Dear all,

After a lot of anticipation, the BDSA Fall BBQ is finally over. We could welcome 20 new members in the Bangladeshi community. The event had a vibrant presence of Undergrads, community members, and families. This was the largest BDSA gathering and had more signups than the last two BBQs combined. I am really thankful for everyone coming to the event and making it successful. For this event, I tried to implement some new ideas - color-coded coupons, chicken burgers as an item, flower for the freshers and renting Uhaul for moving stuff. All these were done to make the event more efficient and punctual, and I am extremely happy that we could finish the event before the announced time of 4 pm. 

Now I would like to thank all the people who worked hard with their blood, sweat, tears, and toil to make this BBQ a success. (blood from cuts, tears from the smoke and ashes of the BBQ).

This was the first event during my term, where I could get the full BDSA committee to work. And I am really happy to say, everyone in the committee helped organize this event. Firstly, I must mention Babu Bhai. He had just returned from Bangladesh when we planned the event and resumed responsibility of becoming the acting president of BDSA (I was extremely busy with my Prelim exam and before August 24th, my role was to giving advice). Babu Bhai went above and beyond the responsibilities of a Vice President with driving to Indy to buy meat, providing rides to the people when some one couldn't or wouldn't give a ride. Babu Bhai also organized a special game for increasing social interaction between the new students and older ones. Unfortunately, he was so busy with transportation duty, that game could not be performed. 

Sanjay Bhai again proved his resourcefulness with quick thinking and acting. He promptly took volunteers and reached the shelter before anyone else at 9:30 am. He also led Sam's club shopping effort. Ferdous also came back from Internship and just moved to his house when he joined the team. He & Bushra hosted the entire marination event, while from the beginning cleaning and cutting the meat. Ferdous also bought the Salmon burger that many of the non-chicken consumers could eat. Sanchita lead the ingredient shopping, while also helping me decide portion control and shopping list, Rabu & Saeed took care of the Walmart shopping, Saeed went to Midwest rental trying to take care of the sports (unfortunately, the equipment that we tried to rent ran out of stock). Tridib led the transportation and moving stuff with Uhaul. Nayem led and coordinated the collection of coolers from all different places, and coordinated chicken collection and transportation. He also brought coffee for the volunteers in the morning, accelerating the work. Asif led the effort with inventory management. Kuhu and Asif are giving BDSA their locker space to store things, and he led the effort to get the sound system that we used during the event. Excellent thinking on behalf of him to get the battery powered speaker system. Salvi in every possible way to all committee members. Salvi got himself hurt a few time during the preparation and grilling, but always had a positive and uplifting attitude and kept working. 

All the mentioned work above was done by each committee member in addition to helping others in marination, grilling, setup, and cleanup. Unfortunately, Rabu & Saeed could not stay at the final event, even though they worked really hard to make it successful.

I would like to especially thank Shoumik, Parvez, Sadi, Mamun, Sarah, Boishakhi, Arif, Rohan, Shamya. They are new students this fall, and they volunteered significantly for the event. Shoumik, Parvez, Sadi went above and beyond, helping us from setting up to cleaning up for the event and perhaps worked as hard as any committee member. I also want to specially mention Shadman, who worked really hard from beginning to the end for the event.

Most difficult part of the BBQ is possibly the marination, and arranging for 130+ people requires a lot of volunteers and different skills. All the work, organizing, and planning, as well as intensive physical stress from a large number of volunteers, are required to organize such a big event. I sincerely thank all the volunteers who helped us in the event. I have just one photo here and will post more as soon as I get them.

 

I would like to thank and gratefully acknowledge the following people for their hard work: (I apologize if I have missed someone's name)

Preparation - All BDSA committee

Coolers were provided thanks to Ragib bhai, Riaj bhai, Babu bhai, Zia bhai. 

Prof. Alam sir & Tasbir Bhai thank you for sharing your wisdom and expressing thoughts and advice. I fully agree with Alam sir that we should participate in more activities outside of the Bangladeshi community. Purdue has a vast number of Student Organizations and students can easily choose the ones that suit their interest, to broaden our outlook and horizon. Tasbir Bhai gave a great suggestion regarding collaborating with neighboring Student Organizations. I am in contact with the IUPUI and IU Bloomington Bangladesh Associations' Presidents, and we are discussing the possibility.

All the little ones, I also want to thank you and your parents for giving flowers to all new students. I know it was sometimes difficult to let go the nice rose, but all of you cooperated and helped us with the event.

Finally, all who came to our event, we thank you for your time and company for attending the event and hope that you will consider becoming active members of BDSA and participate in all upcoming events. 

Yours Truly

Sajid Choudhury

President
Bangladesh Students Association