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..