MOST OUTSTANDING SOCIAL EVENT NOMINEE
Ole Miss Vietnamese American Student Association
Starry Night Formal
Provide a detailed description of the event and the population it served. Details MUST include: date of event, number of participants, program purpose (goals, objectives, etc.), use of resources (finances, community support, etc.), and marketing techniques.
Ole VASA hosted its annual formal with the theme Starry Night, our first large event since the pandemic hit. This event took place on Saturday, October 16, 2021, and we had over 200 attendees that were from both Ole Miss and Gulf Coast, making this our largest Gulf Coast event of the year. We wanted to revive an event that had not been hosted in two years due to COVID-19 and invite all of GC while also prioritizing our own members. Since this was one of the first major events after Camp Delta, many GC members drove 5+ hours to come support us, and we were extremely grateful for them. At first we didn’t want to surpass 150 people in attendance, but we decided to increase the number to 200 once we gained a strong interest. We had to plan for many different factors, including a DJ, photo booth, decorations, and most importantly safety. Since we were able to acquire a lot of borrowed supplies, the decoration and venue expenses were reduced by $200. For our venue option, we wanted to make sure there was ample room for our members and GC attendees to be able to mingle and dance whilst trying to remain within budget. We were able to find a venue that was cost efficient, could host a large amount of people, and we still had room in our budget to buy more hours. However, our budget did not include tickets or the photo booth. Our president was able to set up a photo booth using ring lights and two iPads, which saved us at least $300-400, and he worked with another member to get the tickets our PR chair designed printed in time. To advertise this event, we made a graphic well in advance and had multiple people promote it on their socials. We also reached out to GC VSA members and made sure to incorporate media coverage. All in all, our annual formal was our most successful and popular event of the year, and everyone left with great memories!
What efforts were used to motivate and involve the organization's members?
We were able to promote the formal a lot through social media and word of mouth, and we were able to incorporate our general members in this process as well. We revealed that there would be a DJ, and many members had high expectations of our event based on our Sugar Factory formal. Our E-board made sure to have people talk about it during other social events like tailgates, general meetings, family functions, and more. Our general members were very involved with the creative process that went into our formal. We had a decoration committee that helped put together the backdrop and all the decorations seen in the formal. They brought fresh ideas to the table and were extremely happy to see their hard work being enjoyed by other general members and GC attendees as well.
Did the organization overcome any challenges that arose while planning and implementing the event? How?
Although our formal was a great event, we encountered many challenges dealing with logistics. Our first concern was with COVID-19 and the effects the pandemic still had on our community. Luckily, there was no spike in cases before or after our formal, and to prioritize safety, we required proof of vaccinations or proof of a negative COVID test. We had to make sure Ole VASA members were prioritized when it came to ticket distribution, but we also wanted a large GC population to be able to attend. Luckily, this wasn’t a major issue. There was a lot of hype surrounding the formal in the Ole VASA community, so almost everyone was able to secure their tickets immediately. Another issue we encountered was decorations and setting up the venue in a timely manner. We created a decoration committee to help relieve some of the stress, and we were able to save hundreds of dollars by hand-making a lot of our decorations. One of the biggest challenges by far was communication with the E-board member in charge of our formal. We had to make sure we were transparent with our budget for decorations, rental hours for the venue, and updates for the progress on the formal. Luckily, we were able to delegate responsibilities among the rest of E-board with the ticket printing and photo booth to get everything finished in time. As the days neared the formal, we encountered another challenge: intoxication. Although we weren’t going to provide alcohol at the venue, we realized that most of the attendees would be drinking prior. To ensure everyone’s safety, we had all of our E-board members stay sober and monitor the event. Fortunately, because of this protocol, we were able to react quickly and effectively when a member of another VSA got too inebriated.