Crap management and our inspiring youths

It’s been a while since I blogged.  Unfortunately, I’ve been embroiled in the middle of some politics and crap management with a certain Community Development council.  It’s amazing how even small organisations can play such dirty political games.

I have been involved in a youth community project this year and have poured in months of hardwork and effort into it.  The sponsors and partners I brought into the project were fantastic and joined us because some of them believed in the vision and cause of the project.  Unfortunately, due to some myopic management, inefficiency and lack of commitment of several team members, the project has fallen lacklustre on many levels.  It’s true that one should not expect too much from volunteer projects but if everyone had been put on the same page right from the beginning, the tone of this blog entry would have been very different.

The management had the cheek to change their minds many times about many issues, issues that were already agreed upon and already considered by the volunteers.  All these changes led to heartaches and unfulfilled sponsorship proposals.  Even till the last week, the finale event location and concept were changing, much to the dismay and very last minute scrambling for the event organisers.  Is this how an effective management should function?  Is this how any government organisation should operate?  Most certainly not.  I am truly saddened that such management exists in some of our government organisations.

As part of the project, I decided to do more good and launched a nation-wide survey project, even though my plate was already full with work and studies.  The premise of the survey project was to solicit feedback from the youths on the ground with the help of student volunteers.  Thanks to the support of the students and friends, I have managed to obtain good results.

But guess what?  Because of some imbeciles, the essence of the project was lost and the project was going to go unmentioned at the finale event.  I wasn’t so bothered about it not being mentioned, what I was pissed off about was the lack of recognition for my student volunteers.  Just because one imbecile was unable to fathom the big picture, all the efforts were going down straight down the drain.  I was too stunned to speak and broke into tears.  All the frustration from the non-sensical  changes, wasted time and effort overwhelmed me.

How can anyone create any positive change with such organisations?  I was and still aghast at how this CDC is being managed and run.  Fortunately, our chairperson managed to contact the someone in management and convinced them otherwise.  Well, hopefully the same management doesn’t change their mind again to exclude the survey project and most importantly, my student volunteers.

The best takeaways from my involvement in this project were the new friendships I forged with my fellow student volunteers and the lessons I learnt from them.  Some of our Singaporean youths are very impressive and passionate about creating positive change in our society.  Maybe some of them might not understand why they are doing certain things, but given the right leadership and sufficient time, our Singaporean youths will shine!!

I am so proud and honoured to have worked with this group of young and enthusiastic youths.  It has more than made up the negative experiences I encountered with this particular CDC.  In fact, it was due to them that I kept going and contributing when I was about to quit from the project after the crap the management dealt us with.

Conclusion?  I will never volunteer with this CDC EVER AGAIN!!!