Category: MV President messages

For the period January 2023 – March 2023

It has been a busy start to the year – firstly, in January, with our MV Breakfast Party and, with the introduction of new Muzium Negara curators, Puan Shenna and Cik Aesya. MVs are also supported by Cik Prema, Assistant Curator BKK (Corporate Communications) JMM, who came into her new role early this year. Monthly focus talks resumed in February and the MV research team met physically for the first time post pandemic in the same month.

MV guiding and mentoring are currently ongoing. So far, we are happy to welcome 13 new MVs to the team. VIP tours this quarter were led by MVs Ee Lin, Alfred and Li Ling. In addition, our focus speaker Mr. Yap Keam Min was impressed by MV Emna’s first public tour of Muzium Negara.

The Kelantan Art and Culture festival at Muzium Negara was well-attended. MVs were made to feel very welcome. It was also a celebration of diversity since the event was JMM’s first under the Ministry of National Unity. We look forward to participating in similar events at the museum.

On March 6, the MV Committee organized an appreciation lunch for Jega and May, both of whom were long-standing committee members and who are now regular MVs. On behalf of MVs, we treated them to a delicious Korean meal and fancy chocolates. These are just tokens of appreciation for their many contributions over the years. Once again, thank you Jega and May!

Recently, MV Executive Secretary, Poh Leng had the pleasure of sharing our experience as a voluntary organization with 4 representatives from PNB Merdeka Ventures. Stadium Merdeka and Stadium Negara heritage sites under their management are about to reopen their doors to the public after extensive renovation. We are happy for these sites to benefit from our own experience with the public. These sharing sessions indicate that MVs have a reputation for providing quality service.

MVs, we are gearing up for an exciting 2023. This year marks the 60th anniversary of Muzium Negara. We are honored to play a part in sharing Malaysia’s landmark with the public. Together and with the support of JMM, we aim to improve our service further. Here’s to a productive year!

Welcome to our new MVs!

1. Emna Esseghir
2. Swee Fun @ Lobsang Wong
3. Lai Yin Tze
4. Noor Hazera Sohri
5. Freida Mohd. Pilus (Dato’)
6. Tee Mei Ling, Diana
7. Wong Yun Teng
8. Martina Ziesse
9. Kim Mijeoung (Alice)
10. Kulwant Kaur a/p Tara Singh
11. Subramaniam AV Shankar
12. Yeo Suyin
13. Rueben Daniel

Dear volunteers,

This year has gone by so quickly, it is hard to belief that we are at the end of 2014 already. It has been another eventful year for our volunteer group. A record number of 72 new trainees joined our training program this year with 11 course leaders supervising.  Afiq from Unit Latihan did a commendable job of arranging for the guest speakers. I am sure many will agree that the most interesting lecture was the talk given by Professor Nordin from UKM on the Golden Age of Melaka. For Focus, we visited Tun Razak Memorial and the underground tin mine at Sungai Lembing, which was very interesting and educational. Similarly, our Japanese and French groups were also active with their Focus activities. And what could have been a more fitting end to the year but with a party at the palace, Halloween themed!

However, our committee saw a few changes this year. Ashok Sheth had to step down from his secretarial position due to work commitments. Our new secretary is Leng Wai Mun, who recently completed his training course at the beginning of 2014. Hayley Holle, who has served 3 years as course leader, also had to step down due to a new job. We thank Ashok and Hayley for their years of service and wish them the best of luck. On the JMM side, the new head of the Corporate Communications Department, which our MV group is under, is Puan Zuriana Zanziba.

I wish to thank all of our committee members for their commitment and contributions, without which we will not be able to function efficiently and effectively (committee members and their positions are listed on our mv blog). Last but not least, a Big Thank You to all of you, our volunteers for your continued monthly support. The feed back from visitors are encouraging. Keep up the good work!

Happy holidays and wishing all a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Karen Loh

by Karen Loh

Achievements! Achievements! Achievements! Let’s look back on 2013 and the milestones we have achieved, the accomplishments and changes which took place in our MV group the past year. First of all, I am very excited about the museum volunteer Coffee Table book which we have been talking about compiling the past two years and finally kick-started again, by Magan. Thank you to all of who have contributed their articles to the book and to our great team of editors; Magan, Rose, Hani, Hayley, Pam and our very talented in-house designer, Mariana. We will keep you posted of the date, the book will be ready.

The school program team hosted 2 important school visits this year amongst other schools. We had for the first time, a visit by children from a Down Syndrome School and children from a Chin refugee centre. Many thanks to Cay, who has untiringly led the school program team for the last 3 years. She is however exhausted from it all and asks for another courageous mv to replace her. Please email me if you like children and have plenty of educational ideas and energy!

The wait was finally over in May for JMM’s brand new bus and we were lucky to be one of the first groups to take the bus to Ipoh, Batu Gajah and Kampar. Do sign up for our next trip to Melaka in January (15 & 18) 2014. Our Focus team also organized our first movie screening at the Discovery Room in July. Though the title “Queen of Lankasuka” did sound a little melodramatic, the movie turned out to be very interesting. We hope to screen more movies (with a historical reference) in 2014 and welcome any suggestions.

Last but not least, the “Bunka No Hi” themed Anniversary dinner was a success. 73 people attended the event for a night of delicious Kristang food. There were many interesting performances demonstrated by our volunteers and it was an enjoyable night. Kudos to Cze Yan for her ingenuity. What will she come up with next? Also, many thanks to Erina and the many Japanese volunteers who joined us for the first time this year and shared their culture. Our slogan was decided by vote that night and the winning slogan went to Stuart for his catchy line “take the Mystery out of History”.

For 2014, I hope that the problems we have had with the guiding schedule and guide absentees will be solved. Many thanks to Fiza, who is juggling both weekend and weekday rotas. Please do give her your full cooperation. Susan and Lena will also be promoting our guided tours though travel websites and by sending leaflets to major hotels in the Klang Valley.

I look forward to a great year of the Wood Horse. Happy New Year & Happy Guiding!

Best wishes,
Karen

Karen Loh                                                                                                                                 President, Museum Volunteers, JMM

As 2012 draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your time, contribution and volunteer work this year. Besides guiding, it was a year full of activities and events. We began the year with a New Year potluck get-together in January, followed over the year by talks by Najib Arrifin, Rosey Ma, Dennis de Witt, Dr Farid, Jim Baker, the Magis Exhibition guided tour, Kampung Baru walking tour, trips to Ipoh, Batu Gajah and Melaka. And I am sure many will not forget our Odissi Anniversary dinner event at the Olive Tree recently. Thank you so much to our Focus Team; Kokkie, Stuart, Mariana and Cze Yan for organising these events. Our Book Club kick started this year with around 15 people who meet once a month. Led by Zahara and Reiko, the book selections with an Asian theme have not been disappointing. The book club is open to all volunteers who wish to join. Our MV blog has also been revived recently and constantly updated by Magan. If you wish to contribute to the blog, do forward your article/write-up to Magan.

From 20, we currently have 180 members in our volunteer group today. A warm welcome to our new 52 volunteers in Batches 16, 17& 18 who are currently in training. I look forward to your guided tours in English, Japanese, French, Mandarin and Bahasa Melayu next year. Our School Program Team had their hands full with 13 school visits and for the first time, visits by home-schooled children and hearing-impaired children from SK Pendidikan Khas (special education school) to the museum. Much thanks to Cay and her team, Ms Kiew and the museum education department for organising these visits

I hope next year will be just as busy and eventful. Happy guiding, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Here is the line up of our new MV committee, who will take “office” at the start of March 2011 for a two-year term. The MV committee is chosen through a nomination and discussion process that is run by the old committee. You will remember that the MV committee called for nominations back in October 2010, and is delighted to have this line up of existing and new members on the MV committee.

MV Committee 2011

• President                   Karen Loh (Batch 2)
• Vice President          Laurence Maille (Batch 10)
• Secretary                    Stuart Wakefield (Batch 10)
• Treasurer                    Kon Cze Yan (Batch 3)
• Training
• Angela Naylor (Batch 1) – Textile Muzium
• Cindy Bell (Batch 10) – Muzium Negara (weekday)
• Jo Thesiger (Batch 10)  – Muzium Negara (weekday)
• Susan Haveman (Batch 10) – Muzium Negara (weekday)
• Kon Cze Yan (Batch 3) – Muzium Negara (weekend)
• Publicity                    Lorien Holland (Batch 2) & Chris Lee (Batch 10)
• Schools                      Cay Maru (Batch 2)  & Karen Loh (Batch 2)
• Library                       Chrissy Lioe (Batch 2) & Zahara Shahriman (Batch 1)
• French Liaison        Elisabeth Clouzeau (Batch 6)
• Japanese Liaison    Ayako Ohno (Batch 8)
• Focus                           Kokkie Pauuw (Batch 2)

ANY QUERIES OR ISSUES, EMAIL OUR PRESIDENT at karenllc @ yahoo.com  OR OUR GENERAL QUERIES at mvmqueries @ yahoo.com

(when you type in the email address, you need to take out the spaces on each side of the @, which are there to stop spam)

 

Happy MVM-ing!

Dear Volunteers,

As the year 2010 draws to a close it is natural to reflect on what we have all achieved over the past twelve months, and this year has seen many changes.

The Jabatan Muzium kindly provided us a spacious new office to work in, with administrative assistance and secretariat headed by Jamil, who has been of great help to us.  The Museum Negara training programmes continue to attract record numbers of trainee volunteers and in addition, we have started a new training programme at theTextile Museum .Our guiding schedule has expanded and we are creating good publicity material for museum visitors, both young and old. In particular, we now have an excellent French language “Guide de Poche” or “Pocket Guide” of the main four galleries which has been translated into English and will soon be translated into many more languages

Next year will see further changes as I will be stepping down as President at the end of my term in April and I am delighted to announce that Karen Loh has agreed to take over the position.

Karen has been a very active museum volunteer for the past 3 years, guiding, running the schools programme and contributing to the weekend training as well. I am sure she will be a great asset and a wonderful president for the Museum Volunteers.

To build for our future, we are in the process of reviewing and restructuring the training programme for 2011. Zahara and Karen are spearheading the children’s sling bag project, with artistic help from Weronka and Nurul and hopefully corporate sponsors to help finance the project. Please do remember that our Museum Volunteers is what we make of it and each of us has much we can contribute.

I would like to wish everyone best wishes for the Christmas festivities and the coming New Year.

Best wishes, Chrissy

Please click here to see the May edition of MVM Voices. Lots going on!

MVM Voices May 2010

Dear MVMers,

Congratulations to all our graduates of 2010, and welcome to the guiding programme. The MVM Committee is already gearing up for our new intake of trainees in September.  Weekday training will begin on Tuesday 14^th September and weekend training will commence on Saturday 18^th September. A recruitment Coffee Morning will be hosted by the MVM in our new offices at the  National Museums Department on Thursday June 16^th at 10.00am.  Please encourage your friends and colleagues to attend there will be plenty of volunteers on hand to explain what the MVM does, as well as giving details about the training programme and answering any questions or concerns.

As you know, in February we expanded our weekday tours to 4 days a week in English and 2 days a week in French, and one weekday in Japanese. We continue to provide weekend tours. In addition, there are Malay and Mandarin tours during the school holidays and one Saturday a month a Japanese guided tour is conducted.  From September we plan to expand the English guided tours to 6 days a week, which means Monday through Saturday, as our great new graduates have provided the numbers to boost the programme.

In May the MVM moved its office and library from Muzium Negara to the National Museums Department, which is the parent body for the museum. The actual location is up the glass elevator that you see as you walk towards our old office in Muzium Negara. Our new offices are very spacious, light, air conditioned and there is plenty of room for the books and all our schools programme equipment.  There is adequate seating and a good size table for meetings. The new room is next door to the Secretariat which has been set up by the Department of Museums. It is run by Jamil with the help of Fiza, Visa, and Maisaraf  to help the MVM with its administrative needs. Please do drop by, take a look and introduce yourselves to the folks at the Secretariat. We are still in the process of sorting out various projects such as new ID Cards, guide vests, publicity material and events but we will keep you up-to-date through the newsletter and the Yahoo site.

On Monday 24^th May we have arranged a meeting at the Dataran at 10.00am so that the volunteers can meet and talk to Datuk Ibrahim bin Ismail, the Director General of the National Museums Department.  I know he is looking forward to the event and hope to see as many of you as possible.

This time of year is always a little sad as we have to say goodbye to our volunteers who will be leaving Malaysia over the next few months.  We are planning a ‘Farewell Lunch’ to which everyone is invited on Thursday 24^th June. I will send out further details nearer the time, but please put the date in your diaries.

I look forward to seeing you all very soon at the events we have planned.  As always if you have any comments or ideas please email us.

Chrissy Lioe

MVM President

Here is our second newsletter

MVM Newsletter 2, February 2009