AFTER eight years as president of the 81,000-strong Automobile Association of Singapore (AAS), Mr Gerard Ee wants to call it a day. But he has had to soldier on, as a successor is nowhere in sight.
'I've been dying to step down for the last two years,' the accountant and social worker confessed to The Straits Times on Friday, five months after he was re-elected to serve his fifth term.
The 55-year-old took over the steering of the group from entrepreneur Ng Ser Miang in 1996.
Mr Ng, then head of a public bus company that is now part of SMRT Corp, served four terms after succeeding veteran Milton Tan, who pipped committee member Francis Seow - then an opposition party candidate - to the post with the support of AAS members who arrived by the bus-load.
Mr Ee wants to relinquish his post because he has held it for 'too long', and because he wants to focus on his role as president of the National Council of Social Service.
'We want someone who is not involved in any other sector to take over. We don't want someone who wears many hats,' he said, adding that it might otherwise pose conflict of interest or dilution of attention.
Mr Ee's hopes of a replacement were dashed again last week, when AAS vice-president Wong See Meng tendered his resignation.
Mr Wong, a banker, is the second vice-president to leave in a year. Last year, Mr Low Teo Ping, another banker, quit the post after eight years.
Although the association has not formally accepted the resignation, Mr Ee said he respects Mr Wong's wishes.
The succession issue aside, the 97-year-old association also faces a minor crisis over its recreation club.
Some members object strongly to a plan to close the club, and have sought legal recourse to block the move.
Mr Ee said three members, including a lawyer, have done so, but added that the association is trying to settle the matter amicably.
Started in 1975, the club attracted about 1,200 people, who each paid a non-transferable lifetime membership fee of $1,500.
The money went towards building the AAS headquarters in River Valley Road.
But members hardly use the facilities, which include a swimming pool and a gym.
'The club costs us about $250,000 a year, and has only about 20 regulars,' Mr Ee said. 'It's not fair for other members to subsidise them.'
But AAS recreation club member Chew Ah Kong, 63, pointed out: 'When you join a club as a life member, you don't get cut off. It's like being part of a family.
'And $1,500 was not a small sum in those days,' said the retiree. 'I had to pay in instalments. I feel we're being treated in a high-handed way... although I'm surprised someone has actually taken legal action.'
Mr Chew said one way to reciprocate is to 'commute' the club's life membership to an AAS life membership, as 'many of us are old fogeys'.
'How many more years of active motoring do we have?'
However, Mr Ee does not see that as the ideal solution because almost half the recreation club members are already AAS life members.
He would prefer to compensate the recreation club members with a package, which he said the AAS will come up with.
Meanwhile, more than 200 have taken up an existing offer on the table: free use of YMCA facilities for two years.
Mr Ee said members can view this as a 'token return' on their investment.
'We've agonised for over 10 years what to do with the club.
'This won't be an overnight solution... but I hope to have it resolved before I step down.'
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