Mobilisation Exercise

A few hours ago, a mobilisation exercise could have been said to have taken place.

The orchestra was supposed to have its rehearsal on 7 Jan 2005 in a building along the Bukit Timah Road at 6.30 p.m. on the same day. Before we could start the rehearsals, we were expected to transport the larger instruments from a temporary instrument store located within the compounds of the university to that building along Bukit Timah Road. Since I had a half-day off from work, I was there at the temporary instrument store to help move the instruments (e.g. the double basses).

At 4.30 p.m., the trucks arrived. However, it was too small to even fit all the six double basses that we needed for the rehearsal. Left alone to fit the remaining four timpani sets, harp and so forth. The supervisor of the transport company was kind enough to offer to send two more trucks down to help with the transporting of the instruments. So we waited patiently for two more trucks to arrive.

Guess what? At about 5.20 p.m., while waiting for the two trucks, the few of us who were at the temporary instrument store was notified that there was a last-minute change in the rehearsal venue. The originally proposed venue had not enough storage space, which means that the instruments could not be left there after rehearsal, and would have to be transported back. Furthermore, the original proposed venue was on the third floor and had no lift. This would be quite a challenge physically. Imagine carrying a harp in a flight case, four sets of timpani, six double basses and more instruments up three floors without a lift, and then back again after rehearsals.

So it was decided that the rehearsal shall be changed to one of the lecture theatres within the university's compunds. It so happens that the reproposed rehearsal venue was just nearby the temporary instrument store where the instruments are kept. (I secretly wonder why in the first place that lecture theatre was not offered to us as a venue for the rehearsal on 7 Jan. )

Well, a logistic challenge has been kind of resolved with the change of the venue. However, it feels quite uncertain if the next challenge could be resolved. How to inform all the orchestra members within a short time-span of about an hour about this change in venue, so that we could have enough members to even start the rehearsals?

The few of us at temporary instrument store were quite doubtful if this could be achieved. Anyway, we went ahead to contact our section mates and the key members of each section. I think it's quite a test of how good the orchestra's communication lines are.

Within such a short notice, it was quite amazing to find that about 70% of the members reached the reproposed rehearsal venue by about 6.45 p.m. It must have been the blessings of living in a technological age. Most members happened to have a mobile phone, so they managed to know about this very last minute change in time to rush to the new venue. Our orchestra conductor joked that we had a successful mobilisation exercise. Well, such an exercise would probably not have been possible if we were living about a decade ago, when less than half of the people had a mobile phone. Perhaps this is a good example of how technology could be a good servant.