Freedom

This world we live in is a large biosphere. People living in it are diverse in various ways. They have different thoughts, ways to handle things, lifestyle, attitude and more. That is why we have a term named freedom. Due to the fact that we are not biologically and psychologically the same, we require freedom to get things done. Freedom in the sense that we still follow the guideline provided, generate new ideas to improve, be creative and innovative. In one point or another in our lives, we have to learn how to let go and let others to have the opportunity to receive the responsibility. Every country changes their prime ministers, presidents, kings, ministers. Every company and cooperation has different directors, managers during the time of their development. Every family business will somehow been bestowed to the next generation in a long time span. Every education institutes changes their principals, head of departments, academic staff. Everywhere we go, we can see the more experienced and dutiful handing over their jobs and responsibilities to the coming batch of eager people. Those who are about to receive the title may not have enough experience. They also may not have the skill and the proper abilities towards their new duty. They may also lack some working and leadership skills. But they learn. They take time to learn. No matter how much they have in personality, they will always be short of one thing, experience. No individual is born with experience. Going through life is an experience. When a newly elected leader handles his or her duty, they require more time and chances to get things done. By doing it slow and steady, they will sure gain experience. The process of evaluating their skills can be steady and effective, once they have enough knowledge to handle their duty, they will pick up speed and improve even faster, and impress the others.

A leader always has his or her first experience of leading a team. A perfect leader is always near impossible to find. As the chairperson of the resource centre board, I hereby declare that this is my first time taking up such a high position. The resource centre board is considered one of the largest and most constant servicing body in the school. This is due to the fact that we provide the most important medium towards the development of academia in school, which are resources. A school is an institution, where it follows the national philosophy of education, which is to produce individuals who are of high discipline, wide in knowledge in various aspects and able to contribute towards the development of society and country in the future. The resource centre provides the most basic and fundamental requirements for students to gain direct access towards reading materials, electronic media and also the environment and place to do their own studies, hold discussions, do researches and more. The resource centre is a strong student orgainsation body, which importance cannot be denied. As the chairperson, I direct, manage, organise, and supervise the progression and the committee who work with me. For positions such as the vice chairperson, the secretaries, treasurers, media committee, discipline committee, they are the most important and considered my eyes and my ears to also cooperate with me in the task of supervising and generating improvements. In my case, I consider myself fortunate due to the fact that I have a very dedicated and effective committee working for me.

The teacher advisor, as suggested by the title, acts as an advisor towards the board. Our duty is make sure that she is well informed and also get some of her opinion from her point of view. However, to really maintain our quality and achieve more improvement, it can only depend on our own initiative and willingness. The teacher advisor also has other responsibilities besides the resource centre. Besides, she is always an individual. But we are different. We are always an organisation. She, as an individual, makes mistakes where she herself may not know. She also has only her own point of view. But we, as an organisation, have different ideas and views. When we come out with a new idea, other committee members can help to improve the original idea. Because we are a team, we can function towards the optimum by accepting and altering various ideas. This is called the accumulation of intelligence. If we are too dependent on the teacher advisor, we are actually also burdening her indirectly. Understand her, she make mistakes. If we just obey blindly without filtering and thinking properly then we are not thinking maturely. We are already grown teenagers, young adults by now. We are able to think critically and make wise decisions. By not taking things too personally and emotionally, we can even generate more conductive changes and conclusions. By now, teachers only function as guides. We do not head straight towards them when we have difficulties and problems. As I said, we are a team. We discuss and solve it rationally first. Then when it is serious enough, then we only find the teacher. When we sub everything to her, we are pushing away our responsibility, and to me, it seems incapable in doing your own duty as given. Solving problems is a part of the learning process. If you require a third person to help you every time, you cannot grow and mature. You may only settle things temporarily but on the long run, you fail to do so. Nobody in the working society likes people who cannot solve problems and it is a fact in the working environment in the resource centre.

As the chairperson, I indeed do my duty since the day I am elected. My first major task- Election of Newly Appointed Librarians. I only have 3 days to prepare for the whole event. A 30 minute scene on stage requires a background job of management and supervision. Who conducted the committee meetings? The constant meetings? Who designed the formation? Who consulted the seniors for extensive information to improve the event? Who does all the assumptions and predictions of the ceremony? Who thought about the potential problems? Who supervised the collection of fees and money for ties, vests, badges, program booklets? Who conducted the rehearsal? Who reminded everyone to wear the attire required? Who asked for the preparation of the scripts for the MC? Who thought about the ceremony pattern? Ok. It’s the chairperson. Besides, it is the same person who got the blame and complaints when there are not enough vests, too expensive prices for badges and vests, too early to gather and not enough ties. It is also the same person who got laughed when the first two attempts to launch the election ceremony failed due to the rain, who got wind that her fellow librarians were dissatisfied because of the 2 consequent days they were required to gather earlier for nothing, who have to run here and there during lessons to inform different people of their duty, who have to lose her cool and shouted to make her fellow librarians to listen eventhough she did not want to do so. These are called responsibilities. My responsibilities do not have a solid outcome. It is not the same as decorations, where you can see boards fully decorated to indicate to what extend she or he had done her duty. It is also not the same as stock, games, processing and more. These duties require you to stay in the library to get things done because all your tools, paperwork, files are all in the resource centre. My job does not bind me only in the resource centre. My range is wider because I have to come out with new managing systems and to enable that, my duty is to think, discuss and brainstorm among my committees. Sometimes it is individual work, other times it is teamwork and collaboration. I do not need to be in the resource centre every time because my resources do not come from there. Because I am not present in the resource centre does not mean that I have nothing to do. To improve, do you know that I have to pull out old files and check through them? I have to know about the tradition and the managing system of the past few years and filter through then I absorb the best way? Then do you know that I have to design new systems for different departments? Before doing so do you know that I have to get opinions from every head of departments, know their abilities, and know their restrictions? Then I have to supervise their progress and know what they lack and what they have. Then I have to know what the most serious problem is and design a system to be more focused on the improvement of that particular sector. Then I have to pass my idea to my secretary, where she will put it into black and white. Then again I have to brief the head of departments of the new system. I also will have to check them from time to time and observe how they adapt to the new system. Then I have to know whether it is effective or not? Can it solve problems? Is it acceptable? These, all requires 100% handling skills and thinking abilities. No solid outcome. Can people see it? Not everyone. As a chairperson I do not like to exhibit my way of working. If you can see me everyday in the resource centre but still there are no results, I do not see the point of doing so. It is true that I have to supervise the condition of the daily duties everyday, which I did. I only have to be there for a short while. If you complaint about nobody coming for duties, what can I do? Can I scold the leader on duty? Can I be angry? No I cannot because this is not the way I solve things. If you think that I do not know that such situations happened that you are very wrong. I know every move from top to bottom. What I will do is I collect names of those who were absent from duty and take action after that. The leaders of daily duties will issue reports to me. From there, I will give the names for those who did not perform their duties well to the disciplinary department. They will take action according to the rules in the resource centre. That is how I solve problems. And you know what? The way I does things will go unseen. Why? Because of one thing. This does not yield any solid results. The duty I do is a continuing process. The orders I give is a part of my process. Supervision. Management. Conductivity. A process. No results. Only conclusions.

I am still very new for this job. I always need advises, and I find cooperation very important. I am truly very thankful because I have a very strong committee to back me up when situations become out of hands. Credits to Azman for helping me and backing me up. Yoong Sin for being the best secretary in the world. For handling paperwork so effectively and helping me generate ideas for improvement. See Bee for giving me the support that I always needed. Yoong Ling for handling the most difficulties in financial planning and giving me the advice that I always needed. Suat Teng for being the most cooperative person and effective handling skills and also helping me in certain areas of problem solving. Mahendran for settling disciplinary problems without me worrying. Michelle for getting things done and listening to my problems. Cherry for helping me out with some of the difficulties I faced and the situation control during meetings. Also thanks to Kalai, Murni, Hafiza, Pei Fong, Suresh and Aik Cheong for being my friend and backing me up. Thanks to seniors for giving me the opportunity. The trust that is bestowed to me is truly sincere and I am very sure that I can be an excellent leader. I am currently improving myself and on the run towards more improvement. The freedom that you gave me, I just want you to know that I am using all of it towards its maximum and appreciating it. The road that I am running is long, bumpy, and full with holes and barriers but I know that there is a better world in the finish line.