Posted on 28-Dec-2014
By Sergeant Jack Lim of the 12th Kuala Lumpur Company
October 26th, 2014
Each year should be better than the last for any company, more so for a growing company like 12th Kuala Lumpur Company Boys' Brigade which has been regarded as the fastest growing company in KL State with membership growing from 30 to over 100 in 3 short years. Naturally, there are high expectations of the officers and the NCOs. Worse still, our Company lacks officers with only 3 active officers running a Company consisting of over 100 registered members. The officers, therefore, rely heavily on the NCOs to do many tasks that would normally be done by officers in other companies, like the weekly drill program, planning for many events, etc.
In 2011 when I first joined Boys' Brigade as a recruit, the whole Company was in a mess. There was no proper system and the entire parades were a mess with no badge work classes, no camps, nor outings and nothing to excite the members. At that time, we only had two corporals who were from the previous batch of members before it moved to Wesley Methodist School. It was the two corporals who organised the strenuous boot camp that caused the majority of the recruits to quit. A few months later, even the two corporals left 12th KL due to the distance from their home due to the relocation of 12th KL.
Barely surviving, 12th KL was on the verge of shutting down with the lack of manpower and leaders. Thankfully, we had two Form 3s who joined us. They worked closely with the officers to ensure the Company's survival. They were soon promoted to lance corporals after serving for barely a year. Things started making a turn for the better once the Company was handed to our current captain, Mr. Nicholas Yeap. He trained us all and brought us up, mentoring all of us and making sure we became strong leaders.
For the first few years, captain single handedly led the Company, planning many events and bringing up the Company on his own. He even sacrificed much of his personal time even after marriage back in 2011. He was present for all parades and BB events to the point that his family time was sacrificed. Slowly however, he started handing the Company over to the NCOs when he found that they were capable.
We also had a second officer, Mr. Lim who helped out with all the logistics and all the relations with the school. However, it was difficult to for to manage as Mr. Lim was not from a BB background and he doesn’t have much experience in administration work, he has been a great help to 12th KL helping out with the logistics and the PA system when none of the NCOs were yet capable of handling these tasks.
With the second batch of NCOs, I got promoted along with 4 others. The 5 of us started running the Company alongside our captain. It was a monumental challenge as at the same year, our school principal made it compulsory for all the Form 1s to join The Boys' Brigade. Therefore, the 5 NCOs had to work very hard along with captain to ensure that everything was able to run smoothly with over 100 members. Thankfully more NCOs got promoted later in the year. With all these new NCOs, we divided the work and managed to pull through the year.
With more and more NCOs in the Company, our captain has started to let us handle the Company on our own and not help out as much as before. As we were still quite new however, we couldn’t handle the Company well enough. The years go by and we barely managed to pull through each year.
However, God has blessed our Company with more help last year with Mr. Andrew Tan coming on board to help out. With his help, our Company started to prosper. He helped to implement many systems including the squad files, attendance taking, reports, and much more. He has a strong background in administration and management work, and therefore has been a great help on solving all the logistical issues which has been plaguing 12th KL in the past. Along with the new batch of NCOs coming on board this year, 12th KL is now getting stronger and stronger.
We now have eight departments in 12th KL with NCOs heading each department. With all the NCOs working together, 12th KL has definitely seen a great improvement year by year. Despite the lack of officers in our Company, our Company has seen much improvement and growth under the mentorship of Captain Nicholas and Mr. Andrew. After the NCO retreat, with the planning that was done, it was clear that 2015 would be the best year yet for 12th KL with many camps and awards classes planned out. We therefore definitely look forward to a new year and all the challenges that we would face for 2015!
Page Created: 28th December 2014
Last Updated: 28th December 2014