Event Date: Monday, October 28th, 5:30-7:30pm (actual event was from 6:00-7:00pm)

Event Participation: Briefly describe your involvement from start to finish.

For the PT Family Halloween Event, I took on the role of Point Person for the first time. As a Point Person, my role was to plan and facilitate the entire event, from start to finish. I began by organizing the event, brainstorming each activity with the sole purpose of entertaining the kids. This meant researching kid-friendly Halloween activities, asking Ms. Rioux and Ms. MacPherson for feedback, and referring back to my experience working with young children. With the brainstormed activities and games, I created a clear outline, and shared it with my team. I additionally opened the floor for any ideas my teammates had, incorporating them to the Business Plan. With that, I assigned roles for my teammates such as who is in charge of the younger kids, making the goodie bags, etc. 

During the preparation meetings we had, I led my team by organizing meetings and giving them recaps through TEAMS. I divided the team strictly into two (one for younger kids and one for older kids) so that they solely focus on their group. Getting more members in this process (yay!), I updated them on the event quickly and assigned them their roles. Additionally, I gave my team frequent updates about relevant information and provided them with the necessary supplies for creating decorations and goodie bags. 

On the day of the event, I went to Dollarama to buy some last-minute props and decorations. I arrived a bit earlier than 5:30pm (around 5:10pm), and started setting up the foyer and the classrooms. At the beginning of the event, I facilitated the opening and freeze dance, then proceeded to check-in with the two smaller groups once separated. I went from room to room, checking if they needed extra supplies or were struggling with anything. At the end of the event, I led the runway and closed the event off. 

After the event, I assigned team members which area to clean-up, to make it more efficient. It was a quicker process than expected, and I did a final sweep of the area after dismissing everyone.  

Curricular Competency: State which competency you focused on, aligning it with your course goals.

Curricular Competency: Theme 2 – Utilize different leader styles to complete tasks

• This aligns with my course goals as the goal I have is to find the balance between a “soft” and “hard” leadership style.
• Many leadership styles exist, so it’s important to explore and try different ones to find the one that works the best. 
• By leading my own team through an organized event from start to finish, 
  • I explored various leadership styles
  • Identified which styles worked and which didn’t 

Actions Taken: Explain what you did to work towards or achieve this competency.

Before Event: I had to adopt a critical and analytical leadership style during the preparation for the event. Because we are ultimately organizing an event, I had to be critical on what activities were going to work and what weren’t. I had to act “cold” for constructive criticism to occur, so I tried to view the ideas presented by my teammates with an objective and realistic lens. This meant directly pointing out which parts of brainstormed ideas were going to work, and completely scrapping ones that wouldn’t. 

During Event: I adopted a commanding leadership style during the event, because I had to let it run smoothly. When things went out of order, I immediately jumped in rather than telling someone to do it, as I properly identified which actions could resolve the problem. I also incorporated this leadership style with a collaborative leadership style, as this event was run by all my team. I frequently asked my team how they were doing with the activities and time, making sure the events were running properly. 

After Event: I think that the cleaning-up part was when I adopted the “soft” leadership style. Honestly, the event was done and had run smoothly, so I knew I could be softer on my teammates. After initially assigning which area to clean up, I chatted with them and made small talk as we cleaned up.

Conclusion: Through trying out various leadership styles, I learned that running an event and working with a team requires more than just one leadership style. I learned that certain techniques were fit for specific situations, but others were needed for varying circumstances. For the next time I’m a Point Person, I want to try allowing teammates to input more of their ideas, to create a more friendlier environment at the start. 

Evidence: Provide strong, concrete examples of your efforts and achievements. Ensure your leadership teacher can understand this evidence.

• Distribution of roles and tasks (before event)
  • I set up specific tasks and roles needed, and asked my teammates if they had a preference on which role they wanted to take. For the ones who didn’t have a preference, I assigned them tasks suited for them based on what I saw from them. After distributing this, I frequently checked-in with how they were doing and gave them specific outlines of what they needed to do. 
• Initial attention-grabbing (during event)
  • Initially, I was not supposed to grab everyone’s attention and lead into the freeze dance. However, I quickly realized that a strong attention-grabber and introduction was crucial for the event to start flowing properly. Thus I stepped in and did a quick introduction, utilizing the experience I had as a Camps Staff.
• Improvisation (during event)
  • The first time I improvised was the attention-grabbing. Then it was when the speaker wasn’t working, and I sang a song while the children were doing Musical Chairs. The final time was when there was too much time, so activities needed to be added in. For the younger kids, myself and other teammates chose to bring in the beanbag-toss machine into the classroom. For the older kids, it was re-doing the Musical Chairs. 
• Checking all classrooms and spaces-used (after event)
  • I stayed till the end after event (along with three others) and checked the foyer, the three classrooms, and the hallway which were used for our event. I picked up all leftover trash, took down decorations, and made sure each class looked the same as it was before. I then asked Ms. MacPherson to lock the doors. 

Photos:

Screenshot of phone gallery: pictures of classroom condition before setting up for event (photos to use as reference while cleaning up)

Group photo before event:

Group photo after event: