World Sky Race 2010

Jean-Michel Jarre and Don Hartsell.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

UNESCO Goodwill Ambassad

or Jean-Michel Jarre has agreed to become the Artistic Director of the World Sky Race launched in a partnership between the nongovernmental U.S.-based World Air League and UNESCO's World Heritage Centre. ... ... Read more in UNESCO's website

The above news was found when I visit the UNESCO's website. What exactly is the World Sky Race? There is this website about it. The World Sky Race™ is an historic tour and competition of lighter-than-air skyships racing 30,000+ miles. In sixteen back-to-back races that completely span the globe, the winner will be crowned World Sky Champion.The aim of the World Sky Race is to promote environmental protection and the use of lighter-than-air skyships as a means to reduce pollution and pressures caused by transportation.

World Sky Race is definitely something for us to look forward. At the same time, I really hope to ask those Airships Crew, which region's air is the most polluted? :) Let's keep our finger cross that Malaysian's Air Space is clean and clear.

At the same time, if you worry about our Air Pollution Index, you can visit our Department of Environment's (DOE) Website for the daily index. I posted the link in this blog space at the upper right side. Feel free to link to that website.

Common Meeting Problems

For the last 5 years, I've been learning about this Parliamentary Procedure, and wondering how good it can be if my Clan Association can use this procedure in the committee meeting? At least, the meeting will be effective and have conclusion on discussion. Let me tell you what is the common problem in meetings of the clan assiaciations that I've observed.

Meeting in Clan Association is normally long winded. If the agenda has been timed for 2 hours, it normally will takes 4-5 hours in real fact. This is due to a few posibilities here. 1. The chairman doesn't know how to exercise his power and chair the meeting effectively. 2. Those who attend the meeting simply doesn't know how to respect the chairman and keep talking to their friends. 3. Everybody wants to express their opinion and keep on discussing on matter, and when it comes to making decision it will be dragged on. I have come across a meeting that when it comes to vote for decision, the committees still want to discuss the matter and laid the matter on table.

Let's look at the issue where the chairman doesn't know how to exercise his power. This is a very common issue of meeting. It happens because the chairman doesn't know how to chair meeting or the chairman is too diplomatic and want to be Mr. Nice guy in meeting. As a chairman, the role is to control the meeting so that it is in order, to allow matters to be discussed and decisions to be made. Chairman should always make sure discussion is according to the point of order. When needed, Chairman can stop someone from talking, and put the matter to vote. Chairman can even ask someone to leave the meeting if that person does not behave himself.

Meetings in clan assiociation normally is old friend gatherings. What do I mean here is that, sometimes, we have not seen each other for quite sometimes, and when we have chance to see each other in meeting, we will start catching up. When the talking started, it is always difficult to stop due to the fact that everybody is so excited. This happened in the middle of meeting as well, especially when the discussion is boring and not related to that person's interest and portfolio. When a person started to feel bored, that person will initiate conversation with neighbours. That is when the meeting turns to be noisy. And when come to voting, those who were in their private conversation will feel left out and doesn't know how to make decision.

Not only the chairman need to know his role well, but the committee themselves knowing their own role also very important. As when the discussion goes on, normally it tends to have a few very vocal members who will keep on expressing their opinions on every matter. Sometimes, I really felt that they are attention seeker, and the association is a platform for them to express themselves. To be fair to everyone who spend their time serving the cause of the association, this should be prevented. Expressing their opinions should be only in tea time, or we called in "yum cha" in cantonese, after the meeting or before the meeting but not during the meeting. Sometimes, the opinions are repeated over and over again by different people in different ways.

Today, I went to association and I got a very good news. The Chinese Version of Parliamentary Procedure written by a Commisioner of Oath working in association is out. All the committees in the organization has got a copy of the book. I really hope that everybody will read through the book carefully, and learn the essence of the Parliamentary Procedures. When the meeting is not boring, when meeting is not about wasting time, more and more youth will be joining.

NGO's Website

Website is a tool for organization to communicate with public. It is a type of media that the organization is paying for conveying messages to the public. And I dare say website is getting more important in our daily nowadays. If you still haven't notice Internet Media has become another tool for politician to influence the surfers for their supports. A very good example is last year's election, Internet has played a great role in it.

Today, I'm not going to talk about Politic Parties Website or Politician's blogs. Instead I would like to point out how you can make your organization's website more powerful and influence more people to join in your organization.

First key, is keep your website up to date. As the technology keep changing and and more advanced, we even can receive notice about updates and changes of content in our website. Ask yourself, do you like to visit a website that is always the same for months? For example, a very good example the Malaysia's UNDP website, last update was January of 2009. When I see this website static and has no update, my first thought is, "ALAMAK" is this organization really exist? Then I will think, are those people inside there really working on the cause they are serving? To make sure you can have your reader, supporter and surfer keep coming back to your website, make sure you update your website frequently.

A website will not be attractive without a good layout design. Don't you agree that we all like to see beautiful things? A colorful page, compare with a very dull and square pages, I doubt the latter will have any visitors keep coming back for more except if it is very informative and useful website to certain specific group of people. And those website are not for drawing public's attention. Do not concern about saving money for design, value for money is the key. If you are only willing to pay student price, get student to design. I am sure student can also deliver good job on the design.

Other than layout design, if you have multi-lingual website, you have to make sure you standardize your design. A standardized website tells me that I am in the same website, only different language. For example, one of the NGO's that I'm involved in has a website. First of all, the webiste's has got English and Chinese version. However, it doesn't really is a good Internationalized website. The Chinese version and the English version has different design, and my first impression on surfing through is that, am I still in the same website or not?

Lastly, and also most importantly, is what is your website's objective? A clearly defined objective will make sure your website has the right structure, and deliver the message you want to convey to the public. For example, Air Asia's website is to sell ticket online, they make it clear cut that buying online is easy and safe. On the other hand, another Airline's website was originally for "schedule checking only". I tried on that Airline (International Awards Winner Airline), and I realized I have to provide exactly the flight's date to find the availability and price of tickets. I felt so inconvenient, and seems very difficult. How would I know the time and flight number as well as the date of the flight? I would have been the ticketing agent if I know that. Knowing what you want to do with your website, is the most important thing you want to do. Please don't setup a website because it is an "In" thing to have for your organization.

Getting a good and effective website done doesn't really need to invest a lot and put a hole in your pocket. It is a matter of what kind of message you want to convey, and how you want to convey it. If you own a website, it is time for you to review whether it serves its purpose or not. Else, it is time for you to revisit the above's points.

World Climate Change...

Dear Friends,

Greetings! Lately there are a lot of natural disasters that are worrying. Examples are the New Orleans Katrina, and floods in our very own KL City, which causes you and me stuck in the jam for hours.

If you are concern about the above, would you mind to take about 5 minutes of your tea time to do the following survey. This survey is conducted by Junior Chamber International, and the result of the survey will be submitted to United Nations.Please follow this URL to do the survey before April 3rd 2009. http://www.jci. cc/survey. php?u=3&lg= 1 For the details of the survey, please read the following email. Together, let's make a change to the world.

To change the world, let us start to change ourselves. Recycle and Energy saving start from home!!!

Regards,
Leong Seng Tat