Hello Guides!
Like previous years, we kicked start 2017 our Year-One Orientation last Saturday! During the December holidays in 2016, many of us as well as our brother scouts came back to school on various dates to practice and prepare for this big day! There were a total of 5 Orientation Preparation (OP) dates before this, and much effort was put into ensuring everything went well. There are 8 committees in total which involved the guides and they are: Outdoor cooking, Decoration, Mini Games, Gadgets, Kitchen Shelter, Gateway, Fireman’s Ladder and 绳桥 (“Monkey Climbing”).
On the actual day, we 集合-ed at 7.15am early in the morning and after attire check, we proceeded to 集合 with the scouts. After we were broken off, we then went to finish up the last details and decorations for each committee. A while later, we gathered together again and had flag-raising.
When the Year Ones arrived, it was finally the time to show the efforts we have put in all this while! First, there were performances put up by the 4 Uniform Groups. This is inclusive of our very own Fireman’s Ladder and 绳桥 teams! Afterwards, the Year Ones were free to roam about and visit the various areas where we have prepared structures and food for them.
Here are some thoughts from a few Year 3s about what they have gathered from the entire OP experience.
A Year 3 from 绳桥 said…
The process of Orientation Preparation (OP) was a challenging one. Being in a performance committee, each OP session consisted of strenuous practices that pushed me physically and even mentally. We practiced relentlessly over the holidays and even after school to perfect our performance, ensuring that it would go without a hitch by the time it was the actual orientation performance when we would show it to the year 1s. There were even Physical Training sessions to further challenge us to go beyond our limits and increase our fitness for our performance item. Despite the ‘hardships’ we experienced through OP sessions, it was still enjoyable, and was filled with plenty of laughter thanks to the wonderful seniors, batch mates and juniors in my committee. Even if some may say that the 绳桥 may be one of the most tiring committees to be in, at the end of the day I feel that there’s no other committee I’d rather be in, because it’s through these strenuous activities where you build your resilience, create lasting friendships and make the most memorable memories. When you when you recall these memories, it really makes you think, “wow, I’m really glad to have been a part of that.” No matter how exhausted I was at times, being in a performance committee and OP in general was an enriching experience that truly challenged me to push myself, and it’s something that I am grateful to have been able to play a part in.
A Year 3 from Fireman’s Ladder said…
Overall, I really enjoyed OP and was very excited for it as I like being in my committee, Fireman’s Ladder. I think that every session of OP was extremely crucial for me as I made it a point to learn as much hard and soft skills from this year’s ICs since I am aiming to be an IC for Fireman’s Ladder next year. Throughout all the practices, I have learnt many things such as ensuring every lash is tight as it concerns the safety of the members of our team, as well as how to give constructive feedback when it is needed. Most importantly, I feel that OP had really helped my team members to bond with each other. As for 拆掉, I feel that we could have worked faster and had a better sense of urgency as we were quite slow during the first few OP sessions. Fortunately, there was improvement in our speed afterwards during the subsequent OPs. However, personally, I think I could still have a greater sense of urgency to 拆掉 the structures. All in all, OP'17 was really fulfilling and enjoyable!
A Year 3 from the Gateway Committee said…
The entire OP journey has been both stressful yet insightful at the same time, especially since PLTC is just round the corner. Being in gateway has really forced me to improve on my lashes as we cannot have a lash come loose while the Year 1s are walking across it. Being part of this committee has also trained my sense of urgency as the gateway was a massive structure and we could not afford to take our own sweet time to build it as we would then have to stay back to complete it. During the OP sessions, it was frustrating to have to take down the entire gateway after spending so much time and hard work building it, only to rebuild it again the next week. However, I eventually learnt the rationale behind it. It was to help us perfect our skills and ensure that the gateway is up to standard. This was important as the new Year 1s would see the gateway and it is supposed to serve as something that would wow them and encourage them to join guides. Having a sloppily built gateway would not portray guides very positively. Little details such as makings sure the length of the steps of the 木 were in ascending order were a little troublesome, but yet it contributes to the image of the gateway. Through this experience, I also learnt the importance of teamwork because as mentioned above, the gateway is a huge structure and it involves the cooperation and collaboration of everyone to ensure that the building process goes smoothy. Little acts such as helping one another stabilise the ladder while climbing up to prevent any accidents also helped with the efficiency. All in all, being part of the Gateway committee has been a tiring but fruitful journey.
A Year 3 from the Kitchen Shelter committee said…
Building a Kitchen Shelter is not easy. The first few OPs, we only had half of our committee showing up which limited our ability to build the structure within a shorter time frame. Yet, with the help from the performance committees, we managed to complete our structure for all the OPs, which I personally felt was a miracle. Without the help of our ICs and from others, we would not have been able to complete it. Thus, I feel that Orientation Preparation was a fruitful experience. Through these few sessions of building structures, I have learnt more about working with other people such as the Scouts and Ventures in order to efficiently complete our structure. The OP sessions are also be very useful to me since I am a Year 3 and would have to work with the scouts during PLTC soon. On the day of the actual CCA Exhibition, I was quite nervous as to how the Year 1s would perceive Guides and Scouts. Being an usher, I was representing Girl Guides and would greatly affect whether or not they would choose to join Guides. Thankfully, all of our hard work did not go to waste. The Year 1s that I ushered generally gave me a positive response when I asked them if they wanted to join Guides or Scouts! OP was a success and I cannot wait to meet our new juniors.
A Year 3 from the Gadgets committee said…
OP this year has really been a fruitful one as it was a journey where we all grew together. During the first OP we were all a little discouraged to have to come back to school during the holidays. Furthermore, it was the first time trying to tie the structures with insufficient manpower and I felt that it was very tough. There were many trial and errors during the building process and our ICs had to revamp a few of the structures whenever there were structural errors. Subsequent OPs were spent to polish our speed, efficiency and quality in tying all the gadgets. This time round, OP gave me a heightened insight as compared to when we were Year 2s last year, as I got to be more aware of how our Overall IC and Assistant IC came up with so many proposals and made OP possible. After all this, it was really satisfying when the structures we built turned out nicely and OP this year had really been a fun and enjoyable one. Despite how exhausting it was, I am glad everyone pulled through this together.
A Year 3 from the Mini Games committee said…
I was assigned to be in the mini games committee and I have really learnt much from this year's OP, which also gave me the opportunity to work on my lashes. In the beginning, it was rather frustrating as my committee was supposed to be a large one but only a few people showed up during the holiday trainings, which gave us more work to do. I felt extremely unmotivated as I was exhausted from waking up early and subsequently slowed down in tying my lashes. It was also discouraging to know that at the end of the day, all our structures will be 拆掉-ed. However, I reminded myself that this was a chance for me to work hard and improve on my skills for the actual OP. I've learnt to be more responsible and take the initiative to 报时, since I was one of the few with a black watch. One thing I hope to improve on is cheering, as my committee was a rather quiet committee, which resulted in us having a low morale which could have been the reason for us working slowly. However, I felt satisfied on the day of the orientation as it was clear that our structures had improved from the very first OP. Our lashes were much tighter and the structure was stable enough to support the weight of many people. Many Year Ones also mentioned that they were considering joining Guides or Scouts, which was proof that all the effort and hard work everyone had put in did not got to waste. Overall, OP has been memorable and I'm thankful for the seniors who guided us through this journey.
A Year 3 from the Outdoor Cooking committee said…
I feel that the 6 sessions of OP over the weeks really helped us to prepare adequately for the CCA exhibition. Outdoor cooking involves a lot of trial and error as well as experimentation. A few examples would be us trying out for the right amount of ingredients to produce our mac and cheese in large quantities as well as estimating the right amount of time we should put the smores and hash-browns in the embers so that they are not overcooked or undercooked. Our lashes and sense of urgency had also improved greatly over the sessions, and we went from asking for several time extensions to build three fire altars to being able to complete them under an hour. We also realised the importance of tying tight tripods in the first session, when we saw our zinc plate slanting to the point of falling. We also learnt how to improvise our structures, such as attaching bamboo poles to our fire altar so that the chicken can be cooked over the fire without needing someone to hold it constantly. The Year 1s coming to try the food we prepared enthusiastically on the actual day and praising our food was really heartwarming and made the hours we put into the preparation feel really worth it.
Last but not least, a Year 3 from the Decoration committee said…
I felt that OP was an interesting and meaningful experience. We were able to learn from each other and push ourselves to our limits to complete the tasks that were asked of us within the deadline. Being in this committee was really enjoyable for me since I like to do Arts and Crafts. However, there were still challenges that we had to face such as limited manpower (during the holidays) since most of our members were overseas. Also, some deadlines were very tight causing us to rush through many things while ensuring it was presentable. I feel that one thing that we could have improved on was our sense of urgency so that we could complete our tasks more efficiently. On the day of the Orientation itself, we were extremely busy as we had to put up quite a lot of decorations on the structures that had been built by the other committees the day before. Throughout this experience, we learnt to cooperate better and have better communication skills so that we could get our points across easily and finish putting up the decorations on time.
We are glad that the Year 3s had many takeaways from the OP sessions, and we hope that the Year Ones had a blast on the actual CCA Exhibition day! May the Year Ones be motivated to join us on our Guiding journey :-)
Published by:
Chen Wei
48th Batch Secretary
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