3rd KL CLR 2009 (Company Leaders’ Retreat)

I just came back from Frasers’ Hill 3 days ago. Went up there to join my old BB company, 3rd KL for their Company Leaders’ Retreat which was held from Sat-Mon. Basically its a time of 3 F’s – fun, fellowship and future planning.

In my (own personal) opinion, this retreat seemed rather last minute. That is why about 1 or 2 months before the retreat, I suggested a pre-retreat meeting. I am not sure whether this meeting was carried out or not, and if it was, I am not sure if the people who attended managed to realise the significance of such a meeting. Thus, as a result I feel only two out of three of the objectives of this retreat had been fully achieved – fun and fellowship. Of course, there was some good times of reflection and insight into life as a leader but then again, I do not think this is what the retreat is for. However, it was still a great retreat overall, and hopefully the company still manages fine for the following term.

For me, the high point of the retreat would be the sharing of Mr. Kok Yeng Voon, an Old Boy of 3rd KL. He shared a lot about the history of 3rd KL. There is one particular part (which is not appropriate to share here, as it involves the “dark era” of 3rd KL’s story) which I have only vaguely heard of before, during one of our previous CLR’s, and this time Mr. Kok enlightened us on it. I have a much clearer picture now as to what happened during that tragic period but many exact details still remain a mystery, as the facts and figures do not tally. However, it is not Mr. Kok’s fault as he was just telling it from memory and no proper reference. The storyline is correct but it’s just the finer details that still elude us. Mr. Kok also mentioned about how there was once a Company Log Book where every single BB activity, date, time and attendees would be painstakingly recorded by the duty NCO at that time. This is a good tradition which should be re-introduced.

I also spoke up about the need to re-introduce the usage of bugle calls in the company, a suggestion which was supported unanimously by the officers and NCOs.

One issue I forgot to speak up about is the standardization of brevet terms due to the mis-usage of a number of them in our weekly meetings. In a nutshell,

Company Sergeant Major (CSM) (or Sergeant Major) = NCO Council Chairman
Orderly Sergeant = NCO On Duty for that day
NIC = NCO In Charge
OIC = Officer In Charge
2IC = 2nd in Command – the assistant to the NIC or OIC
etc. etc (I forgot the rest I wanted to say)