The EOGM is over, and reins of AWARE has been handed back to the old guards. However, the AWARE affair is far from over.
A number of issues are in hand.
1) The $90k spent in 5 weeks by the ousted exco is over the $20k upper limit of what the exco is authorised to spend in a month. This issue will have to be solved and accounted for. In NGO, every cents count.
2) The influx of roughly 3k new members, where some are unfamiliar with AWARE. How are these 3k new members going to be integrated into AWARE? Many have abilities, and are willing to contribute. How is AWARE going to tap into their expertise?
3) There is 761 members who voted against the old guards. How is AWARE going to engage them? Will them lay hibernating, and perhaps strike again in future? Will they actively makes life difficult for AWARE to carried out activities? Or will they contribute in their own way to AWARE?
With the take-over and ousting, trust was lost. and 2 camps are formed, where each camp is united. The old guards got back their association, and perhaps the other camp can consider setting up their own association too. The 2 camps obviously have different ideas on association management, public relations, democracy, and target group of people their will like to assist.
[...] for some house-keeping – Youth.sg: AWARE: a case study in respect – Alice Cheong in Wonderland: Moving on from EOGM – Singapore Alternatives: Lesson from AWARE SAGA – Defending our National Core Values – Sgpolitics: [...]
I don’t think it is right to alienate the 700 odd members. They did not all object (except 2) when the new exco is selected, right?
when the women chanted “where are you…” yes,they were not there. But they are here now.
if they are willing to lend their strength, the cause for gender equality will be that much stronger.
i think it is a matter of believing in the course set by the founders and it is important to stop drawing divisive lines.
@Federick:
I agree that we should not alienate the 700 odd members. That is why it is a task for the team to engage and integrate them.
I think the 2700+ new members have to ask themselves the question, why did they join Aware?
people will now look
1)at supporters of the old guard to see if they will continue to contribute actively(or NANO: no action, noise only),
2)at the performance of the team led by ms Dana.
it is going to be a wonderful and crazy year ahead for Aware. All the best.
Yes, I am for point (2). In fact, I am actually wondering how I can start helping AWARE but I really dont know where to start.
To Federick, post #2
I think why not all of them objected was because almost half of them had already left the hall after casting their votes for the “vote of no confidence”.
And it was not 2 who objected to the new exco of Dana Lam and Co., but 5.
From what I learned from the takeover of the old guard, it had been observed that of the 103 members who showed up to vote for Josie & Co., many of them who were there didn’t not speak much to one another, sat quietly during the AGM process, voted, and then left. They didn’t even stay back to hear the results. So we can assume they were instructed to attend the AGM to add to the numbers, which explains their disinterest and subsequently leaving early without bothering to wait for results.
It seems like they probably did the same thing for the EGM, but this time they lost.
Sofero, post #5
Maybe you can start by calling up AWARE and volunteering some free time to help in some of their programmes.
Because this is a society where volunteerism is not of much significance, volunteers are hard to come by.
Ah, the 700+. I read that there are many who wore red came by the busloads, they sat there quietly and listen, they only liven up when its time to vote on the ex-co. Of course, they have all the rights members can enjoy for a year. But are they interested? Seem like they are there just to vote. Maybe they are waiting for another directive. If no directives come along, just let membership lapse lor, afterall they have done their duties already.
If they are interested, they can give suggestions and volunteer, if time permits, that is.
hmm, how come no one from the old guards covered that angle of the story? I read that some of the reporters present were shouting and cheering when the results of the vote were announced. That will draw some criticism that our press representative are not really that neutral…
Though the main stream media says that this is a historical event and Singapore society has come of age, blah blah blah, I feel that as a civil society, we have only begun to take our first baby step in (borrowing a phrase i heard recently) “behaving in a first world manner”.
As for me, I do not really believe we need to “behave” in the manner that we have to be told to “sit down and shut up” rather we need to act and act responsibly.
Anyway, well done! women of Sg.
[...] for some house-keeping – Youth.sg: AWARE: a case study in respect – Alice Cheong in Wonderland: Moving on from EOGM – Singapore Alternatives: Lesson from AWARE SAGA – Defending our National Core Values – Sgpolitics: [...]
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