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1st Incovar Facilitator Training @ SJBA

There were about 20-odd participants who came for the Incovar Facilitator Training last Saturday, 26 March 2005 held in SJBA. Check out pics from Fred's Panasonic Lumix and some pics taken with the BGF's Olympus.

It is a customized training cum workshop designed specifically to gear up fellow Incovarians be a facilitator in the next Incovar camp! The organising chairperson who'd worked hard to make this event a success is bro. Nee Sern. Assisted by a few of the committees.

Sis. Soo Ping (a senior Incovarian) was invited to be the trainer for the 'Theory of Facilitation' training session, by providing participants with alot of 'text book' answers ;) to the questions of How, Why, What, When to facilitate.

Alot of compliment went to the training material itself, which really looks neat. Sometimes I should take some time to digest all the useful theories compiled and implement in practice.

Workshop 1 was conducted by me and Swee Feng, it was quite challenging for me to 'debrief' as it made me feel like I'm a trainer for a few minutes! Haha. :P

The second part of the course involves Incovar style of facilitation, of course guided by CHEE ONN with his able assistant Mabel. The experiental learning approach is applied even for a facilitator training like this.

The day ended not without sis. Chooi Woon sharing her story of 'those were the days' and it was good listening to her.

Of course, tokens of appreciations were presentation to all. It was a chilly day as it was raining heavily outside, but inside the SJBA meditation hall, everyone was blessed for being part of this one-day facilitator training.

Roadshow in MMU

On Wednesday night, some of the committees went to MMU in Cyberjaya to do Incovar roadshow, for publicity purpose. Lead by Soo Teng, who bought her Canon Ixus along. Check out Sue's pictures =)

The MMUDSG had their last gathering of the semester, held in one of the lecture room in the Faculty of Engineering. Whoaah, did you know that all lecture rooms have a PC with Internet access and LCD projector too!!! This makes life so easy for the students eh? Even when Soo Teng were presenting the slides, Jin Song could surf to BGF and Incovar.org websites to show!


This is MMU for you :) Well only me, CO and BT were from UPM you see. Where lecturers only use OHP with transparency.

So, what were the rest of us doing at the back?
... lepak lah...

over used words in meetings...

some terms that you must learn when you join the committee or be an incovarian...

1. sei mei
this term must be used when trying to express something that is very gengz. it could be an idea, or a concept or anything that is glorified. for example, someone has this fabulous idea of taking a picture, then the person will explain how to take the picture and after that add the term, sei mei...it works pretty well. (btw, u have to add make the intonation higher on the end of the meiiii)

2. doh'
this term is used to express "WHAT!!!" or disbelief over something. usually, when someone says something which is like, isn't it obvious, or what???, then we will shout out doh'. its sounds nicer than what? this term is usually used with a little smack on your forehead.


3. mei-joonised
its a term we call people when they act or behave like someone else aka meijoon. meijoon is a special character in the committee, with special skills of using the term mentioned in no 1. so, if you somehow or rather terikut-ikut meijoon's characteristics, then someone in the committee will call you...mei-joonised.
some new terms are like, swee-fengnised, or leeyennised...(all these terms are coined by fred wong)

4. sei chor
this term is used when someone said sei mei...and then you feel like, wow it is very gengz as suggested by the person who said sei mei, then we say sei chor...

5. we inspire
its our tagline. come on man..use it more often...


added:
6. yau yeng
this term is usually used when we want to describe something that looks extremely good, stunning, gorgeous, elegant, pretty, beautiful, handsome...basically all the terms that spells nice. if we say, wah so nice arrr...or...wah, tht logo very nice...or...wah, that picture tht mj took very beautiful arr...all these expression are naturally boring. so, we replace the word nice with yau yeng. when we see a nice picture taken by mj, we say so yau yeng.
hei, it also applies to a very cool looking concept or idea too. if the concept is cool, we can also say, wah, the concept is very yau yeng.




because, at incovar, we inspire...
(if datuk were to see this, he would probably faint!)

my fave shot of the wedding nite ;)

I'm really sorry being naughty, :P but if you'd like me to take this down... please tell me. For now, this is my fave shot!! =D I dunno what was Siew Chan doing, when I couldn't control my finger and it triggered the click of the button!

Mr. & Mrs Kim Tek

Mr. & Mrs Kim Tek @ Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Club. Can you name the rest of them?
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What an eventful 13March2005 ;) Almost 4 tables of BGFs (incovarians) and the rest of them were from Kim Tek's ex company (Cargill), BASF-Petronas, Bee Chooi's classmates, working colleagues, friends and family.

The day started off at our fellow incovar's lovely home, situated in Kota Permai. Us, "heng tais" (literally translated in english as "gang members") drove ALL THE WAY to Hyatt Saujana (phew*) to fetch the bride. It was such a "difficult task" to open the door to get to the bride. A bunch of bananas, a loaf of chilli-spread-bread and lotsa Sprite to chill us down. Yayy! By 11am, we were successful in gettin thru to the bride ;) Plus all the ceremonial tea offering ceremony and some picture taking sessions in the hotel room and in the courtyard ;)

It hit me today that weddings and marriages are not just the union of two people in love. It's actually, a union / marriage of families. Not just two families, but 4. The bride's dad's family, bride's mum's family and 2 family's from the bridegroom side. Boy-o-boy, it's not that easy to please all 4 parties and yourself eh? Hmmm, makes me wonder whether I should take up Kaz's suggestion to elope to South Africa, while she plans for my riverside, sun rise wedding there... How would YOU like your wedding to work out? Full of attachment and suffeRING :) Opps. Typo. I meant, full of happiness and wedding RING.

Committee Intro

The beauty of INCOVAR lies in the fact that although the committee members are not actively organizing events, they are still part of the wonderful family that supports each other in times of need, and shares joy in times of happiness.

INCOVAR is family...

Here you will see 2 faces: Daniel and Siew Chan, who are currently actively involved in i-GemZ recording process.

First, let's introduce Daniel! From this photo you can see that he has this serene look on his face that will be translated into the wonderful inspirational songs that he writes and sings. He was the one who introduced the concept of Camp Magazine (Incovarian Inspiration) and he also designed the application form and newsletter.


Daniel - BEFORE


Daniel - AFTER

Next up is Siew Chan! A veteran Incovarian who has been M.I.A recently, he is an avid Japanese, Chinese, Malaysian (I mean that by the languages he prefers to converse in!). A talented singer, he is also a karaoke master, having won in a karaoke competition before. His sincerity shows in his smile, but perhaps he tried a little too hard to impress someone (see AFTER photo).


Siew Chan - BEFORE


Siew Chan - AFTER

[Event] Fellowship BBQ Gathering

Thanks to feichai for organizing this event.

There will be a Fellowship BBQ Gathering, details as follows:

Date: 26 March 2005 (Saturday)
Time: 7pm onwards
Venue: Setenang (see below)

Why BBQ? To meet up with old friends, new friends, and all Incovarians. Catch up with everyone, and get first hand news on 23idc :)


Location map to Setenang

Faci Training Meet & a birthday!

Yakyakyak... (trying my best not to spill out content of discussion :P) meeting was lead by Nee Sern with alot of drawing all over the board. In my office term, we say there were lotsa 'dingdong sini-sana', after all the ding-dong everyone came down to accept the final strategy. We're hoping to see many first time faci coming for training. Opps! Forgot I need to confirm the venue :P.

Ahh...midway through meeting, Kim Tek came. It was a meeting, a birthday and a wedding plan all in one! Haha... oh who's birthday?? Yesterday was not his birthday yet. Tradition - buy cake -- minus the cheese! (but that I-cant-eat-cheese-or-I'll-die Fred wasn't there last night what?!)

Snippet of the story went like this
-----------------------------------

SF posed beside the birthday boy so that she can get a BIGGER piece of cake.:)



SF was wondering what happen as she got the smallest piece of all...



Anyway, Happy Birthday to Nee Sern from all of us from Incovar.

Lastly, how could I not boast that I got a job as a wedding photographer for Kim Tek's wedding!! Weeepppiieeee!! Huh - don't pray pray. Doh!

Committee Intro

Who is this man?

Striking a pose...

Some say he's a trouble maker, others say he's friendly. Most say he's funny, but some say he's pretty noisy.

Anyway, he's the man responsible for most of our games. He's also the "designated bad guy" so I guess there's no hard feelings if we kena scolding before.

The ever popular drama king he is, we would expect to see him very prominently. He would most likely be stealing the limelight if he has the chance! :)

May I present to you... Fred a.k.a CCWong!!!

23idc Programmer's Meeting

So, the Programmers had a meeting in BGF Center today (1 March 2005). We had dinner in Kanna Curry House first, an Indian restaurant opposite from BGF Center. Specialty is Banana Leaf Rice with fried chicken/fish/sotong. Anyway, here're some snapshots from the meeting!

http://shw.fotopages.com/4506563.html?noresize
L-R: AL (publicity import), SF (secretary-cum-programmer), MJ (programmer head), LY (recent addition)

http://shw.fotopages.com/4506569.html?noresize
What a crowd!
L-R: LY, AL, JK (secretary-cum-programmer), SF, JS (chairperson-cum-programmer), MJ, CO (exco-cum-programmer), JW (recent addition)

[Event] INCOVAR Facilitator Workshop

INCOVAR Facilitator Training Workshop (26th March 2005 @ SJBA)

Have you been interested to facilitate a round table or a discussion group? Or maybe you would like to further enhance your facilitating skill? Well, ask yourself why not.

This one day training workshop is open to all fellow Incovarians (yes, you!) either those who are graduating or those who have graduated recently.

Book your calendars now.

Date : 26 March 2005 (Saturday)
Time : 9.30am - 5.30pm
Venue : SJBA Meditation Hall, Subang Jaya Buddhist Association

For further inquiries and registration, please contact MJ, or leave a comment.

Now that the camp is over

(written on Wednesday, November 17, 2004 after the 22IDC was over :P)

If this blog can be viewed by my Incovar friends, than I dont think I want to write in detail what were all the thoughts that went through my mind before, during and after the camp!

But basically there is nothing shameful to hide, as most of my thoughts were positive and sweet. What I do not know how to share, is how to reach out to not-so-Buddhistic friends who may be turned off by the mention of a Buddhist camp, thus I'm afraid of being pre-judged by people.

A good thing to note is that, there were 2 Christians participants in our camp, and it would be interesting to find out what makes them want to join our camp in the first place! I personally do not know any Christian who would care to join Incovar, as even my own school / uni friends or even my cousins were not interested.

There is a saying in Buddhism, "Ehipassiko" which means come and see. It is this essence of Buddhism which encourages self-discovery & personal exploration of life's experiences that makes me nonchalant in evangelizing. :P Which means, our doors are always open for you to discover and learn, all the teachings in understanding the mind, our human nature and the noble truths. There is no need for me to preach and irritate people, but there is this inkling desire inside me, that wants to shout out to the whole wide world - Incovar rocks!

In INCOVAR, we inspire... because we value individual expression, we treasure unity in diversity, and we nurture a family in the Dhamma.

I had a really good time in catching up with Tym and Muy Gaik, I could hardly see them in real life, if they didn't attend weekly meetings. Sharing the same floor with ~80 other girls was quite an experience, with small mattresses arranged side by side. I couldn't make big movement when I sleep, or else I'd kiss the girl sleeping next to me!

The food was interesting to note, all because of the strict Chinese custom, to eat silently, mindfully with back straight, legs parallel while abiding the kitchen rules. Criss-crossing the rice bowl and soup bowl, holding the chopsticks correctly, and putting the soup bowl at 10-o'clock position to ask for plain water! I had to salute all the kitchen helpers who had to serve the 150 of us like kitchen slaves! It's such a shame the programmers were not given this "opportunity" to serve the food to all people!

Programmers were mainly involved in running the programmes from start till end. I of course enjoy myself being infront, taking photos of people & activities, and just being there sharing wonderful moments with people. The Thai staff were really sweet and nice people, when blend in with Malaysians' impatient and crazy attitude, there you have a good mix of culture. Seriously I cant think of what ways to differentiate the Thais and Malaysians, except that the Thais were very patient & slow moving, so unlike Malaysians fast-paced & somewhat more efficient!

There's alot to learn from other ppl's culture, and there's so much other ppl can learn from us. I sincerely look forward to the "International-College-Varsity" (INCOVAR) camp, as like what we've achieved in this 22nd IDC. There is alot of funding matters to consider, I noticed many well-establish Buddhist organisation so well-funded. In our organisation, there is so much more to catch up on with full time administration & big scale management!

There is a place I really feel like home - Incovar.

Metta to all,
MJ