Indonesian Student Association at the University of Washington, ISAUW's Annual Event, KERATON
Executive Summary:
ISAUW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit cultural organization dedicated to promoting the diverse Indonesian culture to the communities in the Greater Seattle area. ISAUW’s vision is to become the leading Indonesian Student Association in the United States. We aim to achieve this by building a respectful, well-rounded, diverse, yet nationalistic young Indonesian community in the Greater Seattle Area and in the United States. Established for over ten years, ISAUW would like to carry on and improve the legacy of our previous years and hold the most successful Keraton Indonesian Festival to date. Our team consists of 42 members, and we have three divisions - the Operations team, the Communication and Outreach team and the Finance team. Each division plays a unique role, but we all work together to ensure that Keraton will continue to uphold our goals of sharing Indonesian culture, spreading environmental awareness of Indonesia to our community and to make a greater sustainable impact than we have ever done before.
As the largest Indonesian cultural event on the West Coast and second largest in the United States, Keraton has experienced high growth, culminating in 2019’s event that attracted over 12,000 people. ISAUW expects many visitors this year as well and will be showcasing the diversity of Indonesia through traditional food, dance, music, and art relating to Keraton 2022’s theme of Indonesian Retro Films. Beyond ISAUW’s purpose of entertaining and educating the community about Indonesia, we also wish to create a memorable sustainable impact through our event. This year, we have decided to take a greater step towards sustainability by collaborating with Solar Chapter, an Indonesian, UW-registered student organization based in many parts of the world that aims to spread awareness on the environmental issues happening in Indonesia to educate our community on their projects. Furthermore, we are planning to have a batik awareness and creation booth, traditional Indonesian games, a photography contest, and many more booths designed to enrich the visitors’ knowledge about Indonesia and Indonesian retro films. ISAUW also guarantees to put the different aspects of sustainability as one of our top priorities in preparation for this event. Our total estimated budget for Keraton as of today is around $43,000. With this, ISAUW would like to apply for CSF funding to make Keraton possible again this year.
For more information on our student organization, refer to www.isauw.org.
Student Involvement:
Throughout the years, ISAUW has always put a significant emphasis on creating great leaders in our community. Every year during our recruitment period, we aim to select members who demonstrate leadership qualities. Keraton is a massive event within student organizations and the amount of commitment delivered by our officers is extraordinary. A lot of officers that have been involved in previous Keratons have shared that their work and time in ISAUW has prepared them for real life work experiences post-graduation. With a shared vision to celebrate Indonesia’s diverse culture and making Keraton a huge success, our 40+ members are involved in Event Organizing, Creativity Management, Inventory Management, Sponsorship, Treasury, Marketing & Communication, Design & Documentation, as well as Information Technology. Ever since officers joined the organization in Fall, they have been committing their time and creativity to lead their teams successfully to gather what is needed for Keraton; such as searching for funds, performances, food vendors, etc.
Beyond this, officers in ISAUW have the opportunity to learn to communicate and partner with small and big businesses in the United States and Indonesia, allowing them to hone excellent interpersonal skills. In Keraton, ISAUW receives volunteers who are students from diverse community colleges and universities in the Greater Seattle Area, including Edmonds Community College, Shoreline Community College, Bellevue College, and more.
Moreover, almost half of the food vendors in Keraton are contributed by other Student Organization Bodies from various community colleges and universities, such as The Indonesian Student Association of Seattle University (ISASU), Bellevue Indonesian Club (BIC), Indonesian Student Association of North Seattle College (ISANS), Indonesian Student Association in the United States in Seattle (PERMIAS Seattle), and more. Hence, ISAUW members can expand their channels, meet new people from various backgrounds, and create new experiences for students that would be useful for their future endeavors.
Our students are involved in planning the logistics of the event, for example renting space and equipment, to ensure safety and comfort for the thousands of guests we are hosting. Our students also lead the marketing and promotion of the event, taking the initiative to use their creativity to reach out to as many people in the Greater Seattle area that would enjoy the activities provided in Keraton. Our students also ensure that we obtain the funding needed to host such a large event, planning and executing fundraising events, reaching out to sponsors and partners. These are just a few of the many responsibilities that our students hold in ISAUW.
Education & Outreach:
Keraton has consistently received critical acclaim from both Indonesians and non-Indonesians who attended our event. This year, we aim to go above and beyond while adhering to COVID-19 safety measurements and guidelines. We will require attendees to show proof of vaccination before entering our outdoor festival and to have their masks on at all times. To ensure that only people who have demonstrated proof of vaccination can enter, we will install fencing around the festival so that they would pass through our check-in booth. Following COVID-19 guidelines ensures our communities' safety throughout the pandemic and aims to maintain COVID-19 awareness.
To introduce a new aspect of Keraton this year, ISAUW plans to collaborate with Solar Chapter. Solar Chapter is a UW-registered, large non-profit organization based in the United States and other parts of the world, to educate the greater community on the environmental issues Indonesia faces and aims to help developing remote areas in Indonesia through spreading awareness. We will be collaborating with Solar Chapter in Keraton to educate the Seattle community on their current project on providing clean water access to Kareka Nduku, a village in Sumba, Indonesia. We hope attendees will become more aware of the world outside their own from Solar Chapter's booth and share the importance of being environmentally sustainable through our everyday actions. We also aim to share the impact that Indonesian University students are making to the Seattle and Indonesian community, and we hope that sharing it with our attendees will make a meaningful impact to them.
Furthermore, attendees of Keraton will take home the knowledge of Indonesia's rich culture through our traditional games, cultural Batik Making booth, coffee-tasting booth and retro-themed photography contest. ISAUW’s Batik booth will not only be showcasing Indonesia’s cultural, ancient art form, but we aim to take a step further by educating our guests about the Clean Batik Initiative (CBI) in Indonesia which promotes sustainable practices in Batik art and clothing. The CBI have been successful in developing an electric stove with a thermostat, to help reduce energy consumption, costs in batik making, and have started using natural dyes in their batik making. The Clean Batik Initiative (CBI) plays a big part in inspiring the Indonesian community in being more sustainable in every aspect of our lives, and we hope that our Batik booth will inspire others to do the same. In addition, we will also be selling Batik clothing at our booth so that our attendees can take home a token of our Indonesian culture that is also meaningful to the sustainable impact back in Indonesia.
Furthermore, we will also introduce Indonesia’s different coffees through the Indonesian coffee tasting booth. We will educate visitors about the different types of coffee while also letting them taste the coffee. This year, we will continue to use samples of coffee beans that are certified sustainable. Lastly, we will have a couple cultural booths this year, where we will showcase unique cultures in Indonesia through Indonesian Cultural Films. Here we will include topics about social sustainability where we tell people about the growth in women empowerment and gender equality through these Indonesian Retro films that show an increasing growth and development in Women’s roles in movies.
- Energy Use
- Food
- Waste
- Water
- Community Development
- Cultural Representation
- Social Justice
Keraton was first established in 2011, and it has been occurring annually during Spring until 2019, before the pandemic-hoping to resume Spring 2022. Encountering various aspects, ISAUW has already developed a standardized frame that fulfills all the systemized expectations of how our event, Keraton, is being prepared and would proceed. Historically, every year Keraton has not just greatly increased in participants but there has always been new innovation and improvements. This event is only possible thanks to our 40+ officers passionate about Indonesia’s cultural exposure. Our officers spend so much of their time towards this organization, especially for Keraton. As students graduate every year, ISAUW would have a different batch of officers each Fall after recruitment (new officers that join and officers from previous years). This cycle could prove the longevity of Keraton, because every new school year, we would have a new team assembled from the many applicants we receive. Other than that, ISAUW also has a connection with UWAIN (University of Washington Alumni Indonesia). This connection allows us to have a community of Huskies that have experienced Keraton; advising the good and bad, supporting our funding, and thus supporting the longevity of Keraton. For example, this year we have connected with UWAIN more than ever virtually, with members from Indonesia supporting our ISAUW students through this pandemic and giving insights on Keraton. Hence, we strongly believe that Keraton would be a long term event, constantly improving every year, learning from mistakes and learning from each other.
COVID plans
ISAUW acknowledges the current situation in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and potential disruptions that may interfere with large mass gatherings. This year, we are optimistic that KERATON 2022 will be able to be orchestrated in accordance with the current CDC, Washington state, and University of Washington guidelines. The event will take extra precautions in ensuring our guests safety as well as the community of Seattle. ISAUW has come up with a draft plan of the precautions we would take in KERATON to make sure that the safety of all our guests and staff are our top priority. Our draft plan is currently in the process of being confirmed by our SAO advisor, as well as E&HS (Environmental Health and Safety).
Our plan consists of having designated eating areas at the location, such that they are only allowed to take off their masks and eat their food at those areas. We are also going to have a booth at the front of the venue to make sure that everyone who has attended the event has been vaccinated and has their masks on. Once their vaccination cards have been checked, we will put a wristband around their hand to indicate to all food vendors and ISAUW officers that they have been verified by the front booth. All food vendors have to sign a contract to ensure that they do not serve any guests any food if they do not have the wristband around their hand, and all those who do not have wristbands have to be redirected to the front booth. If a guest comes to the event without a mask on, we will be handing out free masks to ensure that everyone at the event will be wearing masks. Announcements will be made frequently throughout the entire event to remind everyone to have their masks at all times, unless they are at the designated eating areas. Hand sanitizers will also be readily provided at every booth at Keraton. Furthermore, all food vendors are required to get a food permit, so that they are aware of health and safety measures, and are aware of the covid precautions needed to be taken in the event and when preparing the food. All food vendors would have to show proof of their food permit before they’re allowed to set up their booth at Keraton. We will also meet with all food vendors prior to the event to give them a briefing of all the Covid measures needed to be taken at our event to ensure the safety of all our guests. This year, we have also decided to have more hand-washing stations around the venue for guests and food vendors to wash their hands, and we would also make announcements throughout the event to remind everyone to wash their hands and sanitize.
Environmental Problem:
Energy Use
Electricity usage
The last Keraton had a high amount of electricity usage, and we aim to cut this down by using lower-voltage lighting during the day, as well as limiting the use of light, when unnecessary.
Paperless transaction
Keraton will minimize carbon footprint by utilizing a seamless touch-free paperless payment system. We’re planning on using Square’s touchless payment reader and system that uses customer’s smartphones or cards to connect with our POS devices through RFID.
Carbon Footprint
This year in Keraton 2022, we will mitigate several Sustainability challenges. During previous years of Keraton, we’ve used unsustainable food trucks for some of our vendors. This year, we will only be fully utilizing booths at Keraton instead of food trucks as we have been considering our food truck vendors’ carbon emissions as one of the main proponents of Keraton’s lack of sustainability.
Community Development
Keraton gives an opportunity for Indonesians, both raised in the United States and in their motherland, to celebrate their shared heritage by promoting volunteerism and community engagement between ISAUW members tasked with planning Keraton and the Seattle community. In preparation for this annual event, ISAUW has created many different opportunities throughout the academic year for volunteering and engaging the Greater Seattle community to make this event possible.
Cultural Representation
The Indonesian community is underrepresented in the United States. Keraton is the second largest annual Indonesian festival in the United States. This event is one of the most impactful ways we can promote our community externally. Through Keraton alone, more than 5000 non-Indonesians could learn more about the culture of one the Asia’s most vast countries annually.
Waste
Misplaced trash was one of our largest contributors towards a lack of sustainability last Keraton, thus we will double the number of trash cans and recycling bins in Keraton in order to ensure that waste is properly disposed of, and items are recycled if they can be. At Keraton 2022, we would also like to promote Sustainability amongst our volunteer crew, hence before Keraton 2022 we will hold a seminar reminding the volunteers on the importance of sustainability.
Food
We will highly encourage vendors to use prepackaged goods to minimize food waste and spread of COVID-19, but special requests might be made by some vendors to maintain the authenticity of their cooking by making cultural food on the spot.
Water
Clean water is wasted a lot on washing cooking equipment when vendors choose to cook on the spot. Since we’re encouraging prepackaged food, we can minimize water usage by using sustainable water containers instead of huge water tanks.
Explain how the impacts will be measured:
Energy Use
Paperless transaction
The number of papers saved from shifting to paperless transactions can be roughly counted by the number of transactions occurring during Keraton. Assuming that there’s 13,000 visitors and each visitor purchases at least 1 transaction, we already saved 13,000 paper receipts from being made.
Carbon Emissions
This year we aim to use 3⁄4 of our carbon emissions from that of Keraton three years ago by requiring all food trucks to use our given booths.
Waste
For Keraton 2022, we are shifting to 99% compostable utensils and packaging. While this is an important metric, arguably the largest and most important metric for Keraton 2022 is educating the students involved in Keraton on the importance of Sustainability. Coming from Indonesia, a country that rarely puts sustainability as a priority, we would like to educate officers, volunteers, and the general public on the importance of recycling and composting. This fits in line with ISAUW’s vision which is to develop a new youth generation of Indonesia, and sustainability is an aspect that we would like to bring up with the Indonesia community in Seattle.
As for a more direct approach towards vendors, the best way to prevent waste going through the wrong bin is to actively discourage misplacement of waste. We will remind each vendor that for every waste that’s not put properly, they will get charged accordingly when the waste management bill comes to ISAUW.
Community Development & Cultural Representation
At the end of Keraton, we would ask both attendees and event organizers a series of questions that asked about their experience, satisfaction, and how much they learned about Indonesia’s diverse culture. We would also make a Keraton recap digitally available through our Youtube channel and website to further quantify people’s experience.
Food & Water
By reducing the number of food being cooked on the spot by half, we could reduce the number of water required by about half. The typical restaurant uses 7000 gallons of water a day. Assuming that all the 15 vendors we’d be having would contribute to the water waste of a restaurant, we could mitigate water waste by at least 3500 gallons since at least half of the food will be prepackaged.
This funding request is a: Grant
If this is a loan, what is the estimated payback period?:
Budget:
| Item | Cost per Item | Quantity | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campus services - floodlight rental | $1,100.00 | ||
| Event Insurance | $500.00 | ||
| Honey Bucket and Water | $2,000.00 | ||
| Events Staff | $2,400.00 | ||
| Radio Rental (for staff) | $400.00 | ||
| First Aid | $150.00 | ||
| Recycling | $200.00 | ||
| Electricity | $5,000.00 | ||
| Tenting and rental equipment | $3,000.00 | ||
| Assembly Permit | $400.00 | ||
| Stage, Lighting and Sound System | $14,000.00 | ||
| Equipment | $500.00 | ||
| Canopies | $50.00 | ||
| Decorations | $2,500.00 | ||
| Transportation(U-Haul) | $250.00 | ||
| Guest Star Fee | $7,500.00 | ||
| Event T-Shirt | $500.00 | ||
| Committee, Volunteers and Performers Consumption | $2,000.00 | ||
| Newspapers, Balloons, Posters Printing | $800.00 |
Non-CSF Sources:
| ASUW Special Appropriations | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wells Fargo Fund | ||||
| UW Alumni Association Fund | ||||
| HUB RSO Fund | ||||
| GPSS Special Allocations |
Timeline:
| Task | Timeframe | Estimated Completion Date |
|---|---|---|
| Sponsorship | 6 months | April |
| Fundraising events | 2x per quarter | April |
| Ivars Volunteer work | 8 months (1-2x per member every quarter, except ) | May |
| Marketing of event | 3 months | May |
| Host external events to gather community | 8 months (1-2x per quarter) | April |
| Merchandise sales | 5 months | February |
| Develop website | 2 months | January |
| Event preparation (decoration, food vendors, equipment, staging, etc.) | 2 months | April |
