Leadership in Practice (10)

Getting a past chairman to serve under the present committee is always a difficult task for the community-based organisations in Petaling Jaya. Thereby, getting 2 past chairmen to serve in a way is complimentary to Mr Ngiam Chong Choy, Chairman for the Rukun Tetangga SS2B. His effort in getting Mr Willie Tan and Mr Yong Yung Choy, both past chairman to serve as committee members and significantly to take up important portfolio, to me is a success. More than often the past chairman will take up the advisory role if even he agreed to serve another term.

Apart from that, it is amazing to note that the chairs for various sub-committees in RT SS2B were assigned according to the professionalism and expertise of that particular member. During last Sunday's visit, the judges was briefed by Ms Sia Siew Chin, a person with disability for the accessibility programmes, Mr Willie, an agriculturist on the landscaping programme, Lt Kol (Rtd) John on security activities, Mr HK Tan, a known male dancer on the social programmes and Mr Yong, a mediator on the special community dispute resolution strategies and of course Mr Ngiam himself, formerly the head of marketing for a multinational company on newsletter and communication. Assigning portfolio according to expertise is encouraging as tapping expertise and resources at the community level is always a challenge, but urgently required. Community is getting complex now and pooling in resources will help in making community actions more efficient.