Conference Fun

After months of frenetic preparation by the VolCom committee, the VSO Cambodia annual conference finally took place in Sihanoukville to much acclaim! The committee members and I arranged a full week’s programme designed to develop the skills, professional knowledge, networks, ideas, team work (and lots of other admirable objectives) of the volunteers and VSO staff, but the main goal was to have fun!! I arrived with the committee to the seaside resort a day before the rest of the 80 participants to prepare the meeting rooms, hotel and evening venues, working until 11 p.m. making posters and decorations. One of my jobs in the week was to give out prizes for ‘significant achievements’, which ranged from the volunteer with the best suntan to a group of volunteers who saved the lives of some Khmer teenagers who got swept out to sea by the unusually dangerous undercurrents. Shockingly, six people drowned in Sihanoukville the week we were there – our volunteers heroically saved the lives of at least four people.
We organised evening entertainment every night, including the much anticipated fancy dress party with its theme ‘Something beginning with P’. The week ended with elections for the new VolCom committee, and as I could only serve for one year, my term as committee member is now over. Being a committee member has been an interesting, worthwhile and enjoyable experience.