Digging Up The Past - What Happened

was supposed to read my notes in the lib, but since 2 gd frens blogged abt this, will give in to peer pressure and do likewise. be warned: it may get pretty long

odac AGM just concluded last week, with the usual controlled democracy voting system again. it seems that adsports has been overshadowed by ATC, the adventure race entity it created. now the main commer in charge is labelled: ATC SPO, not adsports officer or even SPO (adsports).

my 2 buddies expressed dismay that adsports is no more, but from a reliable source, there still is adsports... but it has somehow been relegated into like trek comm or climbing comm... will find out more details out of curiosity. abt the structure, the roles, etc.

some background: i was in adsports1 as a sub commer in yr 1... the 1st adsports comm. had lots and lots of fun with red, lining, ally, kb, zow, gingin, gill, nicky n thongliang. zow and i wanted to continue as heads... but she wasn't given the chance. those who were going from 6th to 7th comm, esp the girls, were convinced she could only play... none of them saw her work, therefore, she does not work. others, like some guys, felt she was inexperienced.

so i felt (and self-afflicted) the pressure of making adsports2 as much a success as adsports1. the camaderie, the fun activities, the garang-ness that made adsports1 wat it was had to be passed on, and as someone who knew how it was like, i had to make it happen. unfortunately, i made the mistake of wanting adsports2 to be just like adsports1 for the 1st sem... so i was nv satisfied and constantly comparing, giving myself pressure and breathing down the necks of adsports2 (esp kitty's) despite early half hearted attempts by the pres to convince me otherwise.

i don't know when, but slowly i realised there was no point comparing, coz the ppl are not the same, so the comm won't be. the realisation was complete somewhere in late jan/early feb 2003 when after a meeting at cant a, everyone else from adsports2 went towards NIE while i was the only one going down to south spine. i felt a little tinge of loneliness... i didn't feel like leaving this bunch of fun ppl. that was when i knew... i was in love with them. hahahah

unfortunately, most outside the comm didn't take adsports2 seriously. maybe it was because i scaled down the end-of-yr event from an adventure race to a dual-discipline expedition due to manpower constraints: without the competitive element, maybe the main commers felt it was less of a big deal.

having announced that all main commers had to help out in all 3 main odac events, of which ex:ex was among them, the pres, along with his best fren the biz mag, left for spain. the secretary left for germany. as they say, shang liang bu zheng, xia liang wai; with the ones on top setting a poor example, the ones below would follow likewise. in spite of meeting announcements and emails, none of the main commers turned up for the recce, at most 2 turned up for the dry run. wat made the lack of support worse was the complaining. main commers complained they didn't know wat to do, didn't know they needed to pay, etc, etc. someone was even reported (by one of the climbing guys) to hv shed tears over paying $15. but of course, little children... you wldn't know a thing coz u never turned up when we were preparing for the event. poor things... we wld hv taken ur feedback if u were around to give it.

of coz, logistical problems brought on by external companies (notably, a kayaking company situated on the western end of ECP) added to the tensions and headaches, but in the end, participants were coming to us saying it was great... they couldn't have done it without us. of coz there were also problematic, uncooperative and ungrateful participants around...

then came the AGM preparations of that year. kitty and i were poised to stay on in the main comm after indicating our interest and given stamps of approval by the controllers of democracy (ie. those who weren't running again, or who said they weren't). i wld reprise my post in adsports while kitty wld go to publicity, with crying-coz-she-gotta-pay-$15 (CCSGP$) girl.

a few wks after we thot we had settled on this, on the 1st day of sch, the new comm had a meeting. after climbing guy droned on and on abt main commers shd be closer to each other than twds their own sub comm (a barb aimed at kitty and me, an idea i disagree with) the 2-time pres met kitty and me privately and told us the rest of them decided to ask us not to run again, for the following reasons:

- Fresh blood, in the form of freshies, was desired (applies to kitty and me)
- Publicity could do with only one senior, and 2-time pres said he could work better with CCSGP$ girl (kitty)
- Adsports can be handled by freshies alone (me)
- Most of those who were staying on didn't like our style of working (unspoken but clearly shown during ex:ex)
- We weren't in the "in" group (unspoken but clearly shown during ex:ex, and the surprise meeting announcement of us not running)

FINE. i don't stay where i'm not welcomed. so kitty and I left, after a polite announcement from 2-time pres and a polite applause thanking us for our efforts in the past yr. feeling pissed over being sorely unappreciated already, the following happened:

- 2-time pres' best all time buddy, the biz mag, rejoined the comm when he indicated otherwise before.
- CCSGP$ girl stayed on but didn't become publicity, a yr 2 from sports club did.
Which contradicted the point abt getting fresh blood.

- after adsports2, adsports3's yr 1 officers floundered, and messed up such that seniors had to step in and run the show.
Which proved to everyone else i was right all along: Adsports cannot be run by 2 inexperienced yr1s.

and during that AGM, adsports2 accidentally staged a protest of sorts. everyone knew we weren't happy with the shabby way they treated kitty & i, but it wasn't on purpose. with most of us taking basic malay together, we arrived late for the AGM. and since most didn't get a place in hall yet, we had to leave early together, walking out during the break. the lao jiaos were indignant at our behaviour... thinking kitty & i had led this protest. in actual fact, we just wanted to go home - this AGM didn't matter much to most of us anyway. in the end, 2 of us stayed inside and i stayed outside to accompany PP, after someone said it wasn't v nice.

and that was the end of my involvement with adsports. i wasn't wanted, therefore i made myself scarce.