Sports+&+Social

=Purpose & Goal=

Welcome to Sports&Social - the very exclusive branch of the MSA...open to those looking for brothers brotherhood, sisters sisterhood, and Muslims trying to get married Muslims trying to chill for the sake of Allah! But our main goal is to be 1 of the 7 to receive shade on the day when there is no shade but His :)

Here you can find view the calendar and find info on upcoming sporting and social events hosted by the MSA @ UMD.

//[What is the purpose and objective of this committee? How does this fit into the larger purpose of the MSA? etc.]//

=Structure=

//[How is the committee structured? What are the different positions on the committee? Are there any sub-committees? What are the responsibilities of the committee head? What are the responsibilities of the Cabinet-Liaison? What are the responsibilities of each sub-committee (if applicable)? How is responsibility distributed amongst general committee members? How often did the committee meet? How did the members communicate outside of meetings?]//

7/16/11 - Adam Kareem
 * Structure** - This committee must have at least one (1) male and one (1) female that plans an activity for each Friday afternoon after Jumuah (and any MSA meeting scheduled). //I cannot stress enough the importance of having a single lead person that is dedicated to having something planned for each week and that they be present for each activity.// The committee is ideally very small, maybe 2 - 4 people where the additional people are expected to take the lead on activities if/whenever the committee heads cannot be present themselves (class, meeting, project, etc.).

(a) plan an activity for each Friday after Jumuah (typically 30 mins to an hour after Jumuah) (b) advertise for the activity starting on Monday of that week (c) update a shared/public calendar of activities. Must list events as far as 4 weeks out. (c) coordinate any travel arrangements (carpool drivers and cars, timings for catching shuttle to CP metro) (d) be present for each activity (e) plan any additional sporting or social activities that are interesting (i.e. playing indoor soccer in Cole on Wednesday night, volunteering at other organizations events, etc.)
 * Responsibilities -** The head(s) must:

=Methods=

//[Describe how the committee achieved its previously outlined goals. Were there any events, activities, initiatives planned by the committee? (Link to the appropriate Wiki page).]//

7/16/11 - Adam Kareem In a nutshell, the committee heads simply come up with an activity that they feel people would enjoy, choose a location to have the activity and a time to start (planning with salah times in mind as well), then tell the people in the musullah, email, and on Facebook on Monday and again Thursday about it as well as announcements after dhuhr and maghrib in the musullah.

The activities themselves can be very different from week to week. Some examples of activities include: basketball in armory, soccer on engineering fields, capture the flag on the mall or on engineering fields, ultimate frisbee (or football) on engineering fields, mafia in the Stamp union, video game party in the student involvement suite, going to an al-maghrib class together or a guest speaker in the area, dinner and qiyaam at a friends house, go-kart racing (choose a location), rock wall climbing at ORC on campus, ice skating at the rink adjacent to CP metro, photo scavenger hunt across campus, bowling, etc.

To add a sense of consistency, it is great to have "//Flavor of the Month"//on every third Friday of the month in which the planned activity for that week is to eat dinner at a restaurant. The selection of dining places and frequency of the FotM is up to the committee heads, but it's important to do this at least every month and to visit a different restaurant each time. Check http://www.zabihah.com/ for choices in the area. YOU MUST be sure to call the location and confirm their address and hours before making the trip however.

=Review=

//[Reflect on the outcome of the committee. Did it achieve its goals? Why or why not? Was the plan executed correctly? Why or why not? What might have been changed in the// plan? Was the planning process effective? //Why or why not? Was the communication between member effective? Was the committee structure effective? What improvements would you have made (in general)?]//

7/16/11 - Adam Kareem The only goal of the S&S is to bring the Muslim community on campus together to spend time in a way that is pleasing to Allah swt and very fun. This is an effective means of endearing the MSA to people and having a positive, Islamic impact on their college experience. I cannot tell you how many of our brothers went from guys who barely did more than attend jumuah to regulars at MSA halaqahs, events, and even on to help plan and organize events, subhanallah. A common theme, when speaking with them, was that just the social events and how friendly and accepting people were to them were major reasons for their increased involvement in the MSA. This is an essential committee to have each year.

The major difficulties that I have found have been in selecting people to head the committee and ensuring that the womens' S&S was as strong as the mens'. It helps to have an outspoken and individual lead the activities and announcements. Also that whoever is selected as head that it be a single appointment, and not a co-head or shared lead. This has only caused difficulties in accepting responsibility and taking the lead. If a decision must be made b/t two people, it's better to appoint one as the head and the other as the assistant. Since after the Spring '09 when the committee planned regular activities, we have yet to have regular Friday activities or much of a visible S&S. In Fall '09 two heads were appointed for the men and very few activities were planned. In Spring '10, one of the two head become largely unavailable and again the committee failed to produce much. In Fall '10, a personable Freshman was appointed as the mens head, was planning a few activities in the beginning, but as the semester wore on was unable to continue. In the second half of Fall '10 onto Spring '11, the musullah affairs officer took on S&S responsibilities and helped to craft a few activities. However, that same consistency in scheduling and variety of activities has yet to be realized again.