A Tribute...

When we first rolled out our plans some 8 months ago, I have to confess that I was pretty concern about the mammoth task which had landed on our shoulders; which was to hold a casual but eventful dinner, yet select a presentable venue where people would enjoy and participate, whilst keeping the budget as low as possible.

And drawing everyone's attention and generating their respond was the biggest task ever. After experiencing a lukewarm response two years ago, we had the biggest challenge in obtaining bigger turnouts. So it was. Until we finally decided to get S.O.S. from the batch reps.

Still, the selling of tickets was not taking off as fast as we had hoped it to be. Even one of the event highlights, namely the Battle of the Bands had to be scraped off due to poor response. Certain pledges of commitment did not roll out as anticipated due to unforeseen circumstances. At that point in time, 45 days to the event countdown, we were somewhat dismayed and started feeling nervous about the whole thing. We had so much to do with so little time left. We seemed to have lost control of our ship.

Good thing we had a few colleagues who had been there before us, who had gone through the experience of organising the SMSS 2000 dinner. People like Liwauddin, Rustam, Majdi, Suhaimi, Zaini, Rusnalaili. Thank you all for giving us a helping hand, guidance and support. Special thanks should be given to those of you who had also volunteered at the very last minute. Guys and gals, you know who you are.

As a member of the organising committee, I am immensely happy to learn that the dinner was the greatest anniversary dinner ever organised by the SMSS Alumni. To be told that the guests had enjoyed the event albeit a few hiccups, and that they loved the batch performances and video presentation most, was a total appreciation which we did not deserve alone, if not for the guidance of the one and only, Rusihan Anwar Zaihan, our advisor.

You had given the SMSS Alumni Dinner 2002 Committee your 101% commitment, guidance and contribution. Without your strong guidance, we would not have had a successful event.
A zillion of thanks, hugs and kisses (ooops, got a bit melodramatic here, my apologies).

We have set the pace for an enjoyable and memorable dinner. So now, let our juniors take over from here!

Norzalina a.k.a. Che' Na