Stedfast Association KL - KL State BB Fellowship Games 2012

Every year while the Malaysia is celebrating it's formation (that is the merger between the Peninsula, Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore to form Malaysia) on 16th September 2012, the BB bunch in Kuala Lumpur will be out for a round of sports in fellowship with the Stedfast Association of Kuala Lumpur. This year, since September 16th fell on a Sunday, with the next day declared a public holiday, so the games was rescheduled to a day later. This time, 4th KL played host and the event was held at St. Gabriel's Church.

It was a big crowd this year, with all companies from KL State represented. Games played where badminton, basketball volleyball, futsal, table tennis and carrom.

My role this time was just to be the umpire for table tennis, though at one point I had to switch roles as there weren't enough people to play.. so I partnered Qi Yang in the doubles. We were initially doing pretty well, winning the first two sets and almost winning the third. But as fate has it we lost the last three sets, though it was mainly my fault. No excuses!

The Stedfast Association Team takes it home once more!

In the end of the day, only our carrom team won while all the rest.. we were beaten flat by Stedfast. So much for bringing back the overall trophy this time! Perhaps the Lord will smile upon next year.. but I think we better have a few rounds of training next time rather than just coming to the games unprepared. Nevertheless, the was a good time of fellowship with SA members and we hope to see more collaboration in times to come!

Our New Home!

After half a year of searching, visiting countless offices for rent and driving around KL, at time almost at random.. we have finally found a suitable location for the KL State Secretariat.

Located in Sungai Besi, it is a newly developed office area by YTL Group called "The Trillium". The site was less than 10 minutes walk from an LRT station and had many big-named food outlets around like KFC, Secret Recipe, Dome, Old Town, Papparich, Tutti Fruity and other nice restaurants (though I'd rather those typical kopitiams instead..).

After months of searching and close calls, we knew good places like this get snapped up very quickly. The rent was also right at budget, with the price of RM1000 a month. We spend no time at all and in less than a week, we decided that this was the place for us, though it did require us to put in a lot of work as it was completely empty as we are its first tenants.

The office site before renovation works when it was completely bare

On 6th April 2012, we made history by renting our own office space, giving ourselves "a first home". However, we only started using the place in mid-June due to renovation works. It was quite an experience for me handling all this myself for the first time. There were quite a number of things that needed doing - understanding the terms of the rent, engaging contractors to handle the partitioning, electricity, air-conditioning. I also had to figure out the utilities, which fortunately only the Internet+phone required registration, whereas the water and electricity is, sort of, already taken care off by the owner of the premise.


We opted to go for a two office space configuration, one conference room, one storeroom and the remaining space at the back served as a dining area. The office already came with two toilets and we created a lounge-ish area at the entrance. We were also blessed with 2nd-hand furniture donations from Mr Cheong Sing Yuen and a contact from one of the church-goers from St. Gabriel's Church in the form of much needed office, chairs, shelves and even sofas, hence a special thanks to them! Most of the furniture in the conference room was bought with our own State fund, though several State Council members made personal donations for chairs after one of the first few meetings.

After roughly 2 weeks of renovations (renovations completed 12th June 2012) and another few days waiting for furniture's to come in, enough to put the office in a reasonable working condition. I can't officially say when we started using the office, but I'd say between 16-18th June 2012. Does going in for three ours on 16th June 2012 inhaling dust count? If yes, then that is the official day. No Internet. That came just a few days later.. praise the Lord!

Renovation works as at 20th May 2012

The main office space as at 20th May 2012

15th June 2012 - finally looking more like an office. Notice that the ceiling, lights, carpeting, air-conditioning and furniture has been added

15th June 2012 - Conference room carpeted and air-conditioned, but was still waiting for furniture's which came on 21st June 2012

Spare office (to rent) as at 15th June 2012

The first meeting held in the office was by the Bowl For Fund 2012 Committee on 21st June 2012

On 9th September 2012, KL State officially commissioned the office with a dedication service conducted by Venerable Eddie Ong from St. Gabriel's Anglican Church. All companies of the KL State were represented and showed their support for this event as we celebrated the moving in to our own "home" for the new foreseeable future. I wanna thank all those present from all the KL companies, Stedfast Association, Girls' Brigade and friends for being there that day.

Mr Tony Chow, KL State Commissioner, giving a speech during the dedication service

 Ven. Eddie Ong giving the blessing for the office

Group picture of the attendees of the dedication service 

Towards the end of the event, Mr Lawrence suggested for everyone to pray for me as the FTO. I thought that was a nice gesture from everyone. I have committed myself to the Lord the day I decided to take up this ministry. Although I don't think I will be serving in BB full-time forever, I will FOREVER be serving in the BB until the day I die.. unless our Lord calls me to do something else. 

Oh, the spare office space is also up for rent! But we are very picky on who our co-tenant will be. We will only charge RM500 a month which includes utilities and the rules of the common areas - conference room, toilets, lounge and dining area (the only thing we won't share is the storeroom, unfortunately.. well, maybe we will). 

Those interested can visit us at: 
65-2 Jalan Tasik Utama 6
Medan Niaga Tasik Damai
Sungai Besi
57100 Kuala Lumpur

But please call 3-90544722 or 012-2654772 first to make an appointment.

KL State NCOs' Training School 2012

Once again the NCOs' Training School circus returns to Kuala Lumpur, this time being held in the August school holidays, which was just a week long. KL opted to have it from the 24-26th of August 2012, the last days before the start of the next school term. I usually prefer having this camp at the beginning of the school holidays.. poor kids would be so tired when they go back to school the next day since this time its held at the end of the holidays. With with a pretty tight calendar for the State and from the companies, we're just left with one choice. Still, the lack of time did not prevent 63 people from coming together for KL State's 2012 NCOs' Training School.

 This time, I was in-charge was focused on fixing up the BNTS, though I also coordinated the logistical needs of the ANTS team. There were 33 candidates, 4 coaches spread among 3 squads. I also "lectured" in 2 modules. That's something new that we tried this year, modeled after an experiment from Penang, where we introduce 1 hour of "lectures" before breaking off to 1.5-2 hours of "tutorials" and discussions. The idea, at least in theory, was so that one coach can focus on a specific module, rather than 1 coach teaching separately and being overburdened to prepare teaching materials for 6 modules for BNTS and 5 modules for ANTS. It was a good compromise, where quality is not affected and the interaction between trainees and coaches remains intact. I think it went pretty well and we might stick to this for awhile.

The course began, as it always does at 9am for all participants. For me, it began the night before when the 1st Johor Bahru Company with its supplied coach and 5 participants coming early to KL, presumably to avoid the unpredictable traffic and just to be early. I was planning to be there the night before anyway to set up and prepare myself mentally and logistically (thought I did forget a few stuff and ended up going back all the way to the office from Sentul). Ended up sleeping at around 3am anyway preparing stuff.. from notes, to nametags, to labels and arranging t-shirts. Special thanks to Steven Voo (3rd KL) for helping me out here and there. Flashing back to 9am, 24th August 2012, all participants were no time.. none late.. which was convenient, as late comers for ANTS will be sent more, while BNTS simply gets a heavy punishment, but normally allowed to stay. There were members from 1st KL, 3rd KL, 4th KL, 6th KL, 10th KL, 12th KL and 1st Seremban for the BNTS.

We had one major drama right at the start during the opening parade when one of the 4th KL Boys fainted flat on his face, breaking 5 tooth, biting a small part of his tongue and a tear under his chin which required 5 stitches. A few of us sent him to General Hospital before moving him to a private hospital in Ampang. He recovered okay in the end, but will be enduring some time of pain. Poor guy. I do feel pretty bad about it.

The rest of the camp was uneventful and smooth. Modules went okay, coaches didn't face much problems, learners seem to get doing alright themselves. It was a good mix of discipline and fellowship. On the first night, we conducted a "special activity" inspired from the BNTS I had in 1998 in 1st KL, which I unfortunately cannot share here in case any kids are reading as to not spoil their fun some day. As usual, towards the end of camp there would be a BNTS assessment to determine whether or not they deserve the BNTS certificate - perhaps something that we need to work on as it does seem rather odd that in the end it comes all down to one written exam - not exactly what people will imagine a "leadership camp" with all those expected aptitude test, etc.

To mark the end of the NCOs' Training School, a joint closing ceremony was conducted with the BNTS and ANTS participants, with the State Commissioner, Mr Tony Chow as it's Guest of Honor. We also had visiting captains from 3rd KL and 6th KL.

A special thanks to coaches Mr Isaac Chua, Mr Steven Voo, Mr Valter Woo and Mr Edwin Tham for their tireless efforts during this course.

Till the next one in March 2012!

6th KL Enrollment and Awards Day

My back-to-back weekend continued with a visit to 6th KL Company BB and 4th KL Company GB's Enrollment & Awards Day which was held at their church premises at the Holy Light Lutheran Church in Salak South Garden. I was seconded to this company as they reactivated this year for a 6 month period, just helping guide the officers and teaching drill.

The combined BB-GB Guard of Honour being inspected by Rev. Barnabas Boon

Marching in of the GB and BB Colours

6th KL was reactivated* in January this year after more than 2 years of silence due to a lack of officers to run the company. With three very eager officers in the form of Ms Goy Su Ling, Mr Edwin Tham and Mr Jonathan Kong, the company was able to see life once again. Though small in size, I believe a good foundation will eventually lead to growth. I feel that 6th KL is in much better shape than they were a few years ago.. more proper. 

*Reactivated - as in the company did not close down, but merely went on recess. BBM has a policy of allowing companies to go inactive for a maximum of 2 years, before officially declaring it "Closed". Since 6th KL was able to reactivate within that period, they avoid the hassle of re-registering and so on. 

Commissioning of the the three officers 

With 12-15 Boys and 3 officers, it is indeed a humble rebirth. But if there's one thing I know about starting or restarting God's ministries, it is that never look down on size. The company has Pre-Juniors, Juniors and Seniors available to complement the entire age group of Boys there is (except Primers which is for the much older Boys - perhaps some day when they are ready). 

It was a smooth Enrollment & Awards Service with everything done by the book. It may seem ordinary, but it is anything but. It's no easy feat to keep things ordinary when you've basically restarted from scratch. So kudos to them for having such a successful service!

Hope to see both Brigade ministries continue to grow and if possible, reacquire the school to develop its membership base. Let's see how it all goes. May the Lord continue to lead!

4th KL GB and 6th KL BB group photo after E&A 2012

Girls' Brigade Selangor-FT Drill Competition

This was certainly a new experience for me as I was invited to be one of the judges for The Girls' Brigade, Selangor & FT Group Council Drill Competition. I was asked by my church member, Ser Joo, who was the organiser and co-judged for this competition. 

Only 3 companies took part in this competition - 1st KL (Wesley Methodist Church KL), 6th KL (St. Mary's Cathedral) and 1st PJ (Trinity Methodist Church PJ). All the teams assembled at the Methodist Boys' School basketball court and first up was uniform inspection. Uniform inspection - was sure something I didn't know how to do when girls are involved. I remember once I judged at 10th KL's inter-squad drill competition and inspecting the girls was a major complication. The only difference with this one was I didn't have to be careful - just don't touch at all!

Yours Truly inspection 1st PJ Girls' Brigade

The competition format was an interesting one where they've adapted the format from the Ministry of Education which had formation drill, though GB added chants which was available to the KRS (NGOs were required to do silent drill under its category with no shouting or chants). Each team took 10 minutes to perform. 1st KL and 1st PJ did well, while 6th KL needed to improve on some basics.. but was still reasonably in their drill quality. 

After an hour or so of drill, the judges proceed into Menara Wesley to tabulate the scores. In the end of the day, 1st KL emerged champions with 1st PJ as the Runner Up. Personally, I felt 1st PJ was better overall with better formations. Though 1st KL displayed slightly better drill quality, I felt their formations were way too short to be awarded high marks. Unfortunately, the other two judges didn't feel the same way. Oh well, just a competition and personal opinion is part of it.. I had mine and they had theirs. 

Congratulations to the winners! Hope to see more GB companies taking part in the coming years.

Bowl for Fund 2012

On August 4th, 2012 the Kuala Lumpur State Council organized a fundraising bowling competition at the Megalanes Sunway Pyramid. The idea was mooted by the State Commissioner, Mr Tony Chow, who suggested organizing this event since he took office in year 2011. Initially, such an event was scheduled in December 2011 but was then pushed to February 2012, then April. Finally, a date was pinned on August 4th, which didn't clash with most of the main programs of the other companies (though it was pretty close to some big events certain companies were having).

 I initially expected to be a straightforward event. Get the lanes booked, send out the registration forms, get sponsors and just run the program itself. The Girls' Brigade did a similar event in 2011 which turned out quite successfully, giving us extra confidence that we can pull off something similar. Boy, was I underestimating the scale of things. Little did I know that the GB event was actually mainly organisms by the Rotary Club, all they had to do was to invite friends and have all the lanes filled up. Even that was no easy feat. Forms were circulated to all companies 6 weeks prior to the event, but response has not been as favorable as I had expected. We were pretty ambitious to book out the whole bowling lanes as well, four sessions in all. Each session requires 48 teams or a total of 196 bowlers. In total, we needed to find 784 bowlers.

We didn't think it was going to be too difficult. The KL State BB had a membership of 550 on average. That means if all of our membesrs came, it would've filled up 2.5 sessions (but the membership also includes Pre-Juniors which pretty much cant play, hence cannot be counted). For the event to sell out, only half of us needed to invite a friend or family member, I didn't think it'd be that difficult at all. But reality turned out to quite different. We ended up needing to cancel the fourth session and 16 lanes from the first and third sessions. By the Grace of God, we still somehow manage to bring in over 400 bowlers which filled approximately 110 lanes.

State Commissioner, Mr Tony Chow, making the first throw of the event

I would like to thank all the KL State companies which have shown much support for this event. Also a great thanks to Mr Tony Chow and Mr Richard Cheah who have put in the greatest effort in obtaining sponsors - the other important element towards the success and relevance of this event as a fundraiser. In total, we were able to obtain over 30 sponsors who contributed in cash and in-kind. Among major financial sponsors, who made the contribution in the form of an advertisement space on the Bowl for Fund 2012 souvenir book, were the Stedfast Association of Kuala Lumpur and the Young Man's Christian Association of Kuala Lumpur, which gave the biggest sum of donations. Donations in-kind were also received from Yeo's, Nestlé, Seoul Garden, McDonalds and Methodist College Kuala Lumpur.

The event itself was straightforward on the day itself as bowlers only need to register, collect shoes and proceed to their lanes. Each bowler gets to bowl three games per session and all along the way fun prizes would be handed out to bowlers who meet a certain criteria of scores (ie. two strikes in a row, or three spares in a row, etc) would receive either McDonald coupons or H-Two-O can drinks. At the end of the session, the scores would be tabulated with the Top 12 individual bowlers, Top 5 teams, High Game Men/Women/Under-12 receiving prizes. The Top 12 individuals would receive a mini hamper while the Top 5 teams (of which would normally also include the Top 12 individuals) would receive a larger hamper. the High Gamers would receive a voucher from Seoul Garden which entitles the winner to a full buffet meal for one person and also trophy. There was also a category called Wooden Spoon, which is given to the bowler "which has still much to improve". Finally, medals were also given away to the Top 3 teams for the whole competition, two of which had to be given away later on as they have also gone back. Special thanks to Melissa Tay, Ian Tay and Shahrin for assisting us with the registration and marks tabulation (they took less than 10 minutes after the last team finishes bowling to come out with the results - very fast!).

Although the figures are not finalised, we have profited approximately RM22k from this event (though I was personally targetting RM30k), making this event a relative success, which will keep the FTO project alive after spending significant amounts of funds on the new KL State Council Secretariat.. as well as to keep me well fed. Praise the Lord for His grace and faithfulness!

Group picture of Session 1 participants

It is great that most participants enjoyed themselves and everything went smoothly. Already, Mr Tony is suggesting to have another bowling competition next year. I'm not too sure about having it so soon, but we'll see.






Couldn't resist the fun myself either.

KL Ministry of Education Inter-School Footdrill Competition

It has been 6 years ago since the Ministry of Education (MOE) organised a inter-school footdrill competition. The last time two BB companies represented SMK Taman Desa and SMK (L) Methodist KL at the army camps of Sungai Besi. Both didn't do too well..

This year, SMK Taman Desa and SMK St. Gabriel's sent their BB teams which themselves have won their their school level inter-uniform group drill competitions.

The Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory's Education Department is divided into 5 Zones - Pudu, Bangsar, Keramat, Sentul and Putrajaya. Four of the zones held competitions this year, each averaging 4-5 schools per zone.. rather little considering each zone has 20-30 schools.

The competition format is quite different compared to what BB is normally accustomed too, where a drill squad of 12-15 drillers and one commander  are given a set of 30 or so command movements to follow. The MOE format allows for more creativity as drill teams comprised of exactly 30 drillers (no more and no less) are expected to come up with various formations, but not before a fixed set of "silent sequences" are completed.. very different from the command and order that our drill is used to.

2-5th April 2012 were the dates for the various zones, where the Brigades were represented in three zones. SMK St. Mary's Girls' Brigade represented in Zone Sentul, while SMK Taman Desa Boys' Brigade represented for Zone Bangsar and SMK St. Gabriel's represented for Zone Pudu. Though the GB team did not place, the Boys from Taman Desa and St. Gabriel's were made champions for their respective zones. What an unprecedented achievement for the BB in Kuala Lumpur! Not one, but two teams made champions. Glory to God!

All the Boys practiced hard for this event. Formations are generally more complicated to implement, especially needing to specifically choreograph movements for each of the 30 drillers. Pressure is on the commanders as well, Corporal Timothy Lim from SMK Taman Desa and Corporal (then Sergeant) Tang Hong Ee from SMK St. Gabriel's, who were in-charge of formulating the choreography. Cheers to them!

SMK Taman Desa BB (right) and SMK St Gabriel BB (left) Drill teams undergoing inspections

Both teams proceeded on to the finals, representing their zones (4 zones). It was a straight fight between BB and the Scouts, a 2 vs 2.. a 50% chance of winning and a certainty to bring something home. But the Lord had something greater installed for us as the Champions for KL were announced, whereby SMK Taman Desa representing Zone Bangsar were declared champions. We surely couldn't asked for more. Unfortunately, the BB team from SMK St. Gabriel's did not place, but I believe they are satisfied with the road they've taken so far which saw two victories.

A great performance from the both schools. Hopefully, more BB platoons/clubs from the various schools can rise up and join the ranks in MOE level competitions.

Both school teams posing for the cameras

BB Are KL Champions!

More articles at klbb.org.my:
BB Shines in Inter-School Foot Drill Competition
SMK St. Gabriel's BB Makes it TWO!
SMK Taman Desa BB Wins for Zone Bangsar