Vice President at 16 - An Interview with Olivia Chu Rhung Ern.

"Work hard in silence, let success be your noise."

Olivia Chu Rhung Ern • Vice President 2018-2019

Interviewers: Lakshen Naidu, Lee Tyen Wyeth

Date: Aug 28, 2020

Credits to: Lee Yi Tung

Lakshen: Before you joined the Huskies, did you know about captain ball?

Olivia: “No. Actually, I only knew captain ball when I joined foundation - I knew it from my brother, who was one of the 'founders', I guess you can say, and he was playing with Justin basically, and there was no Huskies Club at the time. It was just like a gathering where almost less than 10 people were playing in the club. As what the seniors might have said: there weren't any stools, they only used chairs when they played, and only then I got to know about captain ball because if I ask anyone from Seremban, they wouldn't know what caption ball is. So I'm pretty glad that my brother introduced me to play this game, because I really fell in love with it."

L: What do you think of captain ball as a sport in a whole?

O: "I think it's a really interesting sport, and it's not a hard sport to get used to because the rules are pretty simple. I think this kind of sport helps to build relationships between people. One of the reasons I fell in love with the captain ball is because of the people I met in the club, like Justin, Jia Han, Joshua and Kai Ping, because I got to know them and share memorable moments together. Also because of captain ball, it helped me know a lot more people, and it also kinda made me more confident as I am personally an introvert, so I never thought that I would be the Vice President of a club before. So I think this club really helped me step out of my comfort zone."

L: What made you want to take the position as a Vice President since you’re relatively new to the sport?

O: I think it was like what I mentioned, to step out of my comfort zone. However, I initially thought we were just joking around - we didn't think of making Huskies to be that big of a club until we actually thought that maybe we can make Huskies into a formal club so that more people could come and join.

L: When you play captain ball on the court, which position do you like to play the most?

O: "I don't think there's a particular position that I like. I just play according to the team and have a good time."

L: What did you learn from being the Vice President?

O: "One is, of course, the leadership skills because at that time, there were suddenly a lot of people entering the club. Then you had to have ice-breaking and communication skills, so when taking up the role of Vice President, you really have to speak up. You must also know how to connect with other people so that they feel a sense of belonging - that is how they will stay in the club and continue playing. You need to have some sort of personal connection with them, and to be very friendly in general and as a Vice President, it improved my communication skills, and helped me step out of my comfort zone."

L: During your time as Vice President, what difficulties did you encounter because the club was relatively new?

O: "One of which was to get approvals from DSA. The second thing is to get the members to stay because there was a time where I remember the number of the members are getting lesser and lesser, sometimes you'll feel like it's your fault that no one is enjoying the game. And then when you're not so good at ice-breaking or like to communicate with others, you will feel like you bore the people, so you tend to blame yourself a little bit, so that was one of the difficulties. I also realized the importance of knowing that you can't please everyone, and it's up to them on whether or not they want to stay in the club, as long as you do part of your as a Vice President, you can try to make everyone happy while not beating yourself up when people want to leave."

L: In the early days of the club when it was just newly formed, how was the reception from other HELP students? Did they want to join immediately? Were they interested in it? Or did they previously know about captain ball?

O: "We started recruiting people through Joint Clubs and Societies Day (JCSD). At that time, actually I had another friend who helped me - Ming Liang. If you all know him, he helped a lot by approaching people by giving them candy and asked them if they knew about this captain ball club. Actually, many people don't know about it, but he was the main person to help recruit a lot of people, while I just sat behind to support. A lot of people didn't know about captain ball, especially if they're an outstation student, but they still decided to join, and that's good! Because a lot of them have stayed until now, like Victor, who didn't know about captain ball before, but then he joined, and he became one of the committee members."

L: If you were still the Vice President right now, what would you change?

O: "I'm not sure. I didn't really think about it before because when I was a Vice President, my mindset was just to have fun, to meet new people and to make more friends. We were really happy at that time, even though the club wasn't big. If you ask me what I would change now, I can't really say because I'm not sure what the state of the club is at the moment, because I'm in Taylor's. I think you guys managed it pretty well. So I don't think there's anything I can say that would make things better. A few months ago, I went back and it was great, there were still a lot of people coming and I had a lot of fun and still had a good time. So you guys are doing a good job!"

L: How often did you guys play captain ball back in those days?

O: "I remember it was three days - Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays - before it was a formal club. After the club became official, we began to adjust according to the club members' schedule, so we shortened it to two days and we made a list of those who would like to play, like how you guys are doing now."

L: Sometimes you might not have many members to play with, so what do you do when there are not enough members?

O: "It depends on how many members there are actually. If we can form two teams, we'll still play, but if it's only three or four members, we'll just cancel the session. I remember back than the seniors told me that before the 'group' (club) started the having sessions, there were less than 10 people, and on some days, they would have only three to four people, so they will still continue the session with only one chair, one shooter and one defender."

L: What difficulties might we face if we want to organize public matches again? Take away this COVID-19 situation right now.

O: "I think the hardest part is to recruit committees, actually. Not many people want to volunteer to be a committee member because they don't want the responsibilities, which I think is one thing. Second, of course, I think it's more on the planning. A lot of times, the difficulties lie in the planning process, like having to find a venue and estimating how many players and teams there will be so that you can prepare refreshments. You will also need to take care of the medical aspect. There are a lot of things you would have to consider before you actually organize a competition, and you would also need to know how big of a competition you want to set up and how you would want to recruit the teams."

L: Since you were the Vice President and you oversaw all the other committees, what advice do you have for future committees?

O: "A very important point is communication between the committee members because when I went back to HELP, I heard that the committees were having problems with each other that caused some awkward tension, which made the atmosphere a little bit unpleasant. The management wasn't really that well because of the conflicts between the committees. I wasn't sure of the exact situation, but all I knew was there had been some misunderstanding between some of the committee members. So I think one of the things that's very important is that you should separate your roles as friends and as committees members so that when you're working on the club, you will focus on your role as a part of committee, while still being friends outside of the club. So it's important to not merge these roles together because sometimes, for example, you argued with your friend, who is a part of the committee, and if suddenly the both of you don't want to talk to each other, it'll create this awkward tension that may affect everyone. So I think it's important to separate roles and to have open communications. If there's something you don't like, just voice out in a respectful manner."