Outpost Learning Event and Kuala Lumpur

The Outpost Learning Event (LE) in Kuala Lumpur was really great.  I learned a lot about Outpost and had a wonderful time, too!  My fellow Outpost volunteer, Kay, went with me.  This blog is quite long as we did so much and I have a lot of pictures I want to share.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday afternoon. The hotel was beautiful and I had a fantastic view of the Pertronas Towers.  Here are a couple of photos taken from my hotel room window on the 24th floor.

The view was so beautiful at night.

That first evening Kay and I walked to the mall located at the base of the towers.  There were a ton of stores, but we spent most of our time walking around a supermarket in the mall.  Coming from Sakhalin where the choices are somewhat limited, a supermarket with some western products and a lot of things we weren't used to seeing was so much fun for us.

The LE started on Sunday at noon when we had to set up our stalls.  Each Outpost location had a stall that represented their country and the products and services offered to the Expats at that location.  I think there were at least 35 countries represented.  Some countries have more than one Outpost location.  We also had to develop a poster that describes our services.  It hung on the wall behind the stall.  We shared a table with the Moscow Outpost.  Here is Kay behind our table.  You can see the table pretty well in this picture. 

Here I am.  We had  a slide show of  Sakhalin Island and brought some souvenirs to give away, as did everyone else.

Once the booths were set up, the LE started off with a celebration of 15 years of Outpost and a kickoff of the new Outpost Handbook.  A lady who was instrumental in the start up of Outpost spoke about it's history.  The were other introductory type speakers and a speed networking coffee session where we were able to meet fellow Outpost volunteers from around the world.  It was so interesting to talk to people from Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, etc.  The girl from Egypt was evacuated when the demonstrations started there.  She heard all the gunfire, etc.  The family of the girl from Bahrain was evacuated while she was with us in KL.  The final speaker of the day was a very energetic girl who runs a website entitled Expatwomen.com.  She was very inspiring and had a lot of ideas and stories about how women with successful careers, who quit their jobs to follow their husbands, reinvented themselves. 

On Sunday evening there was a cocktail and hors d'oeuvres party at the Dutch Ambassador's home.

 
The food was fabulous and just kept coming:

The overall theme of the LE was communication.  How to communicate with your clients, how to communicate with your team and how to communicate with HR.  Monday was focused on communicating with your clients (or the Expats). We had a workshop on services we could provide to clients such as Career and Development workshops, welcoming services, etc.  There was a panel of clients who gave their opinions and suggestions and answered questions about Outpost, a session on written communication and other networking exercises.

 There were so many different nationalities represented there.  It got confusing as you couldn't associate someone's nationality with the country there were representing because everyone was an expat.  The Chinese girl was representing Holland and the Australian was representing Malaysia for example.  There were even a couple of guys there.  Here's a photo of the meeting room:

 
The conference center provided lunch every day.  It was a huge buffet including many kinds of hot dishes, sushi, salad, desserts, fruit, cheese, bread, etc..  Anything you could think of.  There was a coffee shop where you could get latte's all day long.  It was all so tempting.  I seriously gained 2 or 3 pounds that week.

On Monday evening we walked to a local Malaysian restaurant for dinner.  It was nice and relaxing.  Since the program was so full and some people wouldn't have any time for souvenir shopping, the organizers of the event arranged for some local artisans to set up their wares at the restaurant.

The third day of the LE (Tuesday) was focused on communicating with your team.  As focal point, my job is to manage and motivate the team of volunteers.  In Sakhalin we have a 10 member team.  There was a cultural awareness session including a role play about perceptions.  I played the selfish, demanding American women who thinks money can buy everything.  (Interesting how the world perceives Americans).  We learned about an online tool used to track clients and their arrivals, questions, etc.  It has a library system, too.  I want to start using this for our location. 

On Tuesday evening, we had a formal sit down dinner at an old governor's mansion turned into a hotel.

We had cocktails outside on the patio and there were traditional Malaysian dancers for our entertainment:

Dinner was really good.  During the dinner there was a slide show presentation on Malaysian history.

The final day of the LE was Wednesday and focused on communication with HR.  When I took on this focal point job, I didn't realize how much you really do have to work with HR.  We get our funding from HR, so there are budget proposals to prepare, status reports, monthly meetings and minutes, etc.  I seriously feel like I have a full time job again.  The final session of the day was a "Cracker Barrel" session where hot topics that had been submitted throughout the days of the meeting were discussed.  Final thank you's and presentations of gifts were made and it was over. 

Wednesday evening, we went shopping at a really huge mall and then to dinner at a local restaurant.  Shopping in KL is fantastic.  There is shopping mall after shopping mall and the prices are really good.  Too bad I didn't have room in my suitcase or I would have bought more.  Max was happy I didn't have any extra suitcase space or weight.  A lot of people left on Wednesday evening, but we stayed an extra day to do some sightseeing and shopping.  Not really any sightseeing as KL is just a huge, big modern city.  No problem, we really just wanted to shop anyway.

There was a really cool bar on the 36th floor of our hotel, called the Sky Bar.  By day it is a swimming pool.  By night it is a bar.  It was hard to get a good picture of it, but I think you can see how close the tables are to the edge of the pool.  On the one side there is only a small wooden deck to walk on.  There are windows along the top and you can see the reflection of the Pertronas Towers above me.

Thursday morning, Kay met a friend for coffee and I went to the supermarket.  I bought spices, Malaysian curries, vanilla extract, salted nuts for Max and Kraft Free Zesty Italian dressing - all things you cannot get here in Sakhalin.  We had to check out of our room at noon, so we packed and stored our luggage at the hotel.  Then Kay and I went shopping at some of the malls again.  It was so much fun.  We met some of the other ladies who stayed on at a local Malaysian restaurant for a final dinner before heading to the airport.  Our flight left at 11:30 Thursday night so our taxi came at 8:30.  The hotel was so nice and offered to let us shower before we left that evening.  They supplied soap, shampoo, everything.  We got back to Sakhalin on Friday around 1:00 p.m.   Great trip!  Now to put all the knowledge I gained into action!

Love to you all!
Karen

Sakhalin Island Outpost

I haven't had much time to blog lately due to my taking on the Sakhalin Island Outpost Focal Point job.  Since it has recently been consuming my life, I thought I would devote this blog to telling you what Outpost is all about.  It is a sort of long post and may be boring to some, but there are a few links you might find interesting.

Outpost is a Shell sponsored global network that provides information and services to Shell expatriates and their families all over the world.  There are over 60 Outpost offices in 35 countries around the world.  We provide information and help people find answers to questions relating to everyday life in their new or potential location (both pre-departure and during settling in).  We also provide information, advice and guidance to help partners meet their career and development needs. This includes providing information on employment, personal development, self-employment, voluntary work and educational opportunities.

Here is a link to the Shell Global Outpost Website.  Every green dot represents a Shell Expat/Outpost Office location.  If you click on the Sakhalin Island dot, you will see our location's information, including a link to our local website.  I'm not listed as the focal point yet as I have to sign a confidentiality agreement.  Red dots are locations where Shell expats are, but no Outpost Office exists.  Shell Global Outpost provides guidance, marketing information and consistency to all of the local Outpost organizations.

Here is the link to our local Sakhalin Island Outpost website.

Including myself, there are 10 Sakhalin Island Outpost volunteers.

Some of the services that our Outpost provides include:
- An Online Team who answer emails from people who are contemplating a move to Sakhalin or are actually moving here.  We provide them with an Inside Guide that includes information such as can I import my car, how do I bring my pet, what should I pack in my air shipment and my sea container shipment, banking information, airport information, description of the housing, school info, etc. - everything that a person might want to know about Sakhalin Island before they move here
- A Meet & Greet Team who welcomes each new family, answers their questions and takes them on a shopping trip.  A food package is placed in their house prior to their arrival, as people are tired, don't know where to shop and don't have a pass to get on and off the housing complex.  An information pack is provided including a welcome letter, information about setting up their internet, a map of the complex, a bus schedule, a phone list, and a very detailed Guidebook that lists places to shop, restaurants, services, recreation, etc.
- Wednesday Coffee Morning where spouses/partners of working expats get together to network and visit.  Every third Wed of the month prior to Coffee Morning we have a Newcomers Information Meeting.
- A Supermarket Shopping Tour and a Local Products Shopping Tour. (I'll have a separate blog about these tours.)
- Organizing cultural events, such as museum visits, tea ceremonies
- Outpost Library with books related to Expat Life, books on travel and career development
- Showing people around who come to Sakhalin on a familiarization visit
- Monthly Outpost newsletter
- A recently launched Outpost Sakhalin Facebook page.  We have an events calendar, polls, and a classified section....all new, so not being used that much yet.
 - Projects in work such as a Career and Development Guide and an Outdoor Guide (Guide to all of Sakhalin's wonderful outdoor activities).

The Focal Point (me as of March 1) has to keep up with all the above (and more), plus:
- Make sure all documents mentioned above are kept up to date
- Interface with the Shell Global Outpost
- Have monthly meetings with the local Sakhalin Energy HR representative and write a report of the meeting
- Hold monthly team meetings, write minutes, keep an action item list
- Keep track of all newcomers and their housing (harder than it seems) and notify the team of their arrival so they can arrange the welcome and food pack
- Keep track of expenses, do expense reports
- Motivate the team (plan team lunches/dinners, provide gift certificates annually to the team)
- Write an annual report to Global Outpost
- Project future activities and expenses and prepare an annual budget (next one due April 1, 2011 for 2012)
- Keep procedures up-to-date
- General office stuff (buy paper, toner, make business cards for team, keep internet account topped off, etc.)
- There is a lot more, but I'm sure you're bored by now

Here are a few pictures of our Outpost Office.  We don't actually spend a lot of time there and it's only officially open for 1.5 hours a week.  The Outpost Office is in a building called The Hub.  It is sort of a community center of the Zima Housing Compound where we live.  It has a restaurant, a pub with pool tables, a library, conference rooms and the Outpost office.  The Hub is going to be renovated starting this month and the Outpost Office will likely move to a different location in the building.  This is hopefully a good thing as we really want to redecorate the office to make it more inviting.  Of course this is more work for me as I have to figure out where to have coffee morning, what to do with the equipment, etc. 

For the past few weeks I've been meeting with the current Focal Point a lot, trying to learn as much I can as she left a few days ago for a month long holiday in Australia.  Thankfully, she's staying on the team as online member, but I'm on my own for the next month.  In some locations, the Focal Point is a paid position.  With as much work as I've been doing lately, I may look into this for our location.

Once every few years, Global Outpost holds a Global Learning Event.  This is a conference where representatives from all of the Outpost offices come together to learn about ways to provide better services for our clients, work with team members and our local HR.  This year the conference will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Maylasia, and it starts next week!!  I'm very excited to be going to this conference with another lady from our Outpost.  Max teases me and says that he has been here for a long time and actually works for Shell (succumbed to Sakhalin Energy) but hasn't been on a business trip (from Sakhalin) yet.  I've only been here a few months, don't even really work for Shell, and am already going on my first business trip.  I've also spent a lot of time the past few weeks preparing for the conference.  We've had to develop a large poster describing the ways we work with our clients, team and HR.  We also have a table at the conference to present our location so we've had to shop for decorations, etc.

I'm really excited to be the Focal Point of the Outpost team.  Even though it has been a lot of work, it's also been a lot of fun.  It's great to be able to meet and help so many people.  I'm really looking forward to the Kuala Lumpur Learning Event!  I'll definitely be sharing my adventure with you soon!

Love to you all!

Karen