Dear 2020-2021 Love House Cap,

A familiar voice spoke through the phone, an unexpected call.

At last…you thought.
There was only one question, and one you have anticipated. With your heart pounding…a million thoughts
flashed through your mind, a million possibilities. A gush of joy took over you and you couldn ’t help
but smile, because you knew full well that you deserved it…

Or…you were more like----

A familiar voice spoke through the phone, an unexpected call.

WHAT? ME??? Why on earth would he pick----
You couldn’t believe what was happening, and for a second, you seemed to have lost your train of
thought. You tried to picture yourself in this role, but failed, it seemed out of reach, and you would
honestly rather stand in the side lines cheering other people on.

But either way… you mustered up the courage and uttered the 3-letter word ‘yes’ in the end…and there,
marked the beginning of your journey…

(Forgive me for the change of tone but I don’t think it would be practical to continue this letter as
if I was writing some kind of short story so…)

Although I don’t know who you are as I am writing this, I would really appreciate it if you read
the following, you can ignore it afterwards of course , but still… if I can help you in any way
possible, this will all be worth it ;)

I am writing this because I would have wanted someone to give me a heads up before I started
taking up this role. And believe me, the captain before me hardly told me anything or
communicated with us at all, which…left me completely clueless and took me quite a while to
figure things out. And I hope my experience as a committee since g8 till the year that I was
captain can make it easier for you. Below is some history of Love house I thought you may like
to know.
(and attached are some practical documents, love house google drive..etc) I have the tendency to
write a lot so please don’t be alarmed by how long this thing is haha.

AND of course, I am not speaking for all captains before me and the following is merely my
opinion so if it’s okay, to protect the people I will be mentioning below, don’t share this publicly.
Being a captain is bloody hard. The pressure is real, and there will be days you wonder why you
even agreed to be captain. But it is also incredibly rewarding if you get it right.

I remember the summer holiday before g11, I was worrying so much about every little detail
with leading love house, the amount of self-doubt and stress is unreal—-so if you are feeling like
that as well, know that it’s completely normal and that you are not the only one haha, the other 3
captains of the other houses are probably doing the same 😂 I have complete faith in you, so
don’t panic too much because chances are, you must have proven yourself worthy enough to be
offered this post in the first place lol.

So first and foremost, what I have learnt from captains before me and my own experience—-
Take care of yourself first, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Although it may sound selfish, this is actually very important.

okay, story timeee

So when I was in g9, the love house captain that year, unfortunately, had 7 detentions because he
didn’t hand in his homework and guess what….he got suspended from his role as captain even
before the very first house competition… it was in September btw, and you can imagine all our
committees’ reactions to that. Anyway, not cool at all.

But those behavioural problems are still manageable, what’s more concerning is around October,
our captain was diagnosed with severe depression, and our vice captain had to temporary act as
captain while he recovered. Though I can’t say if house was indeed the main reason why he had
what he had, I am sure it played a vital role.
The issue about mental illnesses is actually not as uncommon as you’d think , and I’m not saying
that captains are more inclined to having it (it is not THAT serious I don’t want to scare you), but
it does demonstrate the consequences of not dealing with all the stress and pressure sensibly.

Try not to let everything that happens to the house affect your emotions. I was especially bad at
this because every time something unfortunate happened to love house it felt like a personal
attack to me and that it was my fault that it happened. But MOST OF THE TIME IT ISN’T so
please don’t blame it on yourself. I know you care very much and you want everything to go
smoothly, but…the truth is life sucks and reality is often disappointing, something will go wrong
at some point.
So do take care of yourself first before you proceed to lead the whole house, and if something is
wrong, don’t keep it to yourself, FIND SOMEONE AND FIGURE IT OUT, don’t bottle
everything up. Talking to the other 3 captains is actually a really good place to start because
TRUST ME, THEY ARE TRULY THE ONES WHO UNDERSTAND. Not your vice captain,
not your best friends. Those 3 are not your rivals or enemies, they will prove to be the best
people to confide in I promise. Well it may not be applicable as much if you are a boy but still…
you know what I mean.

The same can be said for house teachers. I am not sure who your house teachers are now but
back when I was a committee, there were multiple times I felt really bad for our house teachers,
because…at least the one I know the best, he BLAMES EVERYTHING ON HIMSELF EVEN
WHEN NONE OF IT IS HIS FAULT and the incident with the captain I mentioned above was
also a reason why he left and didn’t continue being a house teacher.

I remember him asking me if we would be okay without him coaching us and I asked him to take
a break because we all know how tired he was after dealing with all these issues. He sent us a
foot long passage explaining why he left and it was…very heartbreaking aiiii….So…protect
your house teachers at all cost, people can be more fragile than you think. They are just as
exhausted as you are…I would say the first quality you must possess as a captain is to be able to
take care of people. Including yourself.

Speaking of why our house teacher resigned,

I will just be blunt, our school’s policy….is…pretty inconsiderate towards the four houses. And
it should come as no surprise if you have been in ICQM long enough to realise that.

What I have found after observing our ‘judges’ for house competitions, ICQM doesn’t care about
ACTUAL QUALITY they only care about the WOW FACTOR. Note that down, please.
I will take house drama as an example. What is the purpose of having a programme book for a 15
min play…to be honest…it’s so unnecessary and cherry-on-top. I remember rolling my eyes
when joy house did it the first year. REALLY. But it impressed the judges didn’t it? THE FIRST
IMPRESSION IS SO IMPORTANT. So the purpose of it was—-you can answer it. What is the
purpose of playing the CLARINET during cheerleading dance , ON THE RUNNING TRACK
(Joy house in 2018) ??? SEE THE WOW FACTOR?

Sometimes it’s very ridiculous but you got to play by their rules. So guess what we did during
house drama 2019, we made sure it was as extra as possible 😂 BUT it was indeed the best
experience ever when everyone is willing to work as hard as you and bring that seemingly
impossible vision to life. It is sooooo rewarding.

And it also proves that your housemates mirror your attitude towards the house. If you take it
seriously and if you are enthusiastic about making it an event worth remembering, they will put
in the effort. And you will be surprised by how nice and talented everyone is once you let them
participate. So bad policy or what, as long as you have fun, the people you share the memory
with is what makes the whole experience worth it, not the judges’ perception of your work. The
placing…speaks SO LITTLE and the joy of winning can hardly compare to the joy you get when
you and your team have fun DURING the progress. My dear captain, please do not only care
about the marks and the placing, they are important of course, but haha the experience is so
much more important. I can say that now because I would have given anything to have my last
sports day back, or the chance to shout on top of my lungs cheering for my house!!! But it’s no
use mourning over what could have been so you better seize your chance and opportunity!!! You
owe me that at least. :P

The next thing I want to talk about is—-

COMMUNICATION IS KEY.
Prepare to be the only one speaking in your WhatsApp committees group. -_- and prepare to be
annoyed by all the blue ticks when people don’t respond -_-
Committees are usually extremely shy and no one would answer or offer their opinion UNLESS
you direct message them. Or tag them in your WhatsApp messages.
And I seriously understand because I WAS THE ONES WHO NEVER RESPOND BACK
WHEN I WAS A COMMITTEE. My reason would always be ‘ I don’t have enough authority,
who am I to interrupt the conversation’ OR I just didn’t care 😂

Well, it is your responsibility to make the group a comfortable place for your committees to
voice their opinions. Very hard I know. You may want to start by private messaging them and
asking them for opinions. And it’s also good that way because they would feel involved.
From my past experience, most of the committees feel neglected. Especially committees in lower
form.
And I understand because when I was in g11, it’s my tendency to find my g11 friends to help out
on house tasks because I know and trust them more than I do with the committee newbies. So
what happens is, your committees would never have a chance to help out, even if they are
extremely talented, they never get the chance to showcase their abilities, and you lose the gem.
Asking g11s for help is not entirely wrong BUT be careful not to be overboard so the below
happens——

Story timeee
Back when I was in g8, my first year as a committee, the case that year was pretty extreme. Even
our two vice captains felt neglected that year because our captain planned everything (house
comps, cheerleading…etc) with only her g11 friends.
There was no communication between committees at all and no one knew what was happening.
And when committees don’t have a sense of belonging…you can tell how enthusiastic they
would be in participating. But most of the time it wasn’t because they didn’t want to help, it was
because they were never asked to. Things went downhill pretty fast. The trigger point was, after
sports day, our captain posted a public instagram post of herself and her g11 gang and captioned
‘you guys are the REAL committees’, with no mention of the actual house committees.
That pissed off all of our committees, even our house teachers.
So even though we did end up getting overall champion that year, none of our committees were
happy. At least not as happy as we would have been if we had won it as a team, not just captain
winning with her g11 friends.

Please never ever ignore your committees. They are usually eager to help, but only if you ask
them to. Try to show your committees appreciation, I ended up writing Christmas cards to all of
my committees in g11 😂 if you received one…please tell me if it helped at all haha.
Actually, if you want to know more about the incidents mentioned above, you can check out
ChiChi’s (@wonghangchi) post on instagram back in March 2019 about sports day. You can
actually know a lot if you pay attention to people’s posts, but that is, if you are the kind of person
who likes to investigate 😂

Next thing I want to address is…be humble.

To be honest, Captain is merely…a title. It means absolutely nothing. If anything, being a
captain means you have to put in twice the effort and take half of the credit. Sometimes you
would feel as if you are the only person who cares about the house, the frustration that comes
with people bailing out of competitions last minute, forgetting to do this do that… you will
eventually have to be on your knees begging people to join competitions even though you owe
them nothing. (or at least from past experiences this happens a lot 😂 )

But if people are very participative in your year, you are VERY fortunate. But they are usually
not. To be a captain is to be the first to serve. The first to attend rehearsals and the last to leave. It
is to sacrifice what is yours to save what is theirs and never sacrifice what is theirs to save what
is yours. If that makes sense.

And nope, you cannot do everything on your own. No matter how capable you are, you cannot
survive this year if you depend on yourself. You don’t have to, and shouldn’t, carry this burden
alone.
AND one of the most important things is to…
Put God first. Above all else. And everything else will fall into place.
I AM SERIOUS, okay I can sense you rolling your eyes now but I promise ICQM did NOT
sponsor me 😂
PRAY. PRAY. PRAY. ALWAYS. It is for sure the most important thing to do. Prayers work
miracles. And read the bible, do devotional, remember you need God on your best days as much
as you do on your worst. I can’t begin to tell you how many times my devotional was completely
relevant to my current situation, and how many times I got the best advice from surrendering to
God.
Victory comes from surrender.
If you ever feel helpless, frustrated, exhausted…etc, lay down all your problems before God and
rest. He knows and he will always make a way. Even when you don’t understand what he is
doing, trust him, trust his timing and trust that he has your best interest in heart.
Pray with your housemates before every house competition. It’s such an ICQM thing to do but
TRUST ME. 😂 It’s worth doing. It serves as an excellent moral boost.

Get all the advice you can. ;))))

Ask for opinions, not just from your friends, ask your house teachers, ask your siblings, ask
whoever that you trust. They will give you valuable insights. Let’s say, never make a decision
concerning house without first counselling 3 people.

And let your committees know what you are doing, update them with your decisions, and update
them with the information lee sir tells you as soon as possible. For example the things you have
discussed in Captain’s meeting, type everything out in a nice readable format and send it to your
committees WhatsApp group preferably within one day. Keep people engaged. Speaking of
keeping people engaged, Instagram (@icqm_lovehouse) is a great platform to engage with your
whole house. You can post promotion, introductions, event news on there.

I can’t say any more now, you will have to experience for yourself and find out what method
suits you the most ;) And this thing is getting annoyingly long I hope you are not too bored by
now.
Gayau ah Love House cap!!!!! ;) It’s going to be a tough year filled with ups and downs but I
promise it will be an experience worth having. If you have any questions/problems about house
you can always ask me :)))) sending you all the support this world has to offer haha. Have
courage, just do your best, and enjoy the ride!!! I can’t wait to see what you guys can accomplish
this year 🤩

All the best ;)

Elva Au
May, 2020

Our google drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1j6gFFW_qJDluvNk7bnKEw1ZReZTgfMTQ?
usp=sharing

Btw, vice caps and I wrote the below at the start of last school year and you may find them
useful :
(This can at least give you some perspective as they were written by several ppl.)

Love House 2019-2020

Suggestions:
-Ice-breaking with committees
-Write cards to g7-8 with names
-Set up an anonymous advice box on Instagram
-New profile picture
-Have 8-10 house spare house tees ready at all times
-Communicate with committees, ask for individual opinion, or else
no one would answer.
-Have a clear plan of what to discuss before each meeting, make
sure everyone come up with ideas before the meeting. If not, at
least let vice caps plus teachers know.
-A whatsapp group for Captain and both vice-captain
-Assign tasks to younger committees so they feel involved
-Post on @icqm_lovehouse regularly, make sure all committees have
access to the account
-COMMUNICATION IS KEY
-Praise and thank ppl individually, appreciate their efforts
-Reward players (Drinks, Snacks) at least 1 captain/vice-
cap/sports cap there to support and watch the competition

Problems and Improvement

• Only a few ppl joined our house activities last yr so we hv to raise

awareness of it as the members r too passive.Some ppl just joined our activities but did
not play seriously so the pt is to enhance their interests.

• committees are too shy to express their ideas.It would be a waste if they
don’t share their ideas.

• young committee will hv a feeling that they’re just existing during the
meeting so we can give more opportunities for them to share or help.

• Ppl who are G7,8,9 don’t know who we are or they don’t hv the sense of
belonging to love House. That’s y I think we can go to different grades to promote or play
games or whatever to make us closer.

• For the sports day, the most severe problem is ppl don’t cheer. I think we
should change the slogan and compose a song for cheering, “wash-mind”. Besides using
cheering balls and bottles, cheering team can also use fluorescent sticks. As the teachers n
principle can only listen a bunch of noise instead of our slogan. If we use fluorescent
sticks, our slogan can be heard clearly and our house will look brilliant.

• For the video and posters competitions, the first thing we hv to do is pay
attention to the deadline. Besides, for the video , we hv to focus the time allows. I suggest
we can act cartoons to promote ICSC such as doreamon. To show the theme this yr and it
would be attractive for prim. students

Leadership Training Camp

-Punctuality above all else!!!!!
-Bring our own seasoning (Salt, pepper, herbs)
-Bring knives for cutting food!!!!!! IMPORTANT
-Yes you can buy ready-made sauces
-THINK ABOUT UR RECIPE BEFORE YOU ENTER THE
CAMP, this saves time and you will save yourself so much more
trouble when you are shopping for ingredients during the camp.

Competitions
 Basketball
 Football
 Dodgeball
 Drama
 Cheerleading
 Sportsday Cheer
 Participation
 ICSC poster
 ISCS video
 Monopoly
 Music composition
 Ensemble
 Quiz

Sports Day❤
【啦啦隊】
宗旨: 團結齊心最重要
[ ] 編舞早 D 編，喺開始練習前編好哂，唔好亂改
[ ] 每個 lead 啦啦隊嘅人都先熟悉舞步&拍子再教人
[ ] Leader 盡量多啲鼓勵，唔好無端端鬧人
[ ] 舞蹈要簡單但台上睇靚、易齊、適合新手
[ ] 舞步最好有正面意思， 當然要令評審睇得出
[ ] 隊員之間要有團结氣氛、練習默契
[ ] 齊人練習，如果真係有時唔得要講定先，唔好到時再講
[ ] 整「啦啦隊練習時間表」，貼喺啦啦隊隊員班房，whatsapp 定時提醒
[ ] 練走位: 練排位圖形嗰陣就要擺啦啦球對位

[ ] 對位!!! *Fail this and the whole thing will be ruined

[ ] 走位唔可以太多變動
[ ] **每一次練習完畢都要圍埋一齊手搭手嗌「Love House 加油」增強士氣&信心!!
[ ] 裝 飾 必 須 明 顯 又 charm ， 唔 使 太 多 嘢 喺 個 身 度 ， 主 要 係 頭 飾 、 鞋 帶 、 face
paint(早啲畫定， 可以有一個人帶哨子
[ ] 手繩腳繩嗰啲其實唔係好睇到，加絲帶係啲頭髮度都唔係好見到(一係就唔夠時間整
[ ] 建議訂啲紅色蝴蝶結(charm +好睇
[ ] 評審着重氣勢、團結同整體表演，台上下互動好重要( 社員大會前夾定

【看台打氣】
注意: Love House 呢方面特別弱
[ ] 加設「賽事時間表」，提社員， 叫定社職提人比賽
[ ] 可以加設新歌(大家一定識嘅歌再改編)、新口號
[ ] 口號讓人容易琅琅上口、容易讓人記得
[ ] 打氣絕對不可以有人兩手空空，每人手上面都要有兩個樽或 lala 球
[ ] 善用哨子、 膠桶、同大聲公
[ ] 口號中一定要有歌(評審最 buy)，要有樂器
[ ] 紅色人聚集，全部除褸

【事務】
[ ] 盡早回收膠樽，得閒就染
[ ] Sports day 成日都唔夠樽

*Btw, no bottles are allowed starting from 2020.

Plus, NO SELF MIX ALLOWED regarding song choice.