THE COUNCIL of Organizations of the Ateneo – Manila (COA-M) and the League of Independent Organizations (LIONS) set up different initiatives to launch the Recruitment Week (RecWeek) for AY 2020-2021 online. COA-M and LIONS also coordinated with Developer Student Clubs – Loyola (DSC Loyola) to launch Pavilion, an application that served as a centralized information hub for Loyola Schools (LS) organizations.
Unlike in previous years, this virtual RecWeek was conducted for two weeks to give ample time for students to register and for organizations to promote their advocacies and plans. Although the project heads agreed that RecWeek 2020 was an overall success, difficulties in transitioning to the online setting and managing their workload brought challenges to the event’s execution.
Shifting to the online setting
The COA-M and LIONS RecWeek websites were used as the main information platforms for the organizations’ advocacies and initiatives. Students also needed to register their attendance to RecWeek and fill out application forms through the websites. After signing up, they received additional instructions for attending interviews, consultations, and assemblies.
COA-M RecWeek 2020 Co-Project Head Keanne Abalos said the COA-M website was formed by the Web Development Committee, an internal three-person team. Meanwhile, LIONS RecWeek 2020 Project Head Alannah Mitra noted that the LIONS website was created in partnership with the User Experience Society. Mitra shared that although the website was already developed years ago, updates are appended to it yearly.
In addition, COA-M and LIONS initiated live online events to promote the organizations. According to COA-M RecWeek 2020 Co-Project Heads Isabelle Cruz, COA-M took a “two-phase” approach with these programs. Events in the first phase tackled topics about LS organization life and culture, while the second phase included events for organizations to promote their projects for the year.
Furthermore, LIONS provided organizations with initiatives for social media promotions. Mitra said that they prepared a calendar where organizations can schedule their promotional posts to avoid overlapping with other social media blasts. LIONS also created promotional templates for organizations that did not have their own creative teams.
Meanwhile, DSC Loyola launched Pavilion, the official RecWeek application containing information about both COA-M and LIONS organizations. Pavilion Product Manager Cedric Atienza stressed the need for an offline application that could help students with connectivity issues.
“Considering our remote setting [and] the fact that not everyone has access to stable Wi-fi or internet, we wanted to provide this platform […], [so] you can still read about the orgs even if you don’t have internet,” Atienza said.
New challenges
Aside from introducing new initiatives, Cruz stressed that the online shift gave rise to challenges for the team because there was a lacking basis for their plans. “Wala pa kaming basis for a fully online event except for OrSem, [but] OrSem […] is totally different from RecWeek. So hindi kami fully maka-base on them na parang […] talagang on our own feet kami,” Cruz said.
(We didn’t have a basis for a fully online event except for OrSem, which is totally different from RecWeek. We’re on our own feet.)
As for the Pavilion team, Atienza noted that they struggled with time management—on top of developing the application, their members were also busy with internships, part-time jobs, and online classes. Likewise, Mitra shared that balancing both RecWeek and academic requirements was a learning curve for LIONS.
Additionally, RecWeek 2020 was rescheduled three times following a series of changes in the academic calendar. “Lahat ng unthinkable nangyari na. I mean, who would’ve thought na ma-adjust yung classes? […] Talagang kailangan maging alert and […] level-headed ka talaga sa mga nangyayari,” Abalos said.
(All unthinkable situations had already happened. I mean, who would’ve thought that classes will be postponed for a month? So you really need to be alert and level-headed with what’s happening.)
The future of RecWeek
Abalos and Cruz noted that a mix of on-site and online activities for the next RecWeek may not be feasible considering that bans on on-site gatherings may continue. With this, COA-M will still continue to improve their website and online marketing initiatives.
Similarly, Mitra said that LIONS is looking for more initiatives that can boost audience participation such as online events and interactive posts. “We just want the website to push through, but then the promos, ‘yung mga marketing gimmicks can be done on-site. We’re […] thinking of ways on how to integrate yung dalawang worlds na ‘yun,” Abalos said.
For Pavilion, Atienza said that a content management system will be included in the next update so that organizations can independently edit the content of their respective pages within the application.
