BCM 2010

My second ever Brigade Council Meeting (an AGM for the BB) brought me to the remote town of Tawau in Sabah. This BCM, is my first one as a BBMHQ staff (which means I'm one of those running the show) and the first one I was actually paying attention to the proceedings of the meeting.We stayed at the MB Hotel, in the centre of Tawau Town (it's not that big anyway, pretty much the whole place is the center of town) 70 out of the 101 Companies were represented.

My first impression of BCM was that it was too short. Meeting from 8.00am - 5.30pm, a total of 9.5 hours surely wasn't enough to discuss matters regarding BBM's future. While I agree that AGMs are desgined to provide accountability and governance on national-level developmnets, which takes place in the review and passing of reports and elections, there is greater value in converging together from all corners of the country to discuss the national direction. 

In OCF, we had AGM for 3 days. We were able to talk about the past as well as the future. Sure it had its own issues (OCF wasn't growing - infact, more centres were closing as the years go by), and BB officers, being a voluntary organisation is limited by the annual leave of its officers and family obligations - may not had 3 days to spare. 

Either way, I wonder if there is a more effective way to run the meeting. AOBs could only be discussed if companies wrote in ahead of time and no "on the spot" matters can be discussed - regardless if the matter is important. I found that strange (though potentially politically motivated). 

Either way, my first BCM as a full-time staff was an interesting one. Seafood dinners were great, but I didn't enjoy the food poisoning experienced the days after.. 

The Busy Month of March

I gotta admit that I haven't been updating this blog as often as I'd like. It's quite a waste.. with so much BB events going on.. most of them worth mentioning, that I'm on the verge of letting these memories fade away forever. Perhaps I need to make another pledge similar to the one I did in my personal blog to always blog every major BB event that unfolds.
As for now and the events already lapse. I guess just a summary will do for the time being.


Penang Advance NCO Training School (ANTS) 2010 : 13-15th March 2010
My first assignment as the Training Executive for BBMHQ to learn up how ANTS is conducted in hopes that I will be able to run and teach others how to run a similar course in the future. However, I was called in last minute to coach as well. I've done this before.. like 4 years ago. Had to play catch up and honestly, never read up the notes in detail before the camp - I doubt I'd remember point by point anyway. The camp commandant was Mr. Loh Jau Poo who is the current Captain of 16th Penang, the BBM Vice-President and also - my direct boss. I've learned quite alot from him.. and hopefully some day will be able to conduct this course as well as he did. As for my squad - I got a good mix from Penang and Ipoh.. and thank God it's an English speaking bunch. Quite proud of these guys.. none of them fell asleep in my class and most of them participated well during all the modules. Hopefully, they learned something useful from me.. otherwise it'll be a real shame.



3rd KL Pre-Pesta Preparation Camp: 18-21st March 2010

Almost immediately after Penang, I was busy with another camp.. this time for my Company, 3rd KL. About 50 over of my guys went on band practice steroids for 4 days, with a odd group of 15 occasionally using the free time for drill practice. The camp went well, apart from some complaints from the locals that we were too noisy in the night thanks to the last post. After the camp, we found out that the school wanted to start BB! Praise God!



Talk at 12th Kuala Lumpur : 27th March 2010

Gave a short talk at 12th KL at Mr. Koh's request, as they lost Christopher, their Senior Section Officer a couple of weeks back. I just shared my BB experience and why I decided to stay and serve in 3rd KL and BBMHQ. These guys just took a bad hit as they got closed off from the primary and secondary school bases in Bandar Sri Damansara. Hopefully, their current members won't be deterred and persevere for the Lords faithfulness and timing.