General Overview:
The Board for Sports Activities is responsible for all the sports activities at IIT Delhi. The online mode of operations had rendered the board very inactive and had adverse effects on team bonding and willingness to work within the board members. Since many people onboarded in the first half of the semester, the workload on BSA members increased manifold, especially among the G. Sec., the D. G. Sec., and the hostel sports secretaries who are answerable to the people who elected them. The workload is relatively lower for executives and coordinators, who work at the back end of things. BSA doesn't operate on a punishment mechanism and uses a variety of incentives to drive people to work. The simplest and most effective trick BSA uses is giving out NSO hours. Other than that, awards such as Best Executive or Best Coordinator, and CV Points are used by the board to get people to work.
BSA is a pretty transparent board. The board members and lower-level members have a clear idea about the desired outcome of every project they take part in. They are also aware of the board's decisions at upper levels. People outside the board generally don't have as much information as the board members, but they are free to contact any executive or coordinator for more details. Even though the board doesn't have a properly defined feedback system, the G. Sec. and the D. G. Sec are both very approachable and encourage feedback from all the board members. Moreover, BSA also encourages their second-year executives to initiate and lead completely new projects, and the board members are generally satisfied with their work.
Note: We have marked projects from the GSec’s manifesto with G and projects from the DGSec’s manifesto with DG.
Completed Projects
Appointment of coaches: The semester began with the re-appointment of coaches and the subsequent beginning of almost all sports practices. This semester, BSA's main focus was to revive the sports culture on campus.
Workshop on Self Defence and Women's Sports (DG): Workshops were conducted to impart self defence skills to women. Women's Football was also taken up as a project by BSA for the first time. In October, BSA conducted a 5v5 Women's Futsal Tournament, which was largely successful. Moreover, coaches have been appointed to train the girls specifically.
Launching BSA Diaries (G): This is a brand new series which involves releasing posts, interviews and stories of alumni associated with BSA.
Introduction of Kabaddi: BSA took initiatives to introduce and promote Kabaddi as a sport at IIT Delhi. Google forms were floated to look for interested people, and subsequently, informal events were conducted. A formal Kabaddi tournament was also being planned before the third wave of COVID.
Creating BSA's Discord Server (G, DG): BSA's Discord server has been up and running since the beginning of this semester, and is used to stream live matches.
Online Sports events for NSO hours (G, DG): Events such as virtual marathons and Pan IIT cycling events were organised and NSO hours were also provided to final year students who participated in them.
Semester Magazine (G): The semester magazine has been completed, and will be published soon. It would contain content from all spheres of sports.
Keeping Sports Secretaries involved in fitness sessions (G): During the winter break, fitness sessions were conducted by sports secretaries in their respective hostels as the preparation for GC.
Making BSA's instagram page more active (DG): BSA has been regularly releasing posts and stories on Instagram on different sports events as well as distinguished alumni along with memes, to increase BSA's outreach.
BSA's website host has been renewed. (G)
Besides, webinars about nutrition were also conducted. (G, DG)
Online Yoga sessions have also been conducted. (DG)
Ongoing Projects
Revamping BSA's Website (G, DG): This includes the following ongoing projects:
A separate tab on BSA's website that shows reimbursement and approvals status for all monetary issues. (G, DG)
Addition of “history of Interhostels” on BSA website to spread information and promote culture. (G)
Ground/Court booking system on the BSA website to avoid confusion and smooth running of the practice by the institute team. (G)
Complaint and feedback system on our website which will be taken care of instantly, a separate executive and coordinator will be made especially for this. (G)
Quizzes, auctions and strategic games (G): With the arrival of freshers, BSA is now starting to conduct such events, such as Fundaesliga.
eSports Tournaments (G): A Valorant tournament was conducted by BSA in December. The eSports week promised in the G. Sec's manifesto hasn't been conducted yet.
Matches with alumni (G, DG): BSA, in collaboration with AAIP, had organised a cricket match between the batch of 2021 and the current students. They had planned to conduct more such events, but the upsurge in covid cases in India and the subsequent restrictions and ground closures prevented these from happening.
The Inter-hostel Application (G, DG): An app which aims to update fixtures, live scores, points-table and event-related notification is also being worked upon.
Online Talk sessions with athletes: BSA is also working to organise online sessions with various Indian athletes and sportspersons.
Incomplete Projects
5v5 Futsal Tournament: The large number of people turning up for this tournament led to the grounds being closed, on account of violation of COVID regulations.
GC: Reviving IIT Delhi's most awaited Sports tournament was probably the most important BSA project this tenure. The upsurge of COVID cases in India prevented that from happening.
Sportech: IIT Delhi's Sports fest was scheduled after the conclusion of GC.
Decentralising BSA's funding (G, DG): Due to the pandemic, the alumni funds are still centralised, and BSA couldn't complete this project mentioned in their manifesto.
Know Your Contingent event (G): BSA had planned this event to develop team bonding and familiarizing the players with their seniors and the dressing room environment in the online semester, but could not carry them out.
Telecasting the Treasure event (G): BSA had planned to conduct this event every once in a while so that players interact with coaches of every sport, but could not execute it.
Appointment of PG representatives (G, DG): The PG Participation had improved this semester despite the fact that PG representatives haven't been formally appointed.
Collaboration with IITD On Air (DG): BSA had planned to release regular videos of coaches and matches to train players, but could not carry it out.
BSA calendar (G): The calendar was supposed to show the schedule of the contingent throughout the semester; this wasn't released.
Fantasy Leagues (G, DG): BSA had planned to organize Fantasy Leagues for IPL, UEFA Champions League and other tournaments, but those plans weren't executed. Unofficial gaming events haven't been conducted in all hostels yet.
Hiring a permanent coach for the Chess team (DG): The availability of a permanent coach for the Chess team could not be ensured as the former coach refused to continue.
Providing gym slots dedicated to each team (DG): Unlike what was promised in the Manifesto, teams do not have gym slots dedicated to them. Coaches carry out gym sessions depending upon need and availability.
The Intra Contingent Sports Championship (DG): This was supposed to be a tournament among the teams of 13 sports.
Summary
BSA is the board most adversely affected by the pandemic and online semesters over the last couple of years. Despite this, the board had successfully completed many of the projects promised in the Manifesto. The main focus of BSA during the previous semester was to have a smooth transition from the online mode to the offline mode and revive the sports culture which had been absent for so long. The broader aim of the board is to conduct as many tournaments as possible, and to facilitate that, completely new initiatives such as women's football and kabaddi have been taken up as well.
Having recently witnessed the third wave of COVID, BSA's activities planned for this upcoming semester were massively affected. However, webinars and other online sports events continued to take place. Despite no news yet about the campus shifting offline, BSA is planning to conduct GC and even Sportech on a smaller scale, but again, this is all subject to the changing circumstances.
Written by: Sampan Manna