Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani: Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) Training Programme

AIMST University

18 to 21 December 2014

The Rotary Youth Leadership Awards Training Programme 2014 (RYLA 2014) was attended by 97 participants from 32 Rotary Clubs in the District. They had a gruelling time of training over 4 days in AIMST University. Under the inspiring leadership of Organising Chairman, Dr. PK Rajesh, the organising team from RCBSP, R.E.D. Association of AIMST and AIMST University, as well as 20 facilitators from the various clubs in the District ran a tight ship at RYLA. The young people ran the programs with minimal interference from us Rotarians.

The participants arrived at AIMST University on the 18^th of December. The opening ceremony was a grand event attended by around 300 people comprising of Rotarians, RYLArians and AIMST staff and students.

Rotarians, RYLArians and AIMST staff and students, minutes before the opening ceremony

President Dr. Bernard Chan, DG Kirenjit Kaur, YAM Tunku Zain of Negeri Sembilan, Organising Chairman Dr Rajesh, Ms. Gowri and Dr. Lim Jit Kin, President RED Association

The committee went to great lengths to ensure the objectives of RYLA in the areas of Leadership, Inspiration and Service spiralled through the programme. We sought to inspire leaders with an aptitude for service. Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani’s RYLA touched on our mission statement, ‘to groom leaders of the highest integrity for Club, District, national and the global stage’.

After the opening ceremony and dinner, the delegates were immediately put on task, with ice breaking, forming teams, creating their team flags, drafting their slogans and generally homing in. The team of facilitators and volunteers worked with coordination, precision and passion to ensure everything went smoothly.

Monkey king team explaining the significance of their flag

RYLA 2014, was themed ‘Dream BIG-Make it happen!’

RYLA 2014, Logo kollam

All the speeches, workshops and outdoor activities highlight the importance of planning, strategising, acquiring resources, seeking feedback, implementing and the dynamics of team spirit and cooperation. Extra Care was taken to package the 3 tightly packed leadership programme with a mix of brain and brawn activities to ensure it appeals to the Y generation.

Speakers include Rotarians like PP Christopher Pressling, PP Dato’ Dr. Siva Ananthan, PP Sarjit Singh and Rtn. Ken de Haan. All received rave reviews by the RYLArians, who were thirsty for more. Besides Rotarians, prominent speakers included YAM Tunku Zain of Negeri Sembilan, supermodel Amber Chia, accomplished surgeon cum artist Dr Neoh Chin Boon and SP’s fitness guru, Bryant Tan.

Christopher Pressling’s leadership track and Amber Chia’s inspirational track on RED day.

Ms Amber inspired the RYLArians by recalling her struggle and how she worked hard persisted and adapted to reach the top.

December 18^th or day zero, the RYLArians wore the ‘polio’ t-shirt. Day 1, 2 and 3 were RED, YELLOW and LAVENDAR days respectively. (Ms)Amber was the fourth and most intense colour, making the RYLA complete (R for RED, Y for Yellow, L for Lavendar and A for Amber).

Rotary’s ideal of Service was not forgotten as the RYLArians were split up into groups and taken to an old-folks home and two homes for children to clean the places and spend some time with the less fortunate, entertaining them. This was a resounding success as the plight of the under privileged was an eye opener for many of the RYLArians. The service was aimed at the felt need of the inmates of the homes we visited.

The residents of Happy Retirement Home, SP Nursing Home and Gurunatha Ashram taught our RYLArians lasting lessons in community service; without even having to speak.

The service track involved the RYLArians to actively serve our local community making them aware not only of the problems that our community hosts but more importantly to make them realise their own unlimited scope to be able to solve these community problems.

This reflects our clubs Vision statement- ‘The Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani aims to be a dynamic, high profile and exciting organisation within the population of Sungai Petani and its surrounding areas, making it the choice service organisation for business, professional and community leaders to come together with the common goal of service and fellowship which make a positive difference in the lives of one and all’. We realised that we had achieved our goal, when our RYLArians volunteered to help the flood affected people, within a week after the RYLA.

The Tandop Camp team made them work out their leadership and teamwork in practice and literally, on the ground. RYLArians took to the challenge whole-heartedly, in spite of the rain.

It is worth mentioning that due to the hazard of leptospirosis, activities at Tandop Camp was at risk of being cancelled. However, the organising committee and SADA (the Kedah water authority) came to the rescue with treated water for the camp.

Tandop camp-team work and strategy-Together Everyone Achieves More

As Dr Neoh proved, despite his busy schedule as a surgeon, with time management, he could persist with his hobby of bird watching, painting the birds with immaculate precision, the RYLArians also had to plan to scheme and perform cultural activities after the tough evening at Tandop. They did an amazing job and even kept to the curfew of reaching back to AIMST campus by 12 midnight.

Last but not least, RYLArians learned from each other, as each had his own her strengths and challenges. At the end, everyone was exhausted yet wished for more.

Yet the end of RYLA is just the beginning. RYLArians are expected to go back to their clubs and share their experiences as well as work with their club of a project, demonstrating Leadership, Inspiration and Service and report back together with an assessment by their sponsoring club, which will be assessed for the honour of the RYLA award itself. This is to align with the RYLA theme “Dream Big and Make it Happen”. Hence, they will need to go back to their respective clubs and “Make it Happen”.

The clubs should be proud of their respective RYLArians and continue to inculcate and inspire values of service-oriented leadership in these young people. As stated before, our inspired RYLArians have already demonstrated their ideal of service above self by initiating a project to provide post-flood relief.

The RYLA Facebook page is sharing the photos from the event at http://www.Facebook.com/RYLA3300.

RYLArians are also in contact with us in a Facebook group.

The closing ceremony was organised by the delegates. Individuals, who arrived as strangers on the 18th, had bonded and became close friends, brothers and sisters, and coordinated the closing ceremony brilliantly. The farewell was a colourful but tearful event.

RYLA 2014
was organised by the Rotary Club of Bandar Sungai Petani
in collaboration with
AIMST University & RED Association
and supported by
Yayasan Kelab-kelab Rotary Malaysia &
Rotary International District 3300 Malaysia

RYLA 2014 Registration