Looking Back At ‘Bare Niceties’

Decorum is about kindness, it’s about being friendly, it’s about being polite, it’s about integrity and it’s about good manners. Proper etiquette helps us to know how to behave and conduct ourselves in different environments. It creates a good and everlasting first impression of you. The manner by which you interact with other people reflects your personality and the way you have been brought up. Therefore, as young individuals of the society, it is essential that we know and adhere to the various social stipulations on manners, decorum and etiquette to be followed during various social interactions.

With this objective in mind, the Professional Development Avenue of the Rotaract Club of University of Colombo, Faculty of Arts proudly presented ‘Bare Niceties’. The project was initiated on the 5^th of July, 2021 and continued until the 30^th of September, 2021.

Being the Avenue that targets the uplifting of professionalism, personal development and the networking of both members of the club as well as the youth in society into the professional world, the organizing committee believed that Bare Niceties would prove to be an effective and easily comprehensible instrument to recognize and understand professional, as well as personal etiquette and decorum.

Bare Niceties was conducted through a series of posts, flyers and videos that were shared through personal and club social media platforms every Friday for three consecutive months. Each video displayed some of the socially-accepted basic guidelines, rules or mannerisms that must be followed in various social gatherings. As such, throughout the 12 weeks of the project, we compiled several posters and videos that displayed the etiquette and manners of behavior of individuals or the ‘do’s’ and the ‘don’ts’, that must be followed during events such as weddings, interviews, telephone calls, cocktail parties and during small talk among other things. The specialty of this project was that these protocols were presented in all three national languages, English, Sinhala and Tamil, so as to reach a wider audience.

The organizing committee comprised of 15 members, including the Project Chairs Rtr. Piyumini Buddhika, Rtr. Udani Jayalath and Rtr. Heshani Upeshika, who did a remarkable job in organizing the entire project, setting up dates for making and sharing the informative videos and ensuring that they reached a wider audience. The team worked tirelessly throughout the project and were quick to respond to any query or any challenge we met with.

As such, the project committee of Bare Niceties can proudly declare that the project’s outcomes which entailed the enhancement of one’s individual image, the elimination of discourteous behavior, effective networking and the increase in self-respect and self-confidence of individuals were met with flying colors. We, as a team, are proud of the accomplishments of the project and would like to take a moment to thank all those who helped make Bare Niceties a success.

– Rtr. Sayuri Mohotti