To usher in the new year, it had to be a 'family' affair.

Held at the Asian Civilisations Museum on 9 January, the atmosphere at the SNCF New Year Reception was positively charged as co-operators representing co-operatives from the credit, service, campus and NTUC sectors gathered to celebrate.

To kickstart the event, SNCF Chairman Kwek Kok Kwong wished all co-operators a happy new year. “At the beginning of the year, it is a good time to celebrate, renew bonds with each other, and at the same time reflect back in 2019 what we have done.”

Looking back at 2019, SNCF has much to be thankful for.

For one, there was the year-long campaign of art-themed pop-up events – “Coming Together As One Through Art”, which was held in conjunction with Singapore’s Bicentennial celebrations. Four pop-up art events which featured Credit Co-operatives, Service Co-operatives and NTUC Co-operatives, not only did SNCF bring more public awareness, but also managed to garner some 1,000 suggestions on what things co-ops could do to bring more impact to society.

The event culminated with a grand finale where President of Singapore Halimah Yacob launched the book, Singapore Co-operatives Singapore Stories, published by SNCF to capture the rich and long history of co-operatives in Singapore.

The year 2019 was also seen as one where SNCF continued to engage many associations and schools to bring awareness on co-operatives.

Mr Kwok was glad to report that since the last ACLC focus to forge collaboration amongst co-operatives, there were collaborative efforts formed, for example, Runninghour Co-operative with NTUC Income Co-operative, GP+ Co-operative with NTUC FairPrice Co-operative and more.



“We had a fantastic year. And we look forward to a greater year ahead. It is our ruby anniversary and we want to push for greater awareness, we want  to push for more collaboration amongst co-operatives so that we can prosper together, to form new co-operatives and address all the new society issues.

ACLC is coming up in April, so book your flights earlier. Exploit the early bird discounts. This is also a special year, as we hold Triennial General Assembly in September. SNCF will also be celebrating its 40^th anniversary the same month. With this as a background, year 2020 will be an exciting year!”

While enjoying the buffet spread of local fare including rojak and laksa stations, co-operators huddled together to establish connections and to make new ones.

The ukulele group of seniors from Silver Horizon Travel Co-operative took the stage with their rendition of local familiar tunes as well as golden oldies songs. As they sang and played The Young Ones, the members who are the pioneer and merdeka generation, showed that they can still do their stuff.

Mr K C Ang, a member of Silver Horizon shared how great the feeling he gets out of participating in a ukulele band. “I truly enjoy performing and thankful that we were given the platform.”

The evening continued with games that encouraged bonding and fun.

With such wonderful reflections of the past year, SNCF is fueled with excited anticipation for a great year of celebrating the co-op spirit. Rock in the new year!






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