AT the end of September of each year, the Public Relations Administration at the bank collects offers from companies of advertising and publishing materials, and gifts for the new year in order to prepare the new year's gifts that banks, institutions and companies are accustomed to give to their clients and to others. I had previously set rules for that through allocating an amount of money in the expenditure budget for this article in particular, and through attracting offers from three companies to supply those materials through samples for three categories. The first category is the promotional material for the bank's VIP clients. The second category is for the rest of the clients and all the bank's employees. The third category is the promotional materials for others for the almost daily consumption. These samples should be put on the meeting table in the meeting room with the price attached to each sample. The Administrative Affairs manager, the public relations manager and my office's director are summoned to examine these samples, make a comparison between them and choose a sample from the first then second then third category. In most cases, the bank makes a contract with all three companies who presented their samples, through that it would be possible to select the promotional material for the first category by buying it from all three companies by choosing a sample from each company. The same goes for the other two categories. With the beginning of the second half of the month of December work starts through the Public Relations Administration in co-ordination with the office of the general manager to make a list of the names of those who will receive the first category gifts with the names of the institutions they work for and their addresses. Another two lists of the second and third category of the bank's promotional materials would be prepared so the promotional materials would be sent to them on the occasion of the new fiscal year. All through my banking career, which extended for about half a century, I received from the bank that I worked for the New Year's gifts, which were no more than a (calendar) or an (agenda). I was proud of hanging the calendar that carried the bank's name on the wall. I also used the agenda that the bank used to give as a present to its employees, for writing my diaries. After years passed, when I occupied leading positions, my colleagues in other banks used to send me the promotional materials of the banks they worked for, and in return I sent them the gifts of the bank I work for. The end of the year was a chance to pile up stuff like these promotional materials which the relatives, acquaintances, friends and neighbours were the beneficiaries from, to the extent that some of them were asking me about them ahead of their date as if booking some of themfor himself/herself for fear that his/her share will be forgotten. These promotional materials expanded to include, in addition to the calendars and agendas, notebooks, pens, small calculators, pen sets that are put on desks, paper cutters and ashtrays… etc. This habit kept going on till we got bored of it and of the material we receive. The number of the beneficiaries from the gifts rose, as well as their shares, to the extent that they were giving some of them as a gift to their relatives and acquaintances. I knew about that when some of them requested the bank's gifts with no need for writing the bank's name on them, especially the pens!! – It seems they were asking for that so those gifts appear to be from them to others and not from others to them – then to others! Some of the banks had, in some years, forwarded the sum of money allocated in the budget for this item to other charities instead of spending it on special promotional materials at the end of the year. Nevertheless, they had to send gifts that were especially bought for the clients who were accustomed to receiving such materials on a yearly basis, so that the bank is not permitted to make excuses that the allocated budget for this item was forwarded to charities. I once tried to cancel the agendas item from the end of the year's gifts types because I was sure that every client will get more than one agenda from other institutions. My attempts failed after my colleagues, who used to choose the New Year's gifts with me, protested.
