Celebrating Global TC Day in Thailand

Last week, we had a little get together of TC alums in Thailand (Teachers College, Columbia University) and it was another opportunity to have some good lessons.

The party was initiated by TC Alumni Relations to have ‘Global TC Day’ every other year in July with the help of locals like me and another TC alum as Thailand coordinators for TC.

The Alumni Office at TC has several staff members who remind us of the time to organize a party. They also help identify in-country volunteer host and have the RSVP system.

Like the previous get-together, they sent signage, sign-in sheet, pins and pens. What I found most amazing this time was talking points for the two coordinators to share with the group…..very organized and systematic na ka.

The talking points included messages like how far the fund raising campaign has been doing. It has surpassed $200 million with the hope to reach the target at $300 million! How the donation has been spent was tabled out as well ka. We were also asked to share pictures on social media TC has to offer. I just noticed that right now, we all can have 'TC Gmail for life' too ka.

My learning:

·         To make alumni relations work, investment is needed for continuity of communication, which would need some tools and promotional materials

·         Local coordinators help manage the network and because the network itself is a high quality one, all have benefitted from the get-togethers

·         Could our Thai universities get some good practices and adapt to fit in with our own contexts, perhaps caring for networks (not too focused on those seek-for-future favors/strings types of network), wealth of human and academic resources and experience over fund raising?

On the whole, 8 out of 11 who confirmed the attendance were there and we were very pleased to have some time to link all up and know more what each has been doing. This is another quality group that makes me feel so fun to be with….because of their intellect, deep thinking, and passion.

We, the two coordinators, agreed earlier that it wouldn’t be just a meet and eat event so we asked one of the alumni to share with us about her book being sold at Amazon. The book is about education reform in Thailand dated back to our history to analyze our thinking and ‘borrowing’ of education systems that form our education today ka. We were all fascinated with her passion in research and love of learning plus naturally the synthesis abilities.

My learning:

Our education has some more hope with them around ka!

more pleasant surprise possible?

These days, I've been thinking about my own Thai people and how we work. I've come up with  words like, 'overworked', 'training needed?', 'care-less', and 'standard'.

I've been using one airline these days when it happens to fall on the airline's anniversary so it was a pleasant surprise to be given its 'special snack' (Panna Cotta with different types of sauce on top), specially prepared by one popular dessert cafe) on board the plane.

Here were what I found on the 3 flights ka:

1. The announcement came much later after the snack was served.
2. No annoucement was made at all.
3. The annoucement was made before they started serving the snack.

What did I learn?

1. Right Timing: This pleasant surprise could get started immediately as the first thing after the seatbelt sign has been turned off for people to join in this special anniversary, showing the continued success of the airline while having some impacts on the 'passenger engagement'.

2. Value Addition: The annoucement could include the type of sauce served to show how particular the airline has been, not to come up with the same sauce for all the flights. It doesn't hurt to also mention about the duration this special snack will offer, which may lead them to tell other dessert lovers to choose to fly this airline.

3. Standard of Training/Instructions: Even occasionally, I don't really like the word, 'standard', this occasion is when standard must be observed to ensure the uniformity and to get intended results. Failing to do so could make passengers wonder why its snacks go back to its normal offer. Therefore, instructions should be made clear and followed!

4. Assessment: May be good to check the passengers' views and what they may wish to have for the subsequent anniversary:))! It could also be nice to check its own flight attendants what would be best and why some failed to do so at the same time, out of being 'overworked', 'instructions-less', etc.

Panna Cotta was delicious, by the way!