1st - 3rd June 2010, Chung Cheng High School (Main) Leadership Developement Program

C – Committed ( with passion we learn)

C – Confidence ( with pride we progress)

H – Honourable ( with integrity we live)

M – Mentally tough ( with perseverance we strive)

S – Servant Leaders ( we lead by example)

HI BOBS~!!! It’s a just about a week now after our camp, hope everyone’s doing great! ^_^

It’s been sometime since I did full, overnight camps, let to say leadership camps. So I was really looking forward to the camp. A camp is a learning journey for both the instructors and campers. With each camp, we encounter a different group of campers, different problems and have different ways to solve them.

This camp was a special one. Many of the activities are in fact rather new even to me. Some are combination of a few activities to make it more challenging for the campers. Also because this is a leadership program, there were more activities that require camper’s thinking skills, initiative, communication skills and command & control.

River challenge was modified by adding a building challenge to it to test the ability of campers to give clear specific instructions.

Games with a point required campers to come up with a new game with a learning point and then conduct the game for the cohort. A test of organisational skills, briefing, execution, command & control and debrief.

Besides the activities, there’s something new for me in this camp as well. Though it’s not my first leadership program, but it’s the first time having “non-student leaders” in my group. Despite having everyone introduce themselves during the ice-breaking session, I did not realise this because there were a few others who also did not hold any leadership position yet. This turned out to be a problem.

In Leadership Programs, much more is expected of the campers. Stricter, campers expected to be more proactive, self-motivated...etc... This is usually a little too much for the “normal campers”. In usual cases I’d be able to motivate those that are not so driven to press on, however, I fail to realise the needs of this small group of campers. The root of the problem only came to my realisation on the 2^nd afternoon when I decided to pull them out instead of stopping the whole group. After Shuko, the camp chief spoke to them while the rest of the BOBs carried on with planning for Games with a point.

This is really a lesson for me. 2 years back when I was really seasoned with regular camps, I’d probably realised the problem and fixed it on day 1. But that’s no excuses. Because I was too excited to see what this group of leaders, BOBs, handed to me are capable of, I overlooked that small group. Something I should really remember not to do in future. On the other hand, handling a “different” group like this is a pretty interesting experience as well.

That’s about it for personal reflection....now let’s talk about BOB?

GREAT CAMP BOBs~!! But....I’m going to nag again... PLEASE STOP THAT PUSH BUTTON SYMDROM!! Once that’s out of the way, you guys can really go far. There are some really, really, promising individuals in BOB. You know who you are. ^_^

I believe you guys know what to do, what right. The something that’s lacking is perseverance, believe and some guts. No matter how good a plan is, if it cannot be carried out, it stays in your head, nothing is going to happen. The starting is always the hardest, if you know it’s right, push on, like what I’ve told Xin Hao. He did try to encourage others to take the lead, but gave up after just a few tries. Push on for what you believe.

Be more confident. A leader is not someone who knows everything, someone who does not commit mistakes. A leader is someone who makes responsible decisions and ready to face the consequence of his/her decisions whether it turns out good or bad. He/she is HONOURABLE and ACCOUNTABLE. A leader doesn’t need to be the best.

A leader is one that makes the best work seamlessly together to achieve greater things.

In case anyone’s wondering why keep a blog on camps, it’s for REFLECTION. It’s for me to think and condense my lessons learnt from. For me to know my weaknesses so I know where to improve. If you guys read the post on MJC’s leadership camp, there’s more on “reflection”. Know your weaknesses, that the key to success.

OH YES! Please do leave comments? I wanna know what you guys think about the camp too! And, maybe even how I fair?? And yes, it ok to criticize. ^_^