Chairman’s Letter: January 2020

Dear Friends of Honour

Happy 2020! May the New Year bring you much fulfilment and satisfaction for you and your family in your many undertakings. May it bring you much happiness, good health, new opportunities and many possibilities! Thank you for your support and encouragement for standing with us over the last six years as we continue to promote a culture of Honour and Honouring for the well-being of Singapore.

This quarterly newsletter serves to provide you an update on our recent initiatives as well as to especially inform you of the Honour International Symposium 2020 for which we wish to invite your interest, your support and your participation, and of our new 1000 Friends of Honour outreach to seek 1000 regular donor supporters.

HONOUR INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: The Honour International Symposium is a biennial symposium that brings together leaders and future leaders in business, government, and community groups to discuss issues of honour and honouring for successful business, stable homes, and strong nations. The next Honour International Symposium (HIS 2020) will be held on 23-24 July 2020. Its theme will be “Honour for Sustainable Success”. We are currently working through the programme details and will provide updates as we go along. Speakers at the Honour International Symposium come from a variety of backgrounds and countries. They will share their thoughts and experiences on the effective practice of Honour in business, leadership, family, and life. Do look out for follow-on announcements, but block off your diaries now! You can be assured that HIS2020 will be exciting and practical for work and life! Our inaugural symposium was successfully organised in 2016 where we had the privilege of hearing Alibaba’s founder, Mr Jack Ma, share his thoughts on the virtue and criticality of Honour in his company via this video message.

Visit http://www.honourinternational.sg/ to learn more about the last symposium held in 2018.

LEADERS FORUMS: The Leaders Forum (previously known as the CEO Forum) is a regular forum that we organise to bring together leaders of organisations, big and small, to discuss how Honour would be critical for the long-term success of their organisations and how Honour (Singapore) could work alongside them. The two Leaders Forums in 2020 will be held on 5^th March and 3^rd September 2020. If you are in leadership or are a C-level Leader, and would like to attend one of these forums, please get in touch with me at LimSiongGuan@honour.sg to express your interest.

HONOUR CHAMPIONS COMMUNITY: On 5^th December, the Honour Champions Community organised a highly energising and engaging session on the topic ‘Honour, A Timeless Value’. Our two panelists, Ambassador Mohammad Alami Musa [Head of Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University Singapore], and Mr Lim Siong Guan [Founding Chairman, Honour (Singapore)], shared thoughts on why honour is critical and crucial for long-term survival and success of not just a nation, but also for organisations, families, communities their insights and and individuals. The most critical points are captured in the following two very colourful diagrams:

We welcome all who are prepared and convicted to lead as Honour Champions in their respective organisations and other spheres of influence. Please contact us so we can meet to discuss how your joining a Chapter of the Honour Champions Community can be beneficial for your success as leaders and influencers. Our belief is that the culture of Honour promoted through Honour Champions and Honour Ambassadors will not just be critical for Singapore’s continuing survival and success as a nation, but also critical for the survival and success of our businesses and families, and our effectiveness as leaders and workers for the future. Should you like to learn more about the Honour Champions Community, please join in the online discussion at https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheHonourChampionsCommunity/.

HONOUR FILM INITIATIVE: On 19^th October, we were invited to screen the Honour short films to some 500 students at Temasek Polytechnic’s LEAD from the Heart conference, which focused on service learning, servant leadership and community leadership. The films inspired students to reach out beyond themselves and to make a difference.

On 1^st November, in partnership with our founding film initiative partner Ngee Ann Polytechnic, we successfully organised Season 9 of the Honour Film Screening where we unveiled a brand new slate of short films to over 700 guests at the Capitol Theatre. The featured films from LaSalle College of the Arts and Ngee Ann Polytechnic honoured the stories of women as mothers, grandmothers and sisters, and as individuals in their own right.

We believe these short films on the theme of Honour and Honouring help bring about a gracious society where people look out and care for one another. You can easily access them on our website or Facebook page .If you or your organisation would be keen to support this film initiative by means of sponsorship or donations, please get in touch with us at admin@honour.sg. We also welcome sponsors for any specific Honour Films which may particularly appeal to you or your organisation.

HONOUR IN ACTION: Honour (Singapore) is working on a pilot programme we tentatively call HONOUR IN ACTION, where the practice of Honour, in its multiplicity of expressions, may become a natural part of the way we live and the way we are. If being a Gracious Society becomes a dominant characteristic of Singapore, we would be mining the “HIDDEN WEALTH OF SINGAPORE” where the quality of relationships among the people will enhance both economic growth as well as establish a social environment conducive to every child and every Singaporean developing their talents and abilities the best way possible. This idea is well described by David Halpern in his book “The Hidden Wealth of Nations” (Polity Press). Such a work of social transformation may well take a generation, which is why we need people with the vision, resilience, patience and conviction to come on the journey. If you are a school leader or education specialist and would like to participate in the pilot programme, please write me at LimSiongGuan@honour.sg to express your interest.

SPECIAL REPORT BY ST. HILDA’S SECONDARY SCHOOL: We are encouraged to learn that St. Hilda’s Secondary School has adopted the Honour message as an important part of life in the school. Here is a short report on how they have gone about the initiate. We hope that some of these ideas may be useful for schools who wish to do something similar.

“In conjunction with the 85^th anniversary of St. Hilda’s School, St. Hilda’s Secondary School adopted the school theme ‘Leading Self, Honouring Our Legacies’. Through the school theme, we wanted to honour the spirit of our founder, Archdeacon Graham White, who bought the land along Ceylon Road where the school was initially sited so that the children in the community can receive an education.

The school theme was distilled into four termly foci – Honour Our Word, Honour One Another, Honour Effort, Honour Excellence – and each termly focus was communicated to staff and students through the Principal’s assembly where the key message was delivered through modes such as skits, presentations and student panel.

In Term 1, the students made individual pledges and each class drafted their class pledges that were incorporated in their class noticeboard design. In Term 2, students wrote postcards to show their appreciation for their parents. In Term 3, classes designed their own appreciation boards that were presented to organisations in the public transport, uniformed services, social services and healthcare sectors. Finally, in Term 4, students wrote postcards to affirm their friends for demonstrating excellence in a particular area of their lives.

The school was very heartened that the organisations we reached out to in term 3 reciprocated by featuring our staff and students via social media, further amplifying the sense of goodwill through this initiative. By helping our students understand the virtue of honour and availing the platforms for them to honour the wider community, we have witnessed how our students have grown and developed as they learnt and experienced the importance of honour in our lives.”

HONOUR LEARNING JOUNREY: Since the introduction of our Honour Learning Journey in 2016, we have connected with over 20 schools reaching over 6,000 students and 150 educators. Through the highly participative facilitated sessions, the students were able to better understand the importance of Honour for success in work and life and gained practical insights on ways of living it out in their own lives. If you are an educator and you would like to explore the use of our films in values education, please get in touch with us at admin@honour.sg.

TALKS: I continue to speak about Honour, on an invitation-only basis, at schools, companies, and community groups. If you believe such a session could be a boost to the vision and morale of the people in your sphere of influence, do let me know at LimSiongGuan@honour.sg.

AUDITED ACCOUNTS: Finally, on an administrative note, we are glad to report to you of the annual audit of our accounts for the period of 1 June 2018 to 31 May 2019. The auditors have found them to be in good order. You may find a copy of their report here.

1000 FRIENDS OF HONOUR: As ideas mount and activities increase and more volunteers come forward, Honour (Singapore) is expanding its reach and its range of events and forums. Our needs in operating funds continue to increase, especially since we would like to continue, in the main, to conduct most of our events without charging. We would also like to minimise having to seek donations for each event, or to approach donors multiple times for their support. This way we will be able to concentrate our time and resources in promoting the culture of Honour for winning in work and life, and not get too distracted by fund-raising throughout the year.

I am writing to inform you that Honour (Singapore) has decided to take on the goal of creating a network of One Thousand Friends of Honour (Singapore) - regular supporters who are prepared to donate $1000 or more per year as individual donors, or $5000 or more per year as corporate donors. We very much look forward to you joining this Network of Friends. We would be enormously grateful if you could start making your donation during the New Year or Lunar New Year season of love, joy and sharing of blessings, but do feel free to start at any other time that will be comfortable for you. Donations to Honour (Singapore) qualify for IRAS tax deductibility as Honour (Singapore) is a charity that has been granted the status of an Institution of Public Character.

My thanks to all of you for your help, encouragement and interest over the years. I wish you and your family a blessed time of love, peace and joy for 2020!

Lim Siong Guan
Founding Chairman
Honour (Singapore)