(mf) Our university has never quite learnt where the apostrophe in “Baha’i” actually lies. Every year, when publishing the list of active societies for that academic year, the university manages to misspell our name, and replace it with something along the lines of: Ba’hai Society, or B’ahai Society or my personal favourite, B’a’hai’ Society.
But other than reoccurring episodes of apostrophe misplacements, our Baha’i Society has generally been much of a success story.
Admittedly, we are small in number. The actual society exists of maybe a handful of people – and most of which are Baha’i youth. But that’s not what’s important (Or at least that’s what we like to tell our scarcely-numbered selves).
Ultimately, it comes down to that golden rule: quality v quantity. The most important thing is that the society be cohesive, organised, recognised throughout the university and active.
Baha’i Societies throughout Australia are centred around 3 main activities:
- Tranquility Zones – devotional meetings based on different themes involving readings from the world religions, philosophers, scientists and other great minds and accompanied with music and multimedia presentations
- Reflections on the life of the Spirit – Ruhi Book 1
- Blurbs – discussion forums based on important social issues where participants are shown a short multimedia presentation on a topic and are then asked to exchange their thoughts
- Uni-Tea for Unity – free distributions of various international teas in the name of promoting unity on campus
These form the core activities of the society and a run on a regular (weekly/fortnightly) basis. But it doesn’t end there. Often activities like sports nights, yoga classes, art and music sessions and other not-so-in-your-face activities are good way for Baha’i societies to casually meet new people or further ties with existing contacts and are thus included in the society’s list of activities. And sometimes affiliating with like-minded societies for certain one-off events is a good move, like teaming up with the UN society for a blurb on international peace-keeping or inviting other religious societies to a multi-faith devotional meeting. Think about it:
Your society + Your friends + Other society + Other society and their friends = a lot of people, good crowd, good teaching opportunity, many great refreshments and more people who you could potentially ask for notes in your future subjects.
Everybody wins.
Best is – keep it simple and manageable, purposeful and attractive (the program, not yourselves – although we have found brushed hair and clean clothes do attract more people). Be flexible. Be creative. Be enthusiastic.
And above all, be sure to tell your university the apostrophe comes after the second ‘a’.
Special Thanks to Mona Forghani (Australia) for this brilliant piece.