Forked path in life

Contributed by Rtr. Vivien Kuah

Some time in life, there will always be a query of the path you have taken. I know some of you have also gone through this and made your decisions.

Lately I have been triggered to think if I should stick to the comfort and familiarity; in addition to the satisfaction and enjoyment, of my current job and life, or listen to the advice of my parents and join them in a more rewarding (money wise - to what I think so far) yet unfamiliar business. I have been querying and fearing stepping out of my circle of comfort. Too many worries plague my thoughts.

Recently, I have been suffering from some serious financial fallback and being offered a chance to earn much more than my current income does pull a trigger. I have been in my industry for almost 2 years now, and despite my complaints and long hours at work, the job satisfaction and people I work side-by-side with everyday far outweigh my dislike of work.

These are the worries that have crossed my mind while considering whether to change fields at the moment:

Fears:

1. Loss of freedom - I fear that working so closely with my parents will mean too much control by them over my social life. Silly as it may sound, this is one of my greatest fear, of being too protected.

2. The fear of 'change' - I know that change is the only thing that doesn't change in one's life (do read 'Who moved my cheese'), but I have never thought of myself as a salesperson, and insurance is certainly not the easiest thing to sell.

3. Expectations - Everyone who's been trying to encourage me to move has mentioned how lucrative the pay will be, and that the harder you work, the more rewards you'll get. But what if I do not live up to the expectations and am a lousy salesperson?

4. Loss of close interaction with workmates - being in the creative business, I've been so used to contact with 'creative' people, i.e. mad and informal. And I needed to work closely with my colleagues, therefore creating a close bond between us. We're really like a family in the office. Will I get a culture-shock working for people who have to be decent and proper all the time? Doing sales means that you have to work independently most of the time unless with your superior, in my case most likely to be daddy dearest. Not to mention that I myself will have to look prim and proper too and cannot wear anything I want to work any longer.

5. What if I really dislike the new job and want to get back to my current job again? I'll be way left behind and might have to start afresh.

However, there is still the benefits of changing jobs to consider:

1. Working with mummy and daddy means easier connections.

2. Money is better and faster than working up the corporate ladder step-by-step. So I'll get to do the shopping that I like and not worry about not having the money to pay for them.

3. I still don't have to go to work at 8a.m. (I hope)

I've mentioned to my parents to give me a few more years to enjoy my life as I really think that I might join them one day and not enjoy it then. But will it be even more difficult to fallback when I've gone that much further? And will I only be wasting my time now since I'm thinking of moving away from the industry anyway? But I've been thinking that if my pay increases (I know colleagues who earn quite a lot) and I don't need to worry about the money anymore, will I still want to move? Not likely.

So should I just try it out now and if it really doesn't work out for me, come back to advertising business again. Also, being in the lower level of the ladder means easier entry back.

I think I shall give myself another few months and see how things go in my current job before making my decision. Though some advice from those of you who are more experienced will be helpful.

The Lion, The Crow, The Ant, and The Monkey (Part 1)

Contributed by PDRR Terence Lee

Rotaract, like any other organization in this world, is often populated by interesting creatures of intent and display. I'm sure you may have encountered several kinds by now.

Before you start jumping to conclusion or assumption, the purpose of my writing and sharing of this story is neither to label nor expose the many friends and acquaintances I've known in Rotaract. Like any good story should, my hope is you will find this story both educational and enjoyable to read (the sort of stuff Walt Disney's are made of).

Thus, allow me to begin.

Once upon a time, as I journeyed through the forest. . . . . I met the Lion, the Crow, the Ant, and the Monkey congregating one afternoon. With sincere curiousity, I asked of their purpose for this gathering. "We're discussing issues that are affecting this forest, and things that we can do to make this forest a better place to live in", explained the Monkey. They seemed so happy to see me and with utmost sincerity invited me to join them. I obliged.

During the discussion I observed. The Lion was most obvious trying to lead the pack, and let out a few roars when necessary. The Monkey was making a scene out of everything and everyone, including itself. The Ant was in its quiet self, listening. The Crow was somehow occupied with its own interest, picking on the ground. It was an interesting scene nevertheless. The day ended with a few topics being deliberated and a handful of suggestions offered. I was informed we would meet again 2 weeks from that day.

It was exactly 2 weeks from the last gathering. It nearly slipped my mind until the Crow flew by and reminded me about the gathering, and offered to ferry me there. The Crow and I were the first to arrive at the gathering point, then the Lion came walking in gracefully just before the tiny Ant. We waited for a few wind, but the Monkey was no where to be seen. The Lion insisted we wait for the Monkey, the Ant didn't mind, but the Crow was deeply unhappy. As for me, being a new member of this congregation, sat there quietly while letting nature takes its course. Finally, out of nowhere, appeared the Monkey. 'Better late than never' seem to be the order of the day.

We debated, negotiated, and finally confirmed, we shall make a visit to the Frog at the nearby pond to render whatever service we may to the community there. 7 days from that day we were to gather at this place before proceeding to the pond. The Crow was chosen to lead this excursion as he was the most familar and knowledgable about the pond.

The day arrived. We started our journey and reached our destination without much struggle, except the Monkey was no where to be found again. Apparently, it got lost along the way or somehow distracted. We met the Frog and expressed our purpose of the visit. The Frog thanked us and showed us the state of the pond he lives in. It was filled with waste disposed off by irresponsible creatures. The Crow suggested we help the Frog clean up the pond before sunset. The Ant quietly began to collect dead leafs floating on the pond, while the Crow targetted the foreign objects such as bottles and wrappers. The Lion seemed to find it difficult in wanting to get his paws dirty from non-hunting work, and the Monkey can't seem to decide what to do with his long arms and settled to do a few of everything.

This is the scene of fauna from different species working together for a common deed.

End of story.

What is the moral of the story?
The Crow may not be the most beautiful bird, but it's wise and willing to work.
The Lion may be mighty and full of charisma, but may not be willing to get dirty.
The Ant may be small and quiet, but works well with others and a good executionist.
The Monkey may be disoriented and playful, but it can add vibrance to an otherwise boring scene.

Do we have Lions, Crows, Ants, and Monkeys in our clubs?

To be continued. . .

DRA: We learn, We Interact and That’s it?

Contributed by PE Lee Hui Hui

I remembered my first District Rotaract Assembly (DRA) in HolidayVilla, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur in year 2005. That was few months after my club obtained its charter. The venue was near to my place of work. So it was a blessing. But, it turned out that I had to return to office in the morning because of an urgent deadline.

And because of that, I missed my first group photo session after the opening ceremony.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself getting to know new faces from different club (although I feel odd at first fitting in)

Did I learn something there? Yes, I admit I did learn a lot about rotaract. For my first DRA, I attended the President/ President Elect/ Vice President Workshop with my club chartered president.

I remembered brainstorming solutions during the case study session. It is a norm for Rotaract club leaders to face problems like:

1) Inactive members and lack of participation in projects (Very common)
2) In ability to retain current members. (So common)
3) Difficulty in finding new members to ensure club continuity. (Common)

In DRA in Penang few weeks back, I attended the President/ President Elect workshop for the second time (because I did not hold any club office position for year 2006).

This time round, there was no case studies session (thank you GDL DRR Chandra and GDL DRRE Dinesh). What I had was more of an opinion sharing session by the incoming club presidents, president elects and vice presidents.

They do share the same doubts and fears like me. I would not know whether my fellow incoming board that went to the DRA training with me learned about such issues.

The common topics raised were lack of active members to commit and take up projects

I also listened to complaints by the respective district officers (who are also leaders in their club too) who raised issue like lack of participation in organized district projects and other interpersonal relationship problems.

What I can summarise is this = the survival of rotaract clubs purely depends on common factor – degree of interpersonal relationship among its members.

I was given the opportunity to be a panelist speaker in the morning plenary session led by PDG Dato Dr Low Teong. Title was how to build effective rotaract club. I spoke about from my club’s perspective on effective rotaract club based on email input from RAC Port Klang members.

All in all, it turned out that all the panelist speakers (IPDRR Jamie, DRC and incoming DRC and myself) got the feedback from the audience what we have presented does not match with the current situation faced by the district rotaract clubs.
(I don’t have to mention this, but I am sure readers will know what I mean)

In a nutshell, it ain’t a blue sky picture! And it is a reality.

And this case, why are we attending the DRA? Is there a common solution to solve human relationship issue?

Problems will never get solved if there is continuous bickering. Projects will never be executed if members don’t want to do it.

In this case, the DRA is just a platform for us to gather, learn, have fun and that’s it?

I had to make this sweeping statement => Have anyone ponder to put the knowledge to good use by serving well and building relationships?

In essence, joining a non profit organization like rotaract is actually one of the ways to learn to build relationships, formed new friendships and be a better person and leaders in our own field.

We have to learn to give and accommodate with members that come from different background, age group, financial standing, personality, beliefs, attitude and culture.

It is never easy building and strengthening human relationships. It is never easy being a leader because being human, leaders can make grave mistakes.

As I am writing this article I realized I am still learning.

I will bear in mind to learn how to adapt to difficult situations and face potential setbacks.
Nevertheless we as rotaractors must always strive to be a better person and hoping someday we are able to see the blue sky picture i.e. strong and effective rotaract clubs.

About D3500 Goodwill Visit Part 1

Contributed by Rtr Harnniann

me (centre) surrounded by tough guys who went through Taiwan National Service

Before reading this article, I humbly request readers to read my earlier related writing.

Though writing against the backdrop of the recently concluded D3500 goodwill visit, I am not giving details of the visit here but rather the general feelings, experience, observation, valuable lessons that I learned throughout this visit.

If there is only one lesson I learned through this project it will be this: you can’t plan or figure everything out. In another words, you must ever prepare for sudden changes or contingencies.

As a leader, you can plan everything you could think of, from A to Z but at the time of execution, things may not go in accordance to plan. To be a good leader, you must immediately accept and assess the situation rather than to complain or frown upon it. I now give example.

I do know that flight may be delayed. I was ready for that. But what I have never thought of was it could be delayed for more than 8 hours. That practically threw all the programme for the day down the drain. We wasted expensive cost on bus which we actually paid for it to wait at the Klang Stadium for our signal to travel to KLIA.

When I realised it was too late to tour KL after their arrival, I decided to cancel it altogether and instructed President Feldman to bring them straight to Klang upon arrival.

Then another contingency slipped through my calculation: ALL their luggages were missing! They virtually have nothing except the clothing and underwear they were wearing. Houston, we have problem.

The next day morning we were going north to Ipoh and Cameron Highland. Malaysia Airline only promised to deliver their luggage to President Feldman’s house around noon. Should we wait till the luggage arrives? What if Malaysia Airline breaches their promises? Will we then waste more time waiting in Klang?

I could not afford to be indecisive.

If we go ahead as planned without the luggage, how do we solve the problems like lack of clothing, fresh underwear, toiletries etc? They are here in Malaysia for leisure not for military training!

Sensing that Malaysia Airline’s promises could not be trusted lightly (which later proven to be correct as the luggage was not delivered to President’s house as promised), we went to Ipoh despite the adversity.

So you just thought all the sudden turn of event were behind us, fresh challenge came… only this time it was life threatening…

(to be continued)

What is expected of Rotaract Clubs - the point of view of the DRC

Contributed by PP Arthur Yeong
District Rotaract Chairman

I humbly lay these several strict injunctions on anyone reading this. Please do not quote any part of this blog out of context and please do not misconstrue anything herein as excusing mediocrity or disrespect for the letter of the law where such exists in Rotary & Rotaract.

A useful canon of construction would be to take whatever is said here against the backdrop of the Criteria for Chartering a New Rotaract Club and my own belief that a great number of Rotaract Clubs in the District is not necessarily a good thing. It is more important to have fewer but strong and vibrant Clubs. Conversely it is important to build up the membership of your Rotaract Club in terms of numbers.

Whatever is said here can only be beneficial if the reader applies them to himself or herself. It would be harmful if the reader thinks, “Hmm that reminds me of so-and-so”. Hence if the chapeau fits, wear it but please do not try to fit it on someone else’s head. Especially not mine.



1. Revisit your motivation for joining Rotaract.

The purpose and goals of Rotaract are contained in Rotary’s Policy Statement on Rotaract and I quote (the emphases are my own) :

A Rotaract club is a Rotary club-sponsored organization of young men and women between the ages of 18 and 30* whose purpose is to provide an opportunity for young men and women to enhance the knowledge and skills that will assist them in personal development, to address the physical and social needs of their communities, and to promote better relations between all people worldwide through a framework of friendship and service, and whose goals are:

a) To develop professional and leadership skills;

b) To emphasize respect for the rights of others, based on recognition of the worth of each individual;

c) To recognize the dignity and value of all useful occupations as opportunities to serve;

d) To recognize, practice, and promote ethical standards as leadership qualities and vocational responsibilities;

e) To develop knowledge and understanding of the needs, problems, and opportunities in the community and worldwide;

f) To provide opportunities for personal and group activities to serve the community and promote international understanding and goodwill toward all people.


Revisit your motivation regularly and bear in mind that motivation of yours.

Nobody joins Rotaract to make enemies or to make life unpleasant for oneself or for others. By the same token, nobody joins Rotary for those misguided reasons. If you find yourself embarking a course of action that is foreseeably likely to have these results, remind yourself that you could not possibly have joined Rotaract to do that.

If after this self-examination you cannot find any motivation but that which leads to destruction, either of yourself, your Club, some other Rotaractor or a Rotarian, then find the nearest exit and put one foot in front of the other until you are on the other side and then close the door gently but firmly behind you. And don’t come back until you have rid yourself of such poisons.

The definition of resentment = you take poison hoping the other guy will die
Proactive resentment = while waiting to take revenge you continue to take poison



2. Impress With Your Good Deeds and Nature



Usually a good and successful Rotaract Club needs to do nothing by way of promoting or advertising its strengths or achievements.

Although submission of projects for and winning of awards are integral to the Movement and is encouraged, the winning of an award is not necessarily a certification of the strength or vitality of that Rotaract Club. Neither does the absence of an award evidence the opposite.

If your Club is really good or strong or capable, others will do the trumpeting for you. And that I think is the sweetest victory – to have someone repeat to you the compliments they have heard about your Club from others.

The same may be said of you as an individual Rotaractor. Let your good deeds speak for you. Let your good manners advertise you. Let your good nature network for you. Let your willingness to go out of your way to lend a hand win you many influential people who will be indebted to you. Let your readiness to forgive heal all those who have hurt you or have had bad intentions against you. If you return evil for evil, where will it all end ? We will all just get entangled in a web of evil thoughts and deeds.



3. Work With and Not Against Your Sponsoring Rotary Club



The most important and most influential potential ally that any Rotaract Club can have is its sponsoring Rotary Club. That Rotary Club is represented by, and given a human face in the person of, your Rotarian Advisor.

I find that Rotaractors are not hostile to Rotarians in general and to their Advisors in particular. On the contrary it has been repeatedly impressed upon me by Rotaractors that they welcome and appreciate the presence of their Rotarians. It seems that most Rotaractors value the time they have with their Rotarians more highly than whatever other, even monetary, resources that the Rotarian may bring to his job.

If that is the case, what is the problem ?

Rotaractors here and there who are exceptional only in their Machiavellian manoeuvres in exploiting the structure and system for their own ends. We may need to go back to items 1 and 2 above.

However in this area, Rotaract Clubs are disadvantaged more by apathetic sponsoring Rotary Clubs and equally apathetic Rotarian Advisors, than by their own misdeeds or designs. A vigilant Rotarian Advisor doing his job properly would have discerned that something is amiss in the Rotaract Club and should have taken proactive steps to remedy the situation.

However your Rotarian Advisor can only advise, caution and admonish. He cannot and should not control your Club except to save your Rotaract Club from error. Most of the time Rotaractors do not commit a wrong or plan to commit a wrong serious enough for the intervention of the sponsoring Rotary Club. Usually they may disregard (to their own peril only) advice on the feasibility or profitability of a certain project. Or they may try to pull the wool over their Rotarian Advisor’s eyes. Nothing terribly serious or diabolical, just youthful exuberance expressed wrongly.

Although your Rotarian Advisor can veto any of your projects or activities which in his opinion is illegal or immoral or contrary to the spirit and principles of Rotary and of your sponsoring Rotary Club, it is an unenlightened Rotarian who actually does that on a regular basis. He should only advise, caution and admonish and leave you to learn from your own mistakes should you disregard the same.

However if you or your Board of Directors decide on a course of action that is objectively misconceived or wrong or defies the advice of higher authorities like the District Governor or District Trainer, your Rotarian Advisor would be derelict in his duty if he were to allow that to be perpetrated.

An example would be holding your Annual General Meeting on a date that clashes with the District Rotaract Conference.

What to do if your Rotarian Advisor is from hell ? Akan datang.



4. Understand Not Only the Letter but the Spirit of Rotaract and Rotary



The Standard Rotaract Constitution, the By-Laws, the Handbook, RI Statement of Policy on Rotaract, the DRR’s Training Manual, the Manual of Procedure (for Rotary) are all important documents that guide and regulate certain procedures, functions and training in these two movements. They may be said to be the letter or the framework of the Organisation. They are by no means the “be all and end all” of Rotaract and Rotary.

There is the other but no less important facet namely the spirit of Rotaract and Rotary. It is this spirit which fleshes out the framework and gives it life. Others include the Four Way Test, motto’s like “Every Rotarian An Example to Youth”, “Service Above Self”, “He Benefits Most Who Serves Best” et al.

Something need not be carved in stone for it to be instructive, enlightening, inspirational and worthy of imitation or striving for.

Ultimately it is the spirit and not the letter which matters more. Sometimes following the law to the letter may very well cause an injustice.

Unfortunately it is not always easy to discern the spirit of something. Almost definitely it cannot be learned or imbibed in six months or so. Depending on how sensitive and observant one is, it may take a number of years to come to any real appreciation of it. Some may join Rotaract at 18 and leave at 30 without having come within a light year of the spirit of Rotaract. The same may apply to Rotarians and the spirit of Rotary.

It is incumbent therefore for Rotaractors who may feel that they know everything about Rotaract and Rotary to ask themselves if they have also understood the Spirit of Rotaract and Rotary. If they are not sure, then I suggest they should humble themselves and bow to those who do for ultimately it is the latter who matter.

I would prefer Rotaractors who have Rotaract in their hearts, not in their heads. I would prefer Rotaractors who have a soul and who genuinely care and who struggle to maintain the ideals of Rotaract while trying to keep their Clubs alive rather than a pack of cold and efficient but heartless Rotaractors who can and do carry out super hyper mega projects. This second group may look like Rotaractors, they may act like Rotaractors but to me they are merely hollow shells resembling Rotaractors.



5. Learn to Enjoy Giving



Nobody who does not genuinely enjoy giving should join a Rotaract Club. It matters little whether you give your money, your worldly goods, your time and talents, your connections, your prayers and good wishes or most importantly, yourself. You must give and enjoy it. Genuinely.

Young adults are encouraged to join Rotaract for what they can get out of it ie Personal Development and I give it to you in the strongest possible terms that you can never develop as a person and as a Rotaractor without giving. I include those who may be tempted to think that they are developing personally simply because they contribute to EREY or are Paul Harris Fellows or Paul Harris Society members.

If I may, I would suggest a simple litmus test. If a Rotaractor contributes to one or more of Rotary’s many foundations and funds and yet looks out for free lunches and cheap thrills and is overly calculating is his/her dealings with others, then I suggest that personal development is probably not taking place yet.

I have no intention of detracting from Rotary’s eminently worthy and life-changing programmes which require the donation of money and neither do I discourage giving to those funds. Quite the contrary. I am talking of worthwhile giving as a means of personal development.

Let your giving be its own reward and pleasure. Let it end there. Let us not keep an eye open for real or potential recognitions and awards.

There are myriad ways of giving which will probably never gain you any medallions or ribands or certificates, maybe not even a mention. Some examples (whether in Rotaract or elsewhere) would be :

giving up your seat to someone else
giving way even when it is your right of way
giving up revenge
giving face even when the recipient does not deserve it
giving away something you need to someone whose need is greater
giving someone the benefit of the doubt
giving someone a second chance
giving credit when and where it is due
giving more than you take

As the adage goes, “Never forget what others have done for you. Always forget what you have done for others”.



6. Understand the Meaning and Cost of Commitment, Duty and Responsibility



Some say that Rotaract like Rotary is a voluntary organization and to that extent no one can tell you what to do. That may be true. It would be sad indeed if decent right-thinking human beings feel that they are not obliged to do anything unless there is a law written somewhere that compels them to do it and threatens them with a sanction if they disobey.

Rotaractors are expected not to be such sad specimens.

Rotaract ceases to be voluntary as soon as you join. The same is true even when you volunteer to hold any office or get anything done.

Thus if you accept a job, whether it be DRR or President or to arrange the chairs for your Meeting, you give up the option of not discharging your duty to the best of your skill and ability. If it is an unwritten rule that your position requires you to support another position, you must do so unflinchingly and without compromise. Or if you join a Rotaract Club, you must support your Club in as many ways as possible whether by attending its Meetings and projects, paying your dues or doing whatever needs to be done.

That means :

you have to get the job done without any excuses like you did not have enough time, your assistant director did not come through for you, your avenue member resigned, your pet fish went belly up etc;
if you say you will attend some event, then you turn up at the appointed time and place, again without any excuses unless there has been a death or serious illness in the family;
if you receive an email or a message to return call, you reply immediately if possible, if not then within 24 hours or if it is a Friday evening, then by Monday morning. If you need time to reply, say so and inform the sender how long you will require. The same applies to short messages and telephone calls;
you do not deliberately give anyone missed calls (unless the other party is your mum or someone who has given you permission to do so);
you must know your place in the Club and movement and not overstep the boundaries;
you sacrifice whatever other things that stand in the way of your delivering on your promise ie if the deadline is first thing tomorrow morning, you must sacrifice that hot date you have tonight; and
you subjugate your own wishes, ambitions and designs and make them coincide with those of the majority, (or if you are the Vice- President) with those of the President whom you are duty bound to support. You must also hold your tongue at Board Meetings and not contradict your President in such a way as to cause him/her to lose credibility.

Being responsible for something simply means you make that thing happen no matter what. Give no excuses, take no prisoners, blame no one else.

The sacrifices you make by way of missed lunches, aborted dates, zipping your lips when you are dying to blurt something out, suppressed emotions are what it cost you to be committed, dutiful and responsible.

Why are such high and seemingly superhuman standards demanded of someone who joins what he/she thinks is a voluntary organisation ?

To aim for anything lower would be an injustice to your own potential as a human being and a Rotaractor. To demand anything less would be to rob you of the satisfaction of knowing that you have honoured your commitment, paid the price, done your duty and discharged your responsibility both to your Rotaract Club and to yourself.



7. Leave the Place a Little Better than When You Found It



A simple request made by my former school principal and yet, a powerful and sobering reminder.

I will not define where “the place” is, or how much is “a little”, or how good is “better”. That must be left to the imagination and creativity and judgment of each individual Rotaractor.

Is the community where your Rotaract Club takes its name from, a better place than before your Club existed ?

Is the venue of your Meeting a better place after your Meeting than before ?

Is the venue of your project a better place after your project than before ?

Is the venue of the District Rotaract Assembly or District Rotaract Conference a better place than before ?

Are the toilets cleaner after Rotaractors use them ?

Is your Rotaract Club a better Club after you joined ? Or after your Presidency ?

Are your fellow Rotaractors better people or better developed personally than before they met you ?

What about fellowship ?

What is your legacy to your Club ? Your fellow Rotaractors ? Your community ?

You only need answer your own self-convincing conscience and nobody else.

I must admit that I never thought that I would enjoy being DRC so much, my forte and favourite people in Rotary having previously been Interactors. I think Rotaractors are more challenging. By and large they are nice people with the usual bad apples in each barrel as dictated by the law of averages.

The reason I had not resigned from Rotary in the past 7 years was a Rotaract Club.

The fact that I did not decline immediately when DGN Dr Rajindar offered me the same post in his Year says something. By then I would be better prepared but I am sure the Rotaractors would have mutated at roughly the same rate as to remain just as exasperating as ever.

Rtn Arthur Yeong
(RC Kinta)
District Rotaract Chairman

I could have done better

Contributed by Rtr Harnniann

“I could have done better”

The above is one of the worst things to be said to oneself. It implies that you did not try your best, there were things you knew you could have improved but nevertheless you failed to do so.

What could be more terrible than knowing very well that things were within your reach but you simply failed to put in extra miles to get it?

When I was a student, things were much straightforward. Efforts could be easily measured. How many hours you revise your exercise books per day? How much time you spend in the library doing research? What kind of grades you get? The questions that you answered wrongly in exams, were you able to answer them correctly had you spent extra time on revision or paid more attention in class?

But now since I am no longer in the educational system, things become wide and uncertain. You can never be too sure whether what you are doing now is actually the best thing to do. Or the way you are doing it is the best way to do it.

I see many job seekers, after finishing university, they simply send out CVs or resumes to companies. It is like shooting blindly at the tree tops then wait and see whether any bird drops dead.

Once you are hired, you start the normal routine of a working class without asking too much question. After all wasn’t that what we were taught in school? Get great grades, look for jobs, work hard, feed yourself, and then think about how to take care of your loved ones and community.

How many of us really say, “wait a minute, why am I here? Why am I making phone calls to strangers and asking for money due and owing to my boss? Why am I calculating and analyzing the company’s past years’ accounts and performance? Do I really enjoy what I am doing? Is this really what I had hoped for all this while? Or am I doing it because I have no choice?”

Do I have a choice? Is this the right choice? Or maybe I could have done something better?

Or am I just thinking too much? Maybe I should just bury my head and continue with whatever I am doing, take whatever that comes along and learn to live with it.

Life seems a lot easier when you don’t question it. But is that the life you want?

The world is simply too big for just ironing cloths!

Contributed by Rtr Harnniann

“The world is simply too big for just ironing cloths!”

That was what I thought after my friends had left my house after a simple birthday celebration.

Last night, I threw a party for a best friend of mine Andy to celebrate his 28th birthday. A few friends came to my house to get together.

After a few rounds of chit-chatting, the corkscrew was in action and wine was served.

The topics that centered the table were serious and heavy. We were toying with the idea of living oversea.

Among us, the most experienced traveler was Alice (a former Rotaractor of our club) who works as a tour guide. She shared with us the funny moments and experience she had while traveling abroad. Her stories seemed endless. Our focus was all on her colourful and vivid account of the many oversea trips of hers.

Alex, the guy who sat next to me is a qualified accountant. He is getting married in May and shortly thereafter he will be migrating to Australia with his wife as a skill migrant.

“What you gonna do there?” I asked.

“I don’t know but I think I’ll figure it out over there…”

Then we talked about our good friend Bom (also a former member of ours) who is now working in Shanghai. Alice met him in Shanghai recently and she made us all envy by telling us how good a life and how big the paycheck Bom is living now in Shanghai. "Bom said he wanted to buy a SMALL tv and he ended up buying a 31 inch and still claimed that it was a small TV!"


I was thinking, ten years ago if you tell someone you plan to go “back” to China, most probably people will think you are out of your mind. Going west like USA, UK, Australia or even Singapore was the trend then. Things change amazingly fast. Now, if you tell others you are going to work in China, a 5 digits monthly salary and comfortable working environment will pop up in their mind.

After we are done with Bom, Alice shared with us how she surfed in Gold Coast, Australia. Although I only half-believed her story (which I smelled exaggeration), it still left me stunned for a very long time.

I told Alice, “you know, while you were out there enjoying the waves and the cold seawater, thrilled by the likelihood of shark attack, I was in this house, here in Klang, ironing my white shirts for the next morning court works…”

Of course everybody burst into laughter. I was laughing at myself too. But something inside me was getting very uncomfortable and disturbing.

Is it time to venture out? I do not wish to list down all the things in Malaysia that are worrying me (that topic itself can be my thesis for doctorate). But I am pretty sure the Malaysian readers will understand what I am hinting.

Is it time to do something different?

Is it time to look at our future as citizens of the planet Earth and not only Malaysia?

Is it time to follow PN Lloyd Cheam for an adventurous but not so comfortable trip to the Golden Triangle?

Or is it time to stop ironing cloths but watching Astro? Speaking of which, do you believe I have not even installed an antenna for my TV? I must be from the Stone Age!

The Missing Link

Contributed by Rtr Harnniann

It’s a strange phenomenon.

I just did some study on our previous activities and projects.

It is fair to conclude that some of our activities derive its strength mainly from non-members i.e. guests.

Look at our Paint Ball Tournament, only 2 out of 6 Centennial Dragons were our members. Look at the Scuba Diving trial, some participants I could not even remember their names now.

It can also safely conclude that it is a rare occasion when we do not have guests in our activities or project, take Dodge ball, Sunway Project, Wall Climbing, Parliament visit, for example.

From the above observation, It can further concludes that our activities are attractive and interesting, that explains why our guests (who has no obligation to take part) were there with us. People simply want to have fun or learn something or maybe do something to the community!

Yet, after having said that, we still face the universal problem of having difficulty in recruiting new members. Just like middle age man starts losing his hair, we are losing members at not so comfortable rate.

Maybe we forget to sell our club during these activities? Maybe we just say to our friends, “come and join us to climb some walls, it’s fun!” after that we shake hand and say, “thanks for coming bye!” instead of saying, “see you in our club meeting next week”?

Or perhaps it’s about marketing? The 4 Ps I know?

Place: Most of our activities are held in Klang Valley area, though not so convenient for KL friends, the pool of Klang people is big enough

Price: it is always our philosophy to make joining Rotaract an affordable affair

Product: As I have said above, the product we offer is the learning and fun experience which had proven to be attractive

Promotion: is this the missing link and the cause of our problem?