Founder's Day + Recess/ After School/ PTM 30th July Sales

30^th July 2010, Friday

Founder’s Day and Recess/ After School/ PTM 30th July Sales

This was our first major sales among the school population. We had three venues in 6 hours: our canteen during recess, RJ’s canteen after school and Junior Block during PTM.

The origin of this sale was when the big group decided that we should have small-scale sales to sell our umbrellas among Year 1-4 Rafflesians. As such, we decided to pick up Friday as the best option as we are exposed to the whole school population during combined recess. The original plan was to set up the booth, after filling up a proposal to the school, on the 23^rd and 30^th July, after making a speech to the whole school too.

Our group had pulled off the speech pretty well, although we did it through the PA system since it was raining that morning. Sadly, we couldn’t show the target audience the umbrella either, as planned. Even worse, while we had announced that we planned to have a booth on 23^rd, unfortunately there was an ambassador talk (by the Saudi Arabian embassy) and recess was thus delayed. We did not roll out the carpets.

The next day was Founder’s Day sales.

I got the call from Mrs. Yap after school that Friday that we had gained permission from the school administration to set up a booth during Founder’s day. A great opportunity “as there are many happy parents, who had seen their sons go up on stage to receive a prize... They’ll surely want to get an umbrella!”

Yes we saw a surge in the sales of umbrellas, a whooping 73 umbrellas, i.e. $1111, with a $16 donation. Although there were very few parents who had purchased the umbrellas before the ceremony, as I think we had missed the first wave of parents, I think we sort of accidentally raised a lot of attention from the teachers who were lined up, getting ready for staff procession. There were indeed many parents after the ceremony in the reception area, taking a meal. So here we made the rest of the sales. It was a great, encouraging voyage.

And yet there is more to come next Friday (30^th July) during our sales in school!

Meanwhile Ahmad had prepared a list for marking off the no. of umbrellas sold, a checklist, which became handy to keep a rough gage, if not accurate, of the sales of umbrellas. On Thursday, I received approval from Mrs. Yap that we are able to set up booth during PTM, and revamped my allocation schedule, called the group leaders who sent the information to their members, and also sent a reminder via email.

The attendance was ok, because during Founder’s Day people were difficult to find in setting up the booth. However, we lacked manpower after school during PTM, as half of the people I scheduled and even informed did not turn up. Nevertheless, here goes the tale…

For recess, the plan was that Yue Heng would miss half of his PE lesson, grateful to whom our sales wouldn’t have taken off that recess. He personally brought the things from the HML, and maybe set up the booth as well.

Ah it was also raining during recess, the perfect opportunity!! 19 umbrellas I thought was a good figure for sales as I do not expect that many Rafflesians would buy it. I also met old friends who bought the umbrella, or said hi and visited the booth at least. I even posed for Ho Sheng Yi in the rain for demonstration! Fun’s the word.

Later after school, I made sure that Khang Hwee and his team are prepared to go the RJC for sales. After my prayers I found out that the poor guy didn’t find a table, although I don’t know whether he sold any. He had also kindly brought everything to the junior block and set up a booth, which when I visited I saw Zhong Sheng.

After adjusting the booth a little, I had to perform my duty as chairman, to manage my classroom. Fortunately, I have great friends, especially my class CEC, Sean Sum, and replacement Phedro, who had also bought the umbrellas. Thanks go to 3I CECs for being nice to me.

It was very risky sneaking in and out of my classroom, and I was caught by Mrs. Maas twice at the booth. Ouch.

So when I went up I decided to call Mrs. Yap for assistance, as I also found that the booth wasn’t satisfactory too. Thankfully, when she came to the Junior Block many things changed. She had taken charge of the booth and we were sending whoever was there (Yui Fai, Giang, Khanh and me) all over the place. Only then did we manage to sell so many umbrellas among the parents. Sigh; if only the scheduled people came we could have been more efficient.

With the help of a parent volunteer, we had also achieved many supporters. She had even went around asking parents to buy Raffles umbrellas among passers-by, and this was great help as we were lacking manpower. I had also met a lady who had kindly suggested that we should do sales in her office, and we proposed a date that is 11^th August which is school holiday. I have her name card.

So we sold many umbrellas. This was also a first time for Khang Hwee’s group. Yui Fai made a leap in approaching parents all over the S. Rajaratnam block.

In the end, we made $1607.10 in a total of 6 hours, i.e. sold all 107 umbrellas. This so completes our earlier consignment from Founder’s Day. Oh yeah, I was resourceful enough to sell my own umbrellas too, finishing the 5 remainder during PTM. Also, in truth we made an extra of $30, which is not meant to be accounted as part of the 107 umbrellas.

I love the experience. It’s thrilling, it’s fun.

Thank you…

Minutes for RE meeting

Minutes for RE meeting on 21/7/10

- Briefing of RE report and announcement to be made in front of school
- Presentation of recce trip to Vietnam by the Boys Brigade group
- Guests are Dian from Mercy Relief, and an NUS group of students doing similar project in same village
- There was a presentation of activities conducted during trip, which included:
- Household interviews conducted
- Collected water samples for testing
- Obtained map of village
- Medical reports of villagers from hospital
- Several observations of villagers- attitude, etc
- Took note of hazards, environment and surroundings of village
- Villagers are aware of negative impacts of river on their health
- Results of water-testing, conclusions, elaboration
- Presentation of pictures taken during recce trip, drew several conclusions
- Presentation of surveys/ interviews conducted
- Service and learning focus and objectives
- We were introduced to the Lily pad water filtration system
- It was at low costs,and was mobile
- It is made for brackish water
- The manufacturing is in China
- However, the machine not yet in manufacturing stage
- Very basic purposes- as it is made up of only charcoal
- Has a limit of volume of water filtered
- 6-8 months for production to finish- may not make it in March, which is when we are going for the trip itself
- Household water filtration system may not be effective as only some houses can be catered to, and hence the rest will be ignored
- Limitation: system may not cater to other needs of water, attending to consumption only
- Our project might cater to their other needs e.g. washing, sanitation, while theirs (the group of NUS students) is for water consumption
- Water systems might be shared amongst villagers
- Suggestion: Water points at different clusters of houses to allow fair and equal distribution of clean water?
- Designed water systems- mainly for sanitation
- Water filtration systems might be reliant on electrical supply- not feasible as there might be a lack of electricity at rural areas i.e. the village
- Suggestion: Merger between our group and NUS group in this project???
- Keep reminding villagers on sanitation and water responsibility and safety
- Bring back at least 1liter of water samples for testing the next time we visit the village

Meeting with NUS Service-Learning Group

On the 21 July, our Vietnam water project team met with a group of NUS staff and students who are embarking on the same project. The BB boys did a great job in sharing their recce trip experience. After that, we discussed about how to complement each other's projects. The NUS group recommended the Lily Pad water filtration system. Also, we discussed about the fact that the villagers are already aware of the negative consequences of the dirty water. Thus, it makes our proposed educational package seem useless.

Reflection on First Raffles Umbrellas Sales at RPA Seminar

10^th June 2010, Saturday

Outside Lecture Theatre 3 of the JC side of the RI campus, we erected our makeshift booth from tables and chairs from a nearby classroom, fixed the position of our 2 posters, one an A2 informative and another a montage, placed 4 big boxes of 60 umbrellas each hurdled by our bags, and took out a smaller box (12) from the first big box. It was a Saturday and we’re selling umbrellas in an almost desolated school. J

Out of the 3 groups, only 2 emerged. My group was there all the time because we had emailed Mrs Yap that we are interested in taking charge of the sale of umbrellas. And I’ll never regret that solo decision. The first lesson I learnt, beautiful and breathtaking it is, that sometimes you just don’t need to follow 2^nd thoughts, just go with instinct. This worked J

Apparently, the Raffles Parents’ Association (RPA) had organized a Career Talk Session on Law entitled: HELPING PARENTS UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS REALLY LIKE BEING A LAWYER - MYTH VS REALITY. (Please refer to http://rafflespa-talks.blogspot.com/2010/05/rpa-career-talk-season-2-law.html for more information regarding the seminar). So we had a rush for our first ever umbrella sales, having a time frame of around 48 hours to prepare what we required for our booth.

The procedural process was that I was emailed a statistics excel sheet for me to keep track of the sales of the umbrellas. Initial batch: 500 umbrellas, at $15. The cost price: confidential. As advised by Mrs Yap, we had decided to touch up on the two posters after 3 months of hibernation, pasting back the corners and fixing bits and pieces. Darryl and I had also learnt a new way of presenting our project, via prezi! Thanks to Mrs Yap. Unfortunately this didn’t work on the day itself due to the requirement of internet connection. This was sad L I worked all night till 4am for the prezi…

So it can be said that I did pick up some useful set of skills.

Ahmad and I had also worked on our beautiful WISH board, making a montage. After a comment by Mrs Yap that the words weren’t visible etc etc and that Mrs Yap had kindly helped us print photos of the Recce in Danang and Water Testing at Sing Poly, ingeniously we had improvised and made a montage, covering the dirty bits. The poster looked brand new in its designed outfit by Ahmad. Thanks Ahmad.

Prior to the Saturday, I had also learnt to give out consignments to group members. There’s this sheet Mrs Yap had kindly prepared that stated who was given consignment, what date, signed by, received how many, amount collected, signed by la la la. Till this moment only Giang’s and my group had been assigned. I think we had given out so far more than 10 small boxes, 11 maybe. Each had 12.

We kicked off our Saturday’s sales with a helpful announcement by one of the RPA members, forgive me for not remembering the name, who had publicized our umbrellas and got some parents to purchase the umbrellas for us. Mrs. Yap mentioned that he was very instrumental in this sale, due to the collaboration with RPA and also the sales of the umbrellas.

Sadly, without the prezi I had nothing to present the project with to the parents that were present in the LT. However due to the pressure-filled circumstances and the fact that I do want to take this chance to be in charge of the project, I had to, needed to and wanted to make a presentation in order to raise awareness regarding our project and this sale. I needed to show my worth in this group, and the abilities I have, the responsibilities and capabilities inherent within me.

I wanted to be there, not just for self-momentum, but to be there for people to remember that it was Dinie who lit up the stage in an impromptu speech.

Yes, the speech was impromptu. Yes, I should have prepared earlier. Nope, I think I did it pretty well, considering the fact that I was vibrating bottom down and that I drove my train of thought pretty well. Not to forget Mrs Yap, the RPA guy mentioned just now and also Ms Ho who had generously supported me and gave me encouragement. And I’m proud that I pulled it off well. Mrs Yap had commended me later on this J

Anyways I asked and received the help and acceptance of RPA members to set the stage up for me. It wasn’t a one man show, there are so many people who deserve to be up there with me, to be mentioned under the gratitude list. And no to forget those that had prepared a script to present with the prezi.

The sales was… I dunno eh. We thought we would sell so well it would tip over 180 that we bought 4 boxes. This was with the assumption that the whole LT of size 800(!!!) would be overflowing with hordes of enthusiasts. We were wrong, yes we learnt that we shouldn’t overestimate, but yet, it was still good that we were optimistic and just brought extra in case. As few people came, approx 80-120, we sold 46 umbrellas in total, which I think is quite good considering the fact that firstly we weren’t selling anything else so it was a limited and unattractive sale for those who don’t need umbrellas, and also that there were very few umbrellas. The sales collected was $691/-, with $1 donated by a kind gentleman who did not want change for $16.

As we were unable to relocate everything back into the HML as Mrs Yap had to leave, I had to delegate the remaining merchandise and whatever else among my members and also Giang’s group. (For the record we met Giang’s group after the seminar, except Anh Vu who assisted us before the talk) I had recorded so and so on these piece of unused survey that was also where Yue Heng had written down the accounts.

So it can be said that I did pick up some useful set of skills, and hone others. My impromptu speech, delegation of jobs for the preparation of booths and systematic way of dealing with the remains of the booth was something that I improved on and practices. Nonetheless, I had learnt to use an excel sheet, do records and count and keep money for accounting matters. I wouldn’t have learnt this had I not been in charge of the sale of the umbrellas.

I would also like to state finally that I gained a couple of friends from RPA, as a result of interaction with these people who had so generously collaborated with us for our first sales. I had gained the contact of Ms Ho, who had so kindly suggested in giving me updates to RPA activities and also to post up a blurb on our project on the RPA blog. If I had learnt anything from here, I learnt that it pays to be a people-person and that there are many ways of publicizing our work and cause, through associations with other groups for example. This is not to mention the mode of media, where posting on the blog means that we are making good use of the technology we have at hand.

Rounding up, I would like to say that this is the longest reflection I had ever writtenJ. In mentioning gratitude, first and greatest goes to God The One And Only Who Begets Not Nor Is He Begotten And None Is Like Him, whom without whose will I wouldn’t be so happy and successful... All praise and glory be to God ruler of the skies and the earth.

Mrs Yap, tribute goes to you for your support and encouragement in this opportunity, you are very instrumental in the knowledge I had gained from the sales and the procedures as well. To my new-found friends of the RPA committee who had firstly allowed us to set up our booth, helped us rally support for our cause or helped me in one way or another.

My group mates, thank you for your support and involvement in this last minute sales, even though it’s a Saturday and you guys stayed back etc etc. Come on as one with a common vision of success we will lead our projects to higher altitudes; we will be the pioneer for future batches who will look up to us.

We can and we will do it.

Visit to Singapore Polytechnic

On 30th June 2010, all three groups went to Singapore Polytechnic. There, we were shown various advanced and sustainable water filtration systems that are currently available. The systems include processes like reverse osmosis, UV filtration and ultra-fine filters. However, these are not really suitable options for us due to several reasons.

Firstly, the components in the water filtration systems are too costly (some are worth several thousands) and since we are on a very tight and limited budget, we could not afford such expensive systems. Secondly, the scale of these systems are too big and the components might be too heavy and hence, the delivery of such components to Vietnam might be very costly and hence we might not afford it. Third, the components installed in these systems are very complex and complicated, and the operator would have to be very knowledgeable of such systems and areas of Science in order to operate them smoothly and efficiently. Lastly, such components might not be able to be installed at the site itself as high amounts of electricity are required to operate them and since the village floods very often, it might not be safe to install such fragile systems there.

We also utilised one of the various labs at the polytechnic to test the contents and chemical statistics of the water samples that the team that consists of Boy's Brigade boys had collected. They had collected the samples during their recce trip to the village in Quang Nam, Danang, Vietnam that we are helping, from the various water sources around the area that provided the villagers with the water, including the wells, rivers as well as the water that had been filtered using the rudimentary water filtration systems. In total, we tested seven water samples.

We ha tested for various concentration of contents in the water samples, such as iron, as well as the turbidity, hardness and the pH level of the water. We used various different methods of testing, and hence everyone could try their hand on the various methods of testing. After the lab teacher there had briefed us on the various procedures as well as demonstrating them for us, everyone of us were given at least one procedure to complete each, while at the same time passing around the water samples so that each could go through the various procedures provided. Hence, such an elaborate experiment required a very organised and co-ordinated team so that we could complete the procedures within the least time.

We took a total of three hours to complete all the demonstrations and also finish the tests for all the water tests. The teacher told us that the way we preserved the water samples might have caused some changes in the water and hence might cause the results to be quite inaccurate. Hence, this is a point to be taken note of so that we would preserve the water samples in a much more effective manner the next time we go to Vietnam for the actual trip. We had learnt a lot from this visit, from new lab procedures to new concepts in chemistry, biochemistry and advanced water filtration systems. Furthermore, now that we know the nature of the water, it is now easier for us to find the most suitable, sustainable and efficient system to be installed there.

Literature Review: Basic Environmental Technology

Title: Basic Environmental Technology - Water Supply, Waste Management, and Pollution Control

Author: Jerry A. Nathanson, P.E.

Publication: Union Country College Cranford, New Jersey

Summary:

This book offers a pragmatic introduction to the topics of water supply, waste management, and pollution control. The first chapter of the book provides an overview of environmental technology, including elements of public health, ecology, geology, and soils. The next nine chapters focus on water and wastewater topics, including hydraulics and hydrology, water quality and water pollution, drinking water treatment and distribution, sewage collection, sewage treatment and disposal, and stormwater management. Municipal solid waste, hazardous waste, air pollution, and noise pollution are covered in Chapters 11 through 14. Finally, sections covering environmental impact statements and audits, the employment of technicians, technologists, and engineers, units and conversions, selected references, an extensive glossary, and a colour photo insert are included in the Appendix. All in all this book includes both the human and physical aspect of water management through various approaches of different disciplines.

Review:

In my opinion, this is book offers a complete understanding towards water management, which is highly relevant to our RESL project. However, I have encountered problems reading this book as parts of it goes deep into the scientific explanation to things like physical, chemical and biological parameters of water quality. Nevertheless, it is still a very interesting book as there is a distinct link between the mankind's needs for existence and their impact on the physical world. It is only when we are able to perceive the world from these two perspectives that we can see a more complete picture of this dynamic world. Relating back to our RESL project, this book is extrememly helpful as it offers technological solutions to drinking water purification. After all, this book equips us with the neccessary technological understanding of our RESL project and thus, it is an important reading.

Reflection on Design Thinking

On the 8th and 9th June 2010, I attended a workshop organized by The Idea Factory called the Design Thinking - Designing to Improve Lives.

This is an innovation program designed by the Idea Factory to educate and engage Secondary 3 & 4 students on the fundamentals of innovation and design thinking and why progressive and innovative organizations are increasingly embracing them to change the status quo and to stay ahead.

This module is part of a series of innovation programs by The Idea Factory and focuses on social innovation and the application of innovation tools and processes to deliver solutions that can make a difference to society.

Over the two days, we did some fun activities like building a tower using fruits and sticks, and constructing a duck using 6 Lego blocks. Through these activities, we learnt the importance of being open-minded in group discussions as a great idea is one that has been consistently built upon. The social innovation in this workshop refers to new strategies, ideas, concepts and/or organisations that will meet social needs of all kinds, and that will strengthen and enrich our society. Ultimately, our aim was to apply what we learnt on designing better lifestyle for the Elderly.

On the first day, we did an interview with our customer, an old lady who leaves alone. She seemed quite contented with the life she led at that point of time. However, after much inquiry, we gained some important information for improving her life. For example, we learnt that she depends too much on her maid and she could not take things that are high on top in her messy storeroom. Also, she cannot read without a magnifying glass.

The next day, we discussed as a group on how to solve the problem that our customer faces. Eventually, our group invented 3 items and created their respective prototypes to address her needs. Firstly, we created the model of a storage closet that functions like a vending machin in order to save her the trouble of getting stuff that are far to reach. Secondly, we made a prototype of Wii Tai Chi, a program that allows her to exercise at home. Last but not least, we invented an iBook, a gadget that automatically enlarges the words which you stare at.

In my opinion, I have acquired a lot of useful skills which can be used in our RESL from this workshop. One of the most important skills is to infer the needs of the customers from their perspective because most of the time, our needs are too subtle to be expressed in market surveys. This is especially important to us when we design solutions to the water problems of the village in Quang Nam.

In conclusion, this is a meaningful part of the learning journey in our RESL and I look forward to other similar workshops!