Leadership is about taking responsibility when things go wrong - so says McAllister Daniel J, my mno prof.

Hmm leadership is about providing sense of things and events - says McAllister.

Leadership is about this...is about that...

multi facet.

What do leaders do? They think. They think non stop. They are paid to think.
What happens when they don't think?

They become like me.

ANYWAY... just an update on the heritage centre thing...

We had a meeting with Prof Shim on Thursday and he managed to convince us to start small by collecting items of heritage value first. With a stockpile of such items, we can build a gallery of sort.

So any seniors/senior's senior/ senior's senior's senior ........

with yellow lectures notes dated 1000BC or civil engineer yellow boots/hard hat with 2m of mushroom (read mould)?

hehe if you have any of those inspiring stuff of heritage value to the faculty... drop me an email at
weilei@nus.edu.sg

:)

Hey some nice seminars which you guys can attend...
From the organiser:
We've decided to offer your students a flat rate of $25, but only for those who sign up by Sunday. Registration will still be open until the 29th, and the investment for students who sign up after Sunday will be $50 - the same rate offered to members of the public.

Yup more than 1/2 price.. interested just drop a tag or drop me email:) weilei@enginclub.com

As an institution of Engineering education, our accomplishments line the walls of the EA 7th floor in the form of research papers/posters done by professors and, most recently, the race car that you see outside the Dean's Office and many much more. True enough they are things we ought to be proud of. BUT are they iconic? Are they archived?

Sitting in one of the PSC welcome teas during my JC days, I remembered an instance whereby an Oxford Engineering graduate who later joined the police force told us about his undergrad life in Oxford. He ran through a couple of slides showing his life in Oxford and the usual praises which scholars would give to the scholarship body and their universities. There was one picture I remember even till today. It was this building, normal cuboidal structure, with nothing much of an impressive architecture or cutting edge building technology - JUST a NORMAL plain building. Nonetheless, it occupies a part of my pictorial memory 4 years down the road. It's a building designed by the Oxford Civil Engineering students. This is heritage.

Heritage; her·it·age, (noun) - Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

Name me an icon of NUS. Name me the heritage of NUS. Name me something which makes you so NUS...
Replace NUS with Engineering... any answers?

If nothing makes you NUS... If nothing makes you Engineering... why would you return in kind when you graduate? FAT HOPE

Perhaps, we need a heritage centre... students designed... alumni support... faculty's interest... the establishment of such a centre, regardless of how obiang it may look, is something I would be darn bloody proud of... because we would be the first in NUS... in fact the first in Singapore to do it... We cannot move on... we cannot have an identity without roots. Any great institution is heavily anchored by its tradition... its roots... its heritage. Which from those anchors, the culture develops... the belonging stems... the memories evolve...

A heritage centre for our student and cultural activities.
A heritage centre to boast to visitors of our origins (do you know when Engineering was founded in NUS?)... Our present... Our future...
A heritage centre which keeps an archive of events and milestones for the faculty.
A heritage centre which records the lives of thousands of graduates who walked through the gates of Engineering.
A heritage centre which gives every batch of freshmen more pride than the previous batch for the great tradition that was laid before him by his predecessors.
A heritage centre which belongs truly... to you and me... special to us... iconic to us...

COST: up to a million... what do you think the faculty would say... we shall see soon
What do you think?

Indeed, nothing more apt than that.

Right! It's an emo night hence I shall capitalise on that and sink further by being nostalgic. I still remember the same time last year when I stepped into one of the tutorial rooms and interview my business guys for the subcommittee recruitment. And this year, 2 of them are also in the management committee - Roy, as biz director, and Wendy, as welfare director. It's interesting to see how things turn out. I was just as inexperienced as them in terms of club marketing and I had to decide whether I want them in as part of the business committee. Look... an interview is never enough to judge how suitable a candidate can be for the task. BUT! I think it's our best bet.

Spill a bit of secret... wendy was so quiet that we didn't know whether we should include her in the committee but well in the end we did :) (and i am grateful we did). My 2 cents worth... elaborate and reply more than the interviewer asks so that he/she can get to know you better. At the end of the day, whatever the results may be, we are truly grateful for your turning up and interest in the subcommittees. Initiative is perhaps one of the most valued things.

Tips aside, it just struck me that perhaps we all have different goals/objectives in mind, in wanting to join the subcommittees. Really, these are personal perspectives and there is nothing wrong with them. (of course don't tell me you join for the sake of wreaking havoc in the club lar~). BUT! I would just like put some thoughts across...

There are so many other CCAs out there... but why engin club subcommittees? And I think that's perhaps the only question you need to ask yourself to prepare for the interview. The rest of it... it doesnt matter... :)

For those fighting a glorious battle with CTW.. here's a resource you could look into.. and for those so hmmm... bored as me... you could take a look at it too.

Free articles from McKinsey... business journal kind of thing... I found the automotive industry journals pretty cute...


http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/home.aspx

Duty, Honour, Country - the famous words of General Douglas MacArthur in his Sylvanus Thayer Award acceptance address.

No you didn't come to the wrong blog. People who know me, know how those words motivated me so much when I felt like shit during those 2 years of my prime youth in the army. What was supposed to be some kind of indoctrination/brainwashing turned out to be one of the greatest gift I received from my country at the end of those 2 years.

Right... I am not crazy today. I am little off the path. BUT I have a point to make.
Take this phrase a step back and think about it in a smaller sphere of influence. Is there a sense duty in you for your community? Is there a difference you want to make to the people in your community?

I have already let the cat out of the bag when the words "Recruitment Drive" display at the heading. But I am telling you all this not just for the recruitment drive. Nowadays I get struck so often by the questions of life that I can't help but be a little philosophical at times. How many of us know what we want to do in our lives? Are we going to be a factory product, which after going through a generic education, go out to the society... slog to climb the corporate ladder because it brings us money... AND so intelligently spend those money on shopping and material goods... FORGETTING THE FACT THAT big corporations and media are perpetually enticing us to spend more by creating social norms (which are not very normal) (think of how you spend on those IPOD AND IPHONE)... Our appetite for consumption grows... Look at the Americans... in the aftermath of 9/11... what did their President say? SHOP! consume more so that the economy runs...so we go on and work even harder...
Visit this website... she does the convincing better.
www.storyofstuff.com

SUMMARY: We study... we work... we shop... we procreate... and we die!

How about if you could impact someone's life? Be the change (for the better of course) in someone's life, in the community you're in.
Of course, at the end of the day, my duty in this management committee urges me to converge all that I have said above to persuade you to join us in the Recruitment Drive. But this is just as applicable in any community that you're in. Your club, your family, the societies you join outside, your working environment, your friends... ANY COMMUNITY... SERVE IT... Have a sense of duty... make a difference...

All said, hope that's enough food for thought!
Anyway! Recruitment drive for Engin Club's sub committees is coming up... so you have the following committees which you can join (loads of fun): (in no order of merit)
1. Business (wooHOOO haha sorry i was dy biz director last year)
2. O week
3. Camp
4. Rag
5. IT
6. Publications
7. Sports
8. Welfare

Make a difference :)