very sad now. bcos of odac.
its gonna be a long entry... really long... so.. dun read if u r not interested.
Reflections on ODAC EXCO meeting 2
Date:01/09/2003
Time Frame: 1100 – 1800
The meeting started off with all the exco committee not knowing where to meet. Our dear president told us to meet at toa payoh interchange w/o telling us which part of the interchange to meet. As a result, time was wasted trying to contact ppl to tell them where exactly to meet. Ok. Nvm… that’s beside the point. So.. we went for lunch at kfc… cos its empty and we wanted to discuss stuff dere… but in the end… we decided to move to an abandoned restaurant and there was space dere.
So, the meeting started off proper. 4 hours passed since and nothing was discussed. The objectives were not discussed. Smth seemed very wrong.. de wei seemed to ask for our opinions.. but he puts down other opinions that we give tt doesn’t conform to wat he has suggested which is mountain climbing. This is wat puzzles me most. He asks for suggestions and he tells us his preference. Cmon.. odac isn’t jus abt u only..
Split up into different dept to discuss each roles and responsibilities. There was smth controversial from the AOs.. we said we were the pillars of ODAC… hmm.. de wei din like it.. but someone mentioned that de wei like in a govt, is a president while the AOs are the prime minister. A good analogy indeed.
By this time, tensions were running high. I was kinda not satisfied that we haven’t gotten down to our objectives after 2 meetings and countless hours.. all bcos we din agree to mountain climbing. De wei toked and he asked for comments on the meeting… I commented that we should be open to suggestions and transparent. And a point of clarification from me was that I was not openly trying to challenge the president but maybe my tone and way of phrasing things aren’t clear.. so.. may misinterpret. Cleared up tt point..
Here comes the climax.. xuan yu toks.. and he tells us smth.. here is the transcript:
XY: I noticed smth diff from the 15th batch and the 16th batch… they were highly competitive for the exco places and when they sat down by the 2nd meeting, they had their objectives and slogans all out.
Gary: but different people have different ways of working…
XY: ya. I know.. I was just trying to say that they…..
Gary: ok… listen! u have to learn to listen!
XY: ok.
Gary: From all our meetings till now, u have been doin a comparison bet the 15th batch exco and the 16th batch exco.. u keep saying how great they are and how efficient they are. Well, u were part of the 15th batch, wat are u? I haven’t seen wat u have described them to be in you.
Xy din say anything anymore.. his face was really black.. everyone was shocked and silent. My barrage of criticisms muz have shocked everyone. I know I hurt him badly… shuming speaks.. but I can’t really remember wat he said.. but his point was that AOs could split up the work to others… the AOs not necessarily have a final say in activities.
The meeting was dismissed. I went to want to apologise to xuan yu.. but he jus walked away.
Shu ming told me that I hurt xuan yu real badly and that if I was xuan yu, he wud have jus punched me.. Angeline said: “ even me who was not close to xuan yu after listening to u.. I felt sorry for him… I had a feeling of wanting to cry…”
De wei: “ eh gary… u were too harsh with ur words…”
Kai kian: “ eh.. relax lar… dun like tt next time… u really were hurting..”
I know I was.. I’m sorry… I know shuming was kinda pissed at my behaviour over the past few meetings… I attributed it to many factors like xuan yu making noise or my temper was bad… yes.. my temper Is bad… but wat made my temper bad? Cos we couldn’t get our objective done! I’m really really sorry xuan yu.. I know we shook hands already and u accepted my apologies… but…I know u hate me for telling u off.. I know I shouldn’t have…
I am quite affected by all this.. cos I hurted someone… and I hate really hurting people… esp emotionally… guess wat yan han said is true.. mus learn along the way. to understand ppl, tolerate, adapt, accept n improvise. hmm. perhaps try to b more sensitive? yea. n don exercise power unneccessarily lo. ppl will misunderstand u. mus rem tt they r ur frenz tooo.
I’m sorry shuming. I know u are pissed. Sorry.
I’ve decided to not tok so much next time. I shall kip to myself. I shall. Then mayb things can get done more smoothly. Perhaps joining the exco was all but a mistake.
posted by gary @ 7:53 PM
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