INNOVATIVE PROJECTS

National Service Exhibition

In conjunction with the National Service program that was launched by the Malaysia’s Ministry of Defense since the year 2003, the Leo Club of K. L. Perennial (Omega) has organized a National Service (NS) Exhibition in the largest mall in the country, One Utama Shopping Complex, from 7th to 8th December 2004.
 
The exhibition was organized from 10 AM to 10 PM for both days, with the objective to create awareness among the public on the actual purposes, programs & modules, equipments, facilities and other details on the NS Program. The target groups of beneficiary are the youth who aged from 16-18 who has been/will be selected to participate in the National Service Program, their parents, their peers as well as other general public out there who are having misconceptions towards the program.
 
The exhibition exhibited photographs, detailed information and various posters on the different modules of the NS program on the exhibition panel. There was a presentation of video which was taken in one of the few NS camps last year too. The official uniforms, sportswear, boots and other clothing’s which are used by the NS trainee were also displayed on the Uniforms counter. Besides, the main enquiry counter also provided Question & Answer service to the public conducted by the representative from Ministry of Defense. The youth can also checked out at the enquiry counter if they were selected for the program as well as their designated camps and intake.
 
The former trainers and trainees of the NS Program were also invited to the exhibition to conduct their own experiences sharing session to the visitors.
 
The members from Leo Club of K. L. Perennial spent great effort in completing the above project. The entire progress of organizing basically consists of:-
 
1) Planning & Liaison – The Leos initially contacted, liaised and finalized the project with the One Utama Shopping Complex Management as well as the Ministry of Defense. The Leos also drafted out the program for the 2 days of exhibition, floor plan, decoration & design, duty rosters, as well as other necessary materials in this stage.
 
2) Publicity – The Leos started to publicize on the exhibition a month before the event. Various posters, flyers and handouts were given out to the public. Special circulars were distributed to all the tenants in One Utama Shopping Complex. Announcements on the exhibition were also published on the local newspaper (The Star) and radio channels (HitzFM, Light & Easy and all other English Radio channels).

Screenshots of the announcements on newspaper and radio for the NS Exhibition.

3) Preparation before event – The Leos took the previous night as well as the morning before the event to construct the setting up of all exhibition items including panel boards, video, decorations, counters and other necessary items.
 
4) Throughout the project – The Leos were divided in groups assigned to different shifts in order to ensure there were coordinators at the exhibition at all time. While the Leos on shift will basically be in charged of coordinating and overlooking the exhibition, taking care of all the exhibition items, assisting the Defense Ministry representative in the Q & A session, the checking of selected trainees’ names, as well as being facilitators to the public who presented at the exhibition by introducing and explaining details of the items and information exhibited.

Throughout the 2 days of the projects, there were more than 300 public who visited the exhibition and based on the written record, there were 163 of them who actually sent in official enquiries at the main counter. And that was not all, the local television broadcaster; RTM1 also conducted an interview session at the exhibition in order to insert them into part of the local television program ‘Malaysia 2020’. Detailed write outs on the project have also been sent to 2 local newspaper publishers (News Strait Times & The Sun) and scheduled to be published on the newspapers by end of December. Besides, this project also has been reported as a Successful Project to the Lions Club International Youth Department through the LEO-SPA form.

This project has not only being organized on a major scale, but also managed to reach out a large group of community in just 2 days. The result was really impressive in terms of the visitors presented at the exhibition, number of written enquiries, comments from the public or even the press media who participated.

By organizing this meaningful exhibition, it does not only brings awareness on the National Service program to the public, but also indirectly creating a correct mindset which will make them to have more faith towards the program and eventually be more supportive and encouraging to the selected trainees around them. The Leos also believed these will eventually upshot the future NS programs that will be organized in time to come to be more successful.