is in front of you and don’t worry I’ll be there for that year as well as your Immediate Past President (IPP) with random reminders. To the new team, you will feel anxious and overwhelmed but trust me it’s a part of the process. I will be few messages, 2-3 calls, and one “GETHMI AKKI!” at faculty away! So HMU?

Alright folks, see you at faculty cause I’ve still got two good years to academically torture myself. See you again and here I am Rtr. Gethmi Adikari, President of the Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts for the RI year 2022-2023 signing off!