question answered

" To you as an individual drawing a few smiley faces or writing names or
stuff on the poles may be nothing much, since we have 100s of poles
and a couple of faces here and there is nothing serious. True enough,
that is not the problem. What is the problem is that being ventures if
we don't take you to task over this the SU will see it as a precedent
and then do the same.

If each person drew 5 smileys, every year, before long all our poles
would be filled with smileys. We put in the effort to sort the poles,
bundle them by height, store them in a pole shed, separate the
coloured poles to make our poles look presentable for competitions,
and to keep them well-maintained. The poles are group property, the
jobweek money from past generations of scouts, as well as your own,
and your juniors all go into the buying of poles and their
maintenance. By drawing on the pole you are effectively labelling it
yours, when all you do is own a share of it. Its the same reason why
the school does not permit you to draw on walls even if drawing on the
walls does not retard the function of the wall.

The reason why we need you guys to set the example is simple. Look at
the den for the past few months before we've moved. If you've noticed,
the sofas were full of bags such that people couldn't sit on them. It
just started with one person placing his bag there, nobody saying
anything, so the next person did the same, and the next, and so on."

" On a final note, as to the pole management session the GC was really
quite happy about the effort you guys put in, and how you helped the
SU with their tasks. It was commendable the way most of you looked
around to see what could be done and took the initiative to do it when
there was sufficient manpower at the painting station. It is really
unfortunate that that one incident marred the whole good image we
received. I genuinely felt that on the whole your actions were
praiseworthy, but it only takes just one event to tarnish reputation
that is painstakingly built up."

My training leader has sent a mail to the entire batch when I feel it should just be directed towards me. Jonathan doesn't have internet access. Well, that just further reinforces my point about making me feel guilty. But hell yeah, it's the right move to make. Come to think of it, this has been the policy the people up there have been abiding by when dishing out punishments for the past few years.

I feel so sorry towards my batch who have painstakingly built up such a solid reputation with their 5 hours of hard work in the sun. I alone tarnished it. This email is great, for now I have more things to reflect upon. Kudos to Yanzhi.

No really, I am going to carry out my resolution. 4K for joy, 4K for joy. It's only that few hours per week. I can get past it, I know I can.