in the beginning...
It started out as a brief conversation initiated by Sanjay Bombwal about organizing a run for fund raising.In the formative stages it was deemed as far-fetched idea by the sounding board. The practical questions were,
- is running an appealing sport to the Mission's membership?
- the Mission's membership might be turned off to another fundraiser for the new building?
- the messaging for fundraising - what is that going to be?
The Om Run journey started thus in late September 2009.
The initial thinking was to get a team of 50-60 runners, train for a marathon. We figured we'd get 10 volunteers and complete the run. Sanjay had even measured the distance from Sandeepany to the new building and figured it was only short by 3 miles for a half marathon.
What it morphed to become was something larger and wider to follow the guiding principle from Subbu,
What it morphed to become was something larger and wider to follow the guiding principle from Subbu,
must include Bala Vihar children
The planning and the event went through metamorphosis in the time leading up to the final version:
- 5K race
- 10K race
- Walkathon
- An all inclusive mela
What came about was that and much more; a grass roots event where the entire membership came out in support of OM Run 2010. There was good food and some wholesome fun to be had to boot.
It got pulled off due to some acrobatics by an amazing team, this was the Team Om Run. This writeup is an acknowledgement and a tip of the hat to this team. As I look back at this period it felt like a long haul; it came together mainly because Team Om Run set a very high bar and put together an immense event.
The efforts with the team began in right earnest during Thanksgiving 2009. The significant turning points of this project from one vantage point;
The efforts with the team began in right earnest during Thanksgiving 2009. The significant turning points of this project from one vantage point;
- permits, insurance, locations (Radesh)
- pre-marketing and web site (Sriram, Kris)
- training (Ganesh, Ranga, Meyyappan)
- phone-seva-Om-Run - dial-for-registration - walk the classrooms (Sanjay and Sri)
- planning for the event - Walkathon superwoman Kanchana swoops down (Sid and Kalyani)
- Om Run 2010 - March 21, 2010 - Gurudev was smiling down on us
- Half Marathon at Pescadero, California - April 11, 2010 (Ganesh and Narayanan)
Significant, because each of these had a distinct personality and a team (sometimes a team of one). It seems like every one of these needed a Hero to see it to completion. Though I have called these out as separate phases, they all did meld together and that's what made Om Run 2010.
The initial phase was convincing the organizing team that this could work - and making it bite sized, at each step of the way. This was exemplified by the milestones,
Starting with park permits and insurance by Radesh and Vijaya, Sriram and Kris (and the entire Vedams team) came together on making the web site a reality. We had early help from Sanjiv Kaul to get the web content laid out.
Nothing about this was easy. We'd decided to fork off into chinmaya-seva.org, meant that a new framework for content, logo, color scheme and actual content had to be pulled together. All we knew was that this had to be a transparent easy flowing site, no details on how - that didn't come in the way, at least not to a detriment.
The Vedams team delivered a very sustainable content framework which carries us to this day ! After that the wiring of the data, registration all fell on Sriram and Prabha. This meant countless long nights and as Sriram likes to say (paraphrasing here),
The permits process needed so many details to be worked out, I don't even pretend to know 1% of that story, suffice it to say everything including a backup event site was identified and in place. Then the worry was being rained out.
This is when Prabodhji's timely counsel,
Enter Ganesh, lending his voice of experience of the sites for training. Working out the training location and calendar for the 12 weeks and getting to January 16, start of training already felt like a marathon effort by itself.
Just in time for the second blocker, rotating training venues between San Jose and Fremont - wasn't received well; i would be remiss not to acknowledge, Sanjay could say, "I told you so".
Response, scramble and in 8 days secure and put into place a 2 weekend-day training schedule. For this the Radesh+Ganesh team literally moved mountains and sure enough we had Fremont training sessions started on Sunday, 1/24/2010 ! Along the way Om Run was continuously blessed with a guardian angels.
Kalyani dropped into the project - and swooped into an anchoring role for training. She put a continuous smile and such a pleasant front, that even the most stressful week would melt away after seeing her emails. She acted as the perfect behind the scenes director of Campbell training; I was feeling bad about thrusting on Radesh all and more by the end of January.
Sri had proposed the play on words - (h)Om(e) Run that stuck as the brand.
Time for the third blocker, the redirects between secure backend and chinmaya-seva.org was causing transactions to be in a incomplete state. By now it was a pattern, Sriram would go away for days at a time and wisely turn down my offers to help - and voila another solution.
We still had a need for steady crew of volunteers - and then it dawned on us that it was a matter of articulating tasks so owners would be able to start running (literally) with it. Kalyani and Sid collaborated on the famous resource planning spreadsheet and from then on it was transparent and bumpily-smooth.
In parallel the continuous canvassing efforts were in progress; each week Sanjay would creatively come up ways to sustain the buzz. He set an example of "sustaining buzz" for Om Run. It included going to all the assemblies weekly, walking the classrooms - the enthusiasm rubbed off and soon we had some teachers taking the messaging over. Deepa took the messaging to a new level - and got the entire grade 7 class excited to want to participate. Looking at that story unfold I have to wonder what it'd have been with more than one Deepa in our midst.
The leadership team, Shrikrishnaji, Subbu, Sri, Sridhar, Kalyani, Radesh, Kausalya, Grishma, Kanchana, Venkatesh, Vishy, Ramana, Jignesh, Rajan, Vijay, Swathi, Suvarnaji, Kartik, Ravi, Mangesh, GS, Kapil, Prakash, Arti - a dream team - each one bringing a level calm and experience to bear to this project. Collective experience of over 300+ years and all identifying to the common cause
With the execution kickoff, Radesh sought out Coach Willie - ex Athletics director at Los Gatos High School. That really helped in identifying holes in the planning process for the races in particular. By this point it was all hands on deck and allowed Radesh to focus on the gaps without the distraction of the whole event. Time for the fourth blocker bug to show up - this one was big from the school
The rest as they say is history - we had a great day,
The initial phase was convincing the organizing team that this could work - and making it bite sized, at each step of the way. This was exemplified by the milestones,
- make openid workflow work and open registration
- get he.net working and registration will work
- Om Run tshirt; need it as an incentive registration; and it became an icon
- make sure the training sessions' import is conveyed
- we need medals now, ok; done
- timing the race
- and so on it went.
by the numbers...
- 1647 - online registrations as of close 3/17/20
- 157 - as of 2/2/2010
- 889 - as of 3/5/2010
- +200 - onsite registrations
- 252 - 10K Run/walkers
- 588 - 5K Run/walkers
- 55 - Half Marathoners
- $115K raised from Om Run 2010
- 258+ volunteers
- 700 Gallons of water
- 100% fulfilling
the journey
People make a project like this possible.Starting with park permits and insurance by Radesh and Vijaya, Sriram and Kris (and the entire Vedams team) came together on making the web site a reality. We had early help from Sanjiv Kaul to get the web content laid out.
Nothing about this was easy. We'd decided to fork off into chinmaya-seva.org, meant that a new framework for content, logo, color scheme and actual content had to be pulled together. All we knew was that this had to be a transparent easy flowing site, no details on how - that didn't come in the way, at least not to a detriment.
The Vedams team delivered a very sustainable content framework which carries us to this day ! After that the wiring of the data, registration all fell on Sriram and Prabha. This meant countless long nights and as Sriram likes to say (paraphrasing here),
its not the programming, it just takes determination not to lose it to make it all work.We arrived at the first blocker in the project, the chinmaya-sanjose.org backend was not registration enabled for use by chinmaya-seva.org. And all December the plans and implementation was counting on this. This was just one of the first of several challenges that Sriram pulled off a solution for.
The permits process needed so many details to be worked out, I don't even pretend to know 1% of that story, suffice it to say everything including a backup event site was identified and in place. Then the worry was being rained out.
This is when Prabodhji's timely counsel,
you don't control weather, don't worry, leave it to HIMAnd all this before January 16, 2010. Because training had to start by January 16, giving us exactly 12 weeks to the marathon on April 11, 2010.
Enter Ganesh, lending his voice of experience of the sites for training. Working out the training location and calendar for the 12 weeks and getting to January 16, start of training already felt like a marathon effort by itself.
Just in time for the second blocker, rotating training venues between San Jose and Fremont - wasn't received well; i would be remiss not to acknowledge, Sanjay could say, "I told you so".
Response, scramble and in 8 days secure and put into place a 2 weekend-day training schedule. For this the Radesh+Ganesh team literally moved mountains and sure enough we had Fremont training sessions started on Sunday, 1/24/2010 ! Along the way Om Run was continuously blessed with a guardian angels.
Kalyani dropped into the project - and swooped into an anchoring role for training. She put a continuous smile and such a pleasant front, that even the most stressful week would melt away after seeing her emails. She acted as the perfect behind the scenes director of Campbell training; I was feeling bad about thrusting on Radesh all and more by the end of January.
Prabodhji gave us the Om, Radesh gave us Run and Kalyani got it all running.
Time for the third blocker, the redirects between secure backend and chinmaya-seva.org was causing transactions to be in a incomplete state. By now it was a pattern, Sriram would go away for days at a time and wisely turn down my offers to help - and voila another solution.
We still had a need for steady crew of volunteers - and then it dawned on us that it was a matter of articulating tasks so owners would be able to start running (literally) with it. Kalyani and Sid collaborated on the famous resource planning spreadsheet and from then on it was transparent and bumpily-smooth.
Soon enough the team expanded again. Sri, Aminder, Sanjay Rastogi, Lola, Vijay that were taking ownership of essential pieces and in some cases creating new initiatives, the kids training program launched on February 20, 2010.
training...
Ganesh laid the foundation and took the task of creating a sustainable program to heart. The effort was blessed to have the likes of Ranga, Meyyappan, VP, Jayashree, Rohini and Ram put their all into it. Ganesh was travelling to both Saturday and Sunday training and going home sometimes in the intervening time. Meyyappan threw himself into the midst and covered any gap that came up. They were ably supported by Suku, JayashreeD, Rambabu, JayashreeM, Sachin, and Dharmanand All of this in the middle of their own training for a February Marathon. This crew operated like a single organism and left a lasting impression on the first timers. They have set a high bar, without cutting corners - exemplified by the stretching guide and meticulous follow through on the weekly training schedule. Kudos to a job well done. This team executed perfectly to deliver on the promise,help everyone to the finish line, injury freeJust when it felt like we had smooth sailing, Sanjay from his forward looking station was getting anxious about event day. He went for a few days under the proverbial rock and came back with a 10-page list of tasks with 5 names to cover all the tasks. One of the tasks to staffed was,
Volunteers with vans needed to haul garbage from Los Gatos High School.For a 1000 people ! that to me was the reality-check moment for Om Run 2010. It had the effect of knocking me out of my trance of "training-is-going-well, so many people in attendance, great", and started to breakdown the tasks into functional groups. Shrikrishnaji helped as a sounding board and instilled a silent confidence based on faith on a higher force. This resulted in a functional teams list of 12 and a volunteer count model - 1200 people, 202 volunteers - got it in front of Subbu and Prabodhji - asking for help to recruit from the core events team.
In parallel the continuous canvassing efforts were in progress; each week Sanjay would creatively come up ways to sustain the buzz. He set an example of "sustaining buzz" for Om Run. It included going to all the assemblies weekly, walking the classrooms - the enthusiasm rubbed off and soon we had some teachers taking the messaging over. Deepa took the messaging to a new level - and got the entire grade 7 class excited to want to participate. Looking at that story unfold I have to wonder what it'd have been with more than one Deepa in our midst.
the executioners
Enter the rock solid team leads. They came in and led from the front. Their efforts is what came to climax on Om Run day, March 21, 2010. Held together by Sid, Program Manager and self-proclaimed bad cop. He tolerated my intrusions into lists all over the place, all the while with a smile and a straight face. His loud complaint, "keep to the allotted 5 minutes"!, but we had so much to say :).The leadership team, Shrikrishnaji, Subbu, Sri, Sridhar, Kalyani, Radesh, Kausalya, Grishma, Kanchana, Venkatesh, Vishy, Ramana, Jignesh, Rajan, Vijay, Swathi, Suvarnaji, Kartik, Ravi, Mangesh, GS, Kapil, Prakash, Arti - a dream team - each one bringing a level calm and experience to bear to this project. Collective experience of over 300+ years and all identifying to the common cause
It must be a great all-around experience for all that come.What happened next was a surgical breakdown of the functions at hand, with detailed planning and sub teams that were assembled. First off the starting blocks were these 4 teams, Trails, Hospitality, Walkathon, Emergency Response, MC. Teams for Checkin, Events, Parking came together in due course. There was a last minute request of a Security team and Kartik obliged. With this team there wa nothing overwhelming. You just had to see Venkatesh in action - Mark Lin remarked after rehearsal,
I actually like people in your organization, a group of calm people.The marcomm team - phone seva, email updates, newsletter, and last minute marketing - all done by one great team of Sri Narasimhan, Sanjay and Arti. Sri wowed with each data set he produced and was itching for paper registrations and had to curbed - this year was going to be focused on getting 100% of the Mission membership out. The buzz was created, sustained and people delivered to the start line. Mission accomplished :)
With the execution kickoff, Radesh sought out Coach Willie - ex Athletics director at Los Gatos High School. That really helped in identifying holes in the planning process for the races in particular. By this point it was all hands on deck and allowed Radesh to focus on the gaps without the distraction of the whole event. Time for the fourth blocker bug to show up - this one was big from the school
On March 1, 2010, "Due to your increasing needs, we may not be able to satisfy the needs for your event."Time to pull in the big guns; enter Sanjay, chief problem solver. A walkthrough was arranged on March 5; Sanjay lead from the front assuaging Scott's concerns and setting us on the forward path again. That was the point in time when we all collectively breathed a sigh of relief.
- Acharya Prabodh Chaitanya - he led us by example and we are indeed fortunate to have him in our midst. To say he was the true guiding light of Om Run, just shows the limitations of my articulation. He was that and much more - and single handedly electrified the base across all 3 centers. He is the ultimate marketeer with integrity, lesson learnt - internalize the message and then you can sell with passion.
- A special salute to Om Run's guide and chief mentor, Subbu. The level of access he provided and willingness to resolve any difficulties and as required to just jump in - he is a personification of the true Sevak. Pragmatic and always enthusiastic, teacher by example.
- Special thanks to Om Run's chief strategist, Sanjay Bombwal for being patient and trusting me (at least most of the times) on many of the tactical aspects of Om Run.
- The number of things I piled on my dear wife, Rohini's plate must have driven her up the wall; but without her I'd have been a wreck. Thank you for putting up with me.
references
- the recon team's discussion platform - http://initialblog.chinmaya-seva.org/
- the ongoing blog - http://blog.chinmaya-seva.org/
- and the site - http://omrun.chinmaya-seva.org/
- photos
- Training,http://picasaweb.google.com/pbettada/0306OmRunPrep
- Selected set, http://picasaweb.google.com/pbettada/0321OmRunSelect
- Finish line views, http://picasaweb.google.com/pbettada/OmRunFinishLine, http://picasaweb.google.com/pbettada/OmRun2FinishLine, http://picasaweb.google.com/pbettada/OmRun3FinishLine
- Another point of view, http://www.flickr.com/photos/prasana/collections/72157623560791143/
- Half marathon, http://picasaweb.google.com/sailesh.smitha/HalfMarathonPescadaro#
3 comments:
Hi Prasana,
I loved reading this blog. Om Run would not have come together without your operations talent and resolve. Thank you for all you do.
Regards,
Sanjay
@sanjay - enjoyed writing it and loved the entire Om Run ride. thanks for sharing.
Excellent portrayal of the entire Om Run Journey !! A perfectly executed project !! Kudos to you and the Om Run team !!
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