2nd Puchong Company

It always excites me to see the birth of a new company. This is however is still on trials and so happen to be the church I'm trying out - Life Methodist Church, Puchong. This company is also is first company in Peninsula Malaysia since 1992 to consist only Boys (as the church also has a GB attached). GB already has a school base nearby. Very exciting!

Hope this company will reach greater heights in the years to come!

Recruits - how numbers do matter

Some people will tell you that whatever number of recruits you get, it is not about the quantity but it's the quality that matters. While that certainly holds some truth, churning out a good number from a recruitment campaign IS important.

Say, you have 100 members signing up - that is just putting their names and contact details down during recruitment day, half will turn up on the actual meet or parade. The following week, expect a handful to drop out after they find out BB's not exactly that they expected it to be. You can expect that figure to drop by another half by the time you reach Enrolment and Awards Day. By the end of the year, another half - you'll usually end up with about 12. This equation goes on, but on average, of the strong batch of 100 sign-ups in Form 1, 2-3 will stay till form 5.

Recently, 3rd KL's recruitment drive at SMK Taman Desa smashed into a huge stump. Only 17 new faces during the club's first AGM. Based on the progression I just drew up, a maximum of two will stay by the end of the year. By Form 5, only their hair and dry skin will remain.

So does that mean if there happens be to just, say, 10 sign ups.. is it the end of the company? Probably not.

An element of faith - there is a need to remember that God gave us those recruits, no matter how little or how numerous, we still need to give thanks for it. It's difficult to judge how things will turn out in the future. Maybe among 10, one of them will end up becoming the company's captain who'll lead the company to even greater heights the company can only dream about. In fact, most companies started small.. thanks to a bunch of curious dumb kids who honestly have no idea what they're getting themselves into.

Still, no excuse to not do our best! Recruitment does dictate if you have a good 3-4 years as numbers effect delivery of programs (if not enough people in a class, how to start?), manpower and .. well, fun (more friends).

So whatcha waiting for? Get your friends to join BB!

Fundraising Dinner and Bringing BB Australia members around

10th January 2010 - A successful fundraising dinner which saw 3rd KL raising RM40,000 for the band to buy more instruments in hope of giving a better performance in the years to come, as well as to give better opportunities for more Boys to pick up an instrument.


The next day, Lawrence and I took 4 BB members from Brisbane, Tim Rogers, Chris, David and Nathan, for a trip to Melaka. We managed to cover the main landmarks, but there was simply not enough time to cover the museums and the variety of food with the time. Still, it was fun hanging out with the Aussies. Learned quite alot from Tim, even on somethings about BBM and even the BB work in Asia.

Interview tomorrow at BBHQ. Hope it goes well!

I'm back!

Entering the year with great expectations - mostly bad ones, but those that are necessary for the advancement of Christ kingdom.

Band and Drill Camp 2009

For a period of four days (18-21st December) before Christmas, the Senior Section of 3rd KL held a band and drill camp at Sekolah Seri Cahaya, Shah Alam. About 60 Boys, including 3 Juniors, participated in this camp to brush up their skills and to learn a couple of new songs. Some time was given to sharpen their footdrill as well, led by the NCOs and Staff Sergeants. The company's former band officer, Joe Wong, was also present to guide the band. Lieutenant Lawrence Tay, led the devotion sessions sharing of the obedience of Daniel.

The objective of the camp is to prepare them for the upcoming Pesta in Penang. Band Officer, Warrant Officer Jasper Low's vision for the company is to be the overall champion once again and for the band to be the 1st-runner up. However, it is still a long way to beat 1st Johor Bahru in the band competition category.

Training aside, this camp has also allowed the Boys to bond and develop a strong company spirit, which is something any company needs to excel. The company intends to have several more camps like these in hopes of not just winning the Pesta, but to impart a lesson in the Boys that effort is necessary to improve and succeed.

If you think this company is kiasu - you're quite right.

Remembering tense moments

Pesta 2006 Drill Competition. Round 1, immediately before 3rd KL's team went in.

Han Sheng: Sir, they've instructed us not to march on the right of that cone.
(A cone was placed at the entrance of the drill ground to prevent teams from using the back of the field. 3rd KL's plan was to begin sizing up from there).

Voon: What nonsense. Okay, march the team on the left side of the cone and immediate break right after you clear it.

Han Sheng: (Dumdfounded face) You sure?

Voon: Yes. Heck it.

After the Boys went in and did their thing, we found out our team got through to the next round.. and that they moved the judges table further front from the back so that we couldn't do the same thing again. Lol.

Facebook's Even Better than a Website

I was strolling through facebook recently, with a random search for BB groups. To my surprise, it is quite a treasure trove of information! Even better than search results on Google. Not only can I find companies which do not have their own websites, Facebook groups are updated more frequently (compared to company websites which take ages to update) and are easier to manage.

Among my findings are:

1st Serdang
1st Kuantan (closed, but very interesting pictures)
2nd KL - great pictures!
1st Sibu - good videos

There's probably a Facebook group for every company.. even more than one group for the same co.

Among the things that you can find are..

1st Sibu Band Practice

1st Kuantan Enrolment Day - 1982

Facebook's not seen as an official channel by the older officers. Even blogs, which have more information than a company's official website, updated up Boys which have more time to spare than their officers. Official or not, these sites are what's keeping things interesting in the BB web circle.