Aduro - A New Beginning
Day 2, Alternate Fright Night

The freshies came home at about 5pm, where we gave them a short break from 5pm-8pm. Some might think this break broke the momentum. I guess they should have some rest after a day of serious activity, running all over the place, etc.

I prepared the plans for the alternate fright night (AFN) activities from 3pm-7pm. AFN activities were directed at giving the freshies that were not in FN (at any moment, we had about 48 freshies not involved in FN, compared to 4 who are in FN).

It was, i must say, a true experiment. AFN activities included talentime planning, secret pal and a night boardwalk - instead of simply giving 6 hours to plan for talentime, which i thought was rather boring. The schedule was as follows:

8pm-10pm: Talentime planning
10pm-11:00pm: Secret Pal
10:20pm-11:20pm: Boardwalk
Fright Night ran concurrently with all these.

Since secret pal (SP) was integrated into the programme, I had to make sure that during the slot for SP, both SPs were there. No choice but to work out a schedule for FN that was labelled as rigid - i had slotted people according to batches, and the slotting could not be readily changed.

We didn't run FN OG by OG either; not fair to any OG. Instead we picked one person from each OG and formed a group. Good chance for them to interact and know each other as well.

It didn't really work out; we had some last-minute substitutions of seniors as some freshies pulled out; proved to be a headache. Some freshies wanted to change with their OG mates so that they can be together with their friends from another OG. Some wanted to go again.

But in the end.. i think it was good. SP was an idea borrowed (as i would say, cut and pasted) from Sheares Hall Exposure Camp 2005, and it was a good idea. It was an experiment here, but the campers loved it according to feedback. Talking to your SP in some unknown territory, blindfolded, for about 15-20 minutes. Fun? Thrilling? Boring? Lame?

One thing was that SP meeting, i had allocated too little time (20min - each session dragged for at least 30-40 min) and i didn't take into account travelling time. Manpower wasn't enough and decided also. I have to thank alvin for managing the Secret Pal thingy, and his wonderful crew for leading them around.

Secret Pal Meeting: 6/10

Next was boardwalk. This item was poorly planned, and not executed the way i wanted it to. The boardwalk was a collection of wooden boards near the Changi Beach where the Yacht Club was. The plan was to blindfold them (anyway they are already blindfolded from their SP meeting), lead them to the boardwalk which was about 10m away, and then let them through in single file.

Every member was to feel this string (an orange comskote) that was tied around the boardwalk and feel their way around guided by the string. The original plan was to have actors scaring them along the way, like stomping boots and people barking Japanese ("Japanese soldiers"), people saying "No! don't kill me" or something like that ("victims"). If it was executed well, i think the freshies could perhaps emphazise with that turbulent period of time about 60 years ago. The plan was to have them travel across a "time tunnel" or something back to 1942 but i was thinking that is quite lame.

Anyway, execution of plan wasn't anything like that at all. They simply led the freshies like a trust walk, along every step!!!! There was no scaring at all. Argh. I think i didn't explain quite carefully during the briefing.
It was so crowded there too, that the freshies were actually one big cluster of people walking aimlessly. Wrong place to do a boardwalk, in fact.
I don't know what the freshies think about this, some thought what the hell are these people blindfolding us and leading us here and there.

Boardwalk: 4/10

In the end, AFN took so long that FN was delayed. I didn't take into account travelling time, or that people will be walking damn slow. Neither did i plan the route from which they will travel, no holding points, or at which point, they will be blindfolded.

If i did, AFN could have been a good FN by itself. Imagine being blindfolded for 40-50 minutes and hearing voices around you - some you might not recognise.