|
Dear Friends and Members of the
ACS Family,
It is with humility that I
assume the position of President
of the ACS OBA after serving in
its Management Committee for the
past 5 years.
I have had the privilege
of being guided by my
predecessor the past 4 years and
it would be remiss of me not to
acknowledge the able leadership
of Benson Puah. Despite the
increasing pressure on his time
due to his various high office
appointments, he had carried out
his duties at the OBA with
aplomb and for that, my sincere
thanks to Benson for setting the
standard.
As I briefly alluded to at this
year’s ACS OBA AGM, the OBA has
the challenging task of uniting
all the ACS schools under the
umbrella of ONE ACS. From just
two primary schools and one
secondary school not too long
ago, our family has now grown to
a total of 6 schools including a
Junior College and an
International school.
Understandably, the tendency is
for our students to gravitate
towards the school they
graduated from, whereas the OBA
seeks to bring everyone under
the umbrella of ONE ACSOBA.
Unless the OBA continues to stay
relevant to the needs of our
alumni, we could find ourselves
getting increasingly
marginalised. In this context,
for the past few years, the OBA,
BOG and all the
ACS
Schools have stressed the
need to consider all of us as
ONE ACS, sharing the same
values, heritage and
characteristics that define us
as ACSians. The OBA thus affords
all our alumni the opportunity
to continue to be part of ONE
ACS under a single OBA umbrella.
This may sound deceptively
simple, though the reality is
more likely that the OBA will be
sorely taxed in coming up with
innovative approaches to bring
all ACSians together.
By the same token, given the
wide range in ages of our
members, it would be incumbent
for the OBA to cater to the
different needs of different age
groups. This is not a new
phenomenon for us but I think it
similarly needs to be addressed.
There have been various
suggestions (including having
youth wings, international
chapters and the like) on how we
should go about doing this and
the OBA Management Committee
would certainly welcome ideas on
how to go about making the OBA
an organisation that ACSians
would be proud of and interested
to be part of.
Finally, as we map out the
future of the ACSOBA, we should
not merely focus on ourselves
but also on how we can reach out
to the community around us. As
an institution, the ACS family
has been richly blessed in so
many ways, from facilities to
resources to having the means to
influence for the good of our
society. In keeping with our
Christian heritage and values,
it is also appropriate that we
consider giving back
meaningfully to our community.
We have made a small start by
establishing the Oldham Club as
a sub unit of the OBA, using
sports as a means to reach out
to others around us, to nurture
and influence them positively,
to share and to connect with
them. There are people around us
with various needs, and if we
can do something useful for them
through the OBA, we ought to.
As we plan, we covet your ideas
and suggestions, and above all,
your prayers as we seek to do
our alma mater proud by our
thoughts, words and deeds. To
God be the Glory. The Best is
Yet to Be.
Cheo Chai Hong
President, ACSOBA
|
