Random: But it took me almost 2 weeks to write this article. Procrastination at its peak

It was August 13th, 2021 I got a "Congratulations" mail from google saying I had become the GDSC lead for my school and, to be honest, I wasn't ready. I remember I was binge-watching Netflix that day and the previous lead, Favour was with me, he told me to check my mail before I finally saw the mail.

A little back story:

I started my tech career officially in 2020 and my dream has always been to work with Google. At some point, it was a pinned tweet on Twitter lol. I loved everything at google and I wanted to work with them. I still want to. But I had to start from somewhere yeah? Before I applied to be the lead. I was already a member of the GDSC community and a core team member. I was always available. I didn't have a steady job then(I was still in a learning phase) I helped organize events and all. At some point I was assigned to organize an event by myself, it felt hard but I did it anyways and it was a success

Now you will be asking, why the back story?

It seemed like I already knew my way around the community. But was I ready to lead? Nah I wasn't sure. Typical me plays too much and lives on vibes to be leading a community of people. But I was picked, right? So I had to. Anyways I was onboarded and I got my first mail from Auwal(he's a chill guy by the way) Favour announced me as the new community lead and so my job started. (Shit became real)

The school was on break in august. I had time to plan. I wrote down my goals for the community and listed my prospective core team member. School resumed around September and I had to start work.

Here is a picture of my core team after they were picked

I met with Favour again; he gave me a walkthrough of everything and wished me the best. One of the major goals was to do an orientation for the new 100l students at that time. Which we did, and also lead to the second goal which was to increase the members of the community.

Moving forward, as a community leader. I helped organize DevFest Ado-Ekiti in collaboration with GDG Ado-Ekiti. If I find the pictures I'll embed them later on. We had Bootcamp sessions for newbies (one of the toughest times for me). I had to check if our facilitators were available at the stipulated times. Sometimes I am rushing from class to the Hub to make sure the Bootcamp sessions were taking place. We had for Mobile, Web, Android, UI/UX, and all.

Yeah, that's me giving a talk. I became outspoken by force. Being a lead actually makes you take charge and responsibility.

In December we held a collaborative event with other tech communities within our school. Still one of the largest events we ever organized. The last event in the year 2021. Thanks to our collaborators I4G EKSU, Codecademy EKSU, OSCA Ado-Ekiti, and also Data Science Nigeria EKSU.

The struggles

Not going to lie, running or leading a community is hard and you need to have money as a lead because you will use your money at some point. Remember my tech career wasn't soft yet. So it was a struggle. I'll put on my Wi-Fi for people at the hub, and do data giveaways. On one occasion we had an event, and we planned to make refreshments available, apparently, we had a large turn-up and the numbers superseded the budget we made. I had to call a friend to borrow me money so we could get more refreshments. That's just one out of the numerous. At some point, I had gotten a better job so I was able to do more stuff.

The tech vibe in EKSU was generally down, and I did my very best to revive it, I wish I did more. There's a lot of potential in the community, It just has to be unleashed.

My core team

Gideon, Malik, Tolu, Tabitha, Emmanuel, Olarenwaju, Idayat and lastly Ahmed. I wouldn't have been able to do a lot without these guys. I dragged them a lot. Emmanuel our graphics designer, I would stress him whenever we want to have an event. I would drag Tabitha to the Hub every time we had something to do.

The strike

January 2022, EKSU put us in a frantic race of exams. Imagining starting the year with exams, was our story. I had to put the community on hold because even if we had activities, nobody will come, School is important(at least for some people lol). EKSU was postponing exams like the unserious people they were. We ended up finishing exams in February. I was exhausted and tired, I said let me go home for a week or two, when I get back the community will continue. ASUU shocked us and started the strike. We felt the strike wasn't going to last long, so we still waited after I saw it wasn't forth coming. We switched to virtual events. Which was even harder because of internet issues, community members might not have data and all of that but had no choice. We started events back in March/April I think I am not sure(I'll check let me continue writing first).

Anyways it was hard but we did it. We touched different areas of tech, Invited guest speakers to come and talk to us and at least people turned up and I am pretty sure they learned one or two things from those events

In January also our community was one of the 10 communities that got 10 copies of Adora's Cloud Engineering for beginners book.

All in all, Leading the GDSC community was a great turnaround for me, My Career improved, I once got an offer just because my LinkedIn bio said "GDSC Lead", I got to meet different people around the world virtually and also physically, I met my Program managers Auwal and Aniedi, I met other leads across other Nigerian Universities. I learned how to manage a community and lead a community

P.S: I am open to Frontend Engineering and community management roles.

To the Incoming Leads

Don't freight, You would do just fine. Write down your goals for the community, Pick a good team. One thing you should note is that it's not the number of people in your team that matters. It's the willingness to work and do the job that matters. Do your best and leave the rest. Like Auwal said "A year would look like a twinkle of an eye" don't procrastinate(don't be like me lol). And lastly, follow the [The 7 Ps of Community(thecompletehub.tech/the-7ps-of-community) written by Favour and you'll do just fine I promise.

What's next for me?

Looking forward to advancing more career wise. Cheers to what's to come!!