Pam Hu, Director, E-lifestyle Marketing, IDA Singapore - Speech E-Ambassador First Anniversary Workshop, Carlton Hotel ...
Pam Hu, Director, E-lifestyle Marketing, IDA Singapore - Speech
E-Ambassador First Anniversary Workshop, Carlton Hotel
Singapore, 8 September 2001
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Welcome to the e-Ambassador 1st Anniversary Workshop specially organised for you., our dedicated and hardworking volunteers.
In June, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong shared the concept of building an e-inclusive society in Singapore, where everyone has equal access to Infocomm technology regardless of age, language, social background or ability. In this e-inclusive society, everyone has a part to play in helping others discover their potential through acquiring Infocomm skills and knowledge.
IDA is pleased that we have you as our chosen the rightpartners in this our mission to help every Singaporean get e-included. As volunteerism takes on a different new dimension in this Information Age, we see a special role for you as e-Ambassadors in our society. You are the catalyst who inspires and empowers fellow Singaporeans to embrace an e-lifestyle.
"Empowering People Through e-Volunteerism" is our new theme and we invite you to embrace this new theme with us as we move forward.
Goals and Achievements
Over the past 12 months, we have built a core team of e-Ambassadors and Lead Agencies. I am heartened to see many familiar faces here today.
Some of you are pioneers and many are champions within your own community, contributing your time and making personal sacrifices to support the e-Ambassador programme. Your commitment has indeed contributed to the success of this nation-wide e-volunteerism programme.
I am pleased to announce that within the short span of one year, the number of e-Ambassadors has increased almost four-fold from 200 to 800. Our Lead Agencies have almost doubled from 10 to 19.
During the month-long e-Celebrations Singapore campaign in March, our e-Ambassadors were deployed nation-wide to support the 110 events. Not only have you contributed to the astounding success of the campaign, you have also touched many people by helping them see how an e-lifestyle can improve their quality of life.
Today, we will take this opportunity to welcome People's Association as a supporting organisation and the nine new Lead Agencies. They are: Ang Mo Kio CDC, Bukit Timah CDC, Northeast CDC, Sembawang-Hong Kah CDC, MINDS, PERTAPIS, Creative Voluntary Group, CRON Computer School and COMAT Training Services Pte Ltd.
In particular, I would like to highlight MINDS and PERTAPIS to demonstrate how our Lead Agencies are reaching out to different communities in different ways.
MINDS caters to students with special needs. It recognises the importance of getting their students to embrace Infocomm technology. In fact, MINDS is in partnership with IDA in driving SPED.com, an IDA initiative to network computer resource centres. However, to have a successful programme, MINDS saw the need to implant "heartware" - the people element in the programme. So they invited ITE students and IT professionals to become volunteers at their school to share their Infocomm knowledge. at the school. By volunteering their time and skills, these e-Ambassadors have helped the intellectually disabled to use technology to enhance their learning and employment opportunities and lead an independent life.
Similarly at PERTAPIS, they saw the need to equip the residents with Infocomm skills. The e-Ambassadors at PERTAPIS were committed enough to take it one step further to see how their newly-acquired skills will benefit not just the residents, but their friends and families. These e-Ambassadors have been helping their friends and family embrace technology. This helps to enhance their self-esteem and improve their employability.
MINDS and PERTAPIS are good role models of innovative lead agencies that have gone that extra mile to spread the benefits of Infocomm technology in their communities. We encourage all our partners to constantly explore new dimensions in which the impact and outreach of the e-Ambassador programme can be optimised.
Looking ahead, we are targeting to recruit 800 volunteers every year to become e-Ambassadors. As we celebrate our first anniversary, it is also a timely for us to reflect on our achievements and to identify the challenges ahead.
Challenges
As Lead Agencies, one of your challenges is to constantly seek solutions to effectively manage your e-Ambassadors as your programme expands.
In June, IDA piloted a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for the e-Ambassador programme. Adopting CRM is a good business practice. It is a strategic tool that helps you monitor, evaluate and review the effectiveness of your volunteer programmes. You can use this CRM system to recruit, plan training programmes and deploy your volunteers more effectively.
As an e-Ambassador, it is important for you to understand your role and responsibilities.
We believe today's workshop will provide a platform for all of you to exchange ideas, share experiences and learn from one another. Also, to understand how you can inspire and help your communities embrace an e-lifestyle. By the end of this workshop, you would have co-created an action plan that is relevant to your mission as volunteers in the new economy.
Recognition
For the first time, we are presenting two categories of awards - the Outstanding Lead Agency Award and Outstanding e-Ambassador Award. The award winners are our role models. Beyond making significant contributions to the success of the e-Ambassador programme, they have also demonstrated exemplary leadership and commitment beyond the call-of-duty. We hope such awards will motivate the Lead Agencies to be best-in-class volunteer coordinators. We also hope to inspire our e-Ambassadors to be champions in their own cause in "Empowering People Through e-Volunteerism".
Conclusion
Before I conclude, I would like to thank each and every one of you again for your full commitment and support for the e-Ambassador programme.
We look forward to working closely with you to drive e-volunteerism to greater heights. With your enthusiastic participation, we believe you can touch the lives of many Singaporeans, to help them discover their potential by embracing Infocomm technology.
I wish you all a fruitful exchange at today's workshop. And if any of you have suggestions on how to make the e-Ambassador programme even more effective or relevant to the community, we will be happy to hear from you.
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