Head of Campaigns- December 2009

Have you ever dreamt of having a committee that reaches out, not only to Muslim students, but also the Muslim community and even the non-Muslim community?

Well, the Campaigns Committee has made your dream come true!

Alhamdulillah, the committee was due to have its first face-to-face meeting on Tuesday 5th of January 2010, but the meeting was cancelled as a result of transport to and from Manchester being cancelled because of the snow. This however didn't get in the way of the committee, and by the grace of Allah we had the meeting online on Tuesday evening.

Alhamdulillah, 17 people attended the meeting and made it a huge success. The Campaigns Committee Mission statement has been written and is due to be finalised by next Wednesday insha'Allah, alongside with the Motto. The motto was designed in such a way to answer three key questions:

1. What do we aim to do?
2. How will we do it?
3. For whom will we do it?

Over the course of the next week or so, the structure of the committee will be drawn and the priorities for the rest of the year will be set. Once that, the motto and the Mission Statement are finalised, we will begin with the Marketing campaign insha'Allah, through which we will aim to make the Committee known to ISocs and to bring people into the committee.

Our main priority this year is to build the foundation in order to establish a well structured committee so that it becomes self sustainable and consistent.

We also selected a member of the committee to get IT training and be in charge of the Campaigns section of the FOSIS website, which will be very active insha'Allah. The finalised mission statement and the motto will be put up on the website insha'Allah as well as the new logo design which is being worked on.

Part two of the Blog is about the individual Campaigns:

Charity Week:

I have spoken to brother Rashid (VP. ISCC) and have come up to an agreement on the structure of the FOSIS Charity Week Committee. It will insha'Allah be made up of:
- FOSIS Head of Campaigns
- FOSIS VP ISCC
- FOSIS Regional Chairs
- Charity Week Regional Reps (Who will sit on both, the Campaigns Committee and their respective regional Committee).

As for the National Charity Week Committee, the FOSIS VP. ISCC, Head of Campaigns and the Regional Chairs will sit on that committee. This will give FOSIS a bigger presence on the Charity Week project and will also help keep our work Centralised insha'Allah.

I will be attending the National Charity Week meeting with ULU and Islamic Relief. Brother Rashid is also going to attend and we're hoping to bring the Regional Chairs with us to the meeting. At this meeting, this year's Charity Week project will be evaluated and the initial planning will take place for Charity Week 2010. Feedback on this meeting will be provided in my next blog insha'Allah.

Palestine Campaign:

Palestine Week now is being finalised, speakers are confirming and the Committee has now moved on to discussing publicity and Marketing for the Week. At the end of the Week, a Conference will be held insha'Allah and the venue for the conference is to be confirmed insha'Allah. It will, however, most likely be in Manchester insha'Allah.

Recruitment is looking extremely positive and more people are coming on board now alhamdulillah.

The next step will insha'Allah be to speak to the regional committees and start getting ISocs involved with the Project insha'Allah.

FOSIS Community Project:

The project's video is made now and will be put up on Youtube and the FOSIS site as soon as possible insha'Allah.
We now have Campaigns Reps in London who are going to get London ISocs involved with the FCP.
The next steps will be to:
a. finalise the structure the Project
b. Write up documents about the Project, its purpose and its Aims and Objectives.
b. Deliver workshops and seminars at FOSIS events
c. Marketing for the project and getting ISocs involved with it.

Campaigns which we will work on over the course of the next few months:
- Climate Change
- MADE In Europe (Leadership Training and Personal Development)
- Islamophobia
- Raising awareness on Global Injustices
- Da'wa Campaigns and nurturing Da'iis within the community
- Volunteering opportunities

There is so much work to be done over the course of the next few months. But with Allah's support, the most difficult of challenges become easy to overcome.

Become part of the team which will build what can potentially be one of the most inspiring committees in our organisation. Get in touch -Head.Campaigns@fosis.org.uk

NEC Work

- TEAM FOSIS - I'm currently working on strengthening the bonds within Team FOSIS. I'll be doing this by organising regular Socials for Team FOSIS, ranging from BBQ's and Hikes to Ice Skating and Falconering. The aim is to have a social during every holiday, where members of team FOSIS get the chance to spend some non-FOSIS time with each other and establish true brotherhood and sisterhood.
- DEVELOPMENT - I'm also working on a self development programme, with help from sister Abida (VP. THR) for team FOSIS members.
- MARKETING - I've come across a book written by Members of FOSIS, covering a wide range of topics. I'm working with the FOSIS Office Manager on getting the Publishers of the book to reprint copies of the book for us to sell on the FOSIS website and at Islamic Bookstores.
- CAREER DEVELOPMENT - I've stepped down from coordinating the Career Development Project after being co-opted on to the NEC. The project is now being led by sister Nada Mansy but I still sit on her committee and will continue to help her out with the project.

If you're interested in helping out with any of the above projects, please do get in touch with me insha'Allah.

Finally, I would like to finish off by quoting a Hadith in which the Messenger of Allah says "Surely Allah loves it most when His slave perfects the work he does". May Allah give us the ability to maintain the purest of intentions and may He grant us the ability to perfect our work. May Allah, through this work, bring us together under the one vision of 'serving the path of Allah'. Ameen

Wassalamu Alaikum