ATAS Indonesia chapter welcomes new members

In conjunction with Gerakan Pramuka’s 50th anniversary, World Scout Committee Chairperson Simon Rhee, who is one of the key founders of the Association of Top Achiever Scout (ATAS), welcomed over 100 new members in Indonesia at the Cibubur Scout Camp, in Jakarta on 14th August 2011.

ATAS members who joined him were World Scout Committee member Eric Khoo, Regional Scout Committee First Vice-Chairman Mukhyuddin bin Sarwani, Singapore Executive Director Effendy Rajab and the ATAS Indonesia Chapter members.

After ATAS was formed in 2004 during the Asia-Pacific Regional Scout Conference in Brunei, membership has grown quickly within and outside the region, that it eventually became an ATAS World in just a couple of years. Since then, ATAS has been an association for fraternity among the top achiever scouts of the world, and membership remains free.

Today, over 40 countries have ATAS Chapters or Co-ordinators with over 2000 members. Many national chapters have been holding national gatherings. Aside from this, ATAS members also take advantage of holding a get-together during world and regional events where most members are present. For this year, the recent get-together was in Sweden, after Taiwan and Brazil. Last year, Sri Lanka and India held their gatherings.

Over the last 6 years, ATAS has shown significant increase in membership which can be largely credited to Simon Rhee and Membership Coordinator Alex Wong who are both a driving force behind the association's growth. ATAS is both a member of the APR Scout Foundation and the World Scout Foundation.

– Berthold Sinaulan, APR Honorary Correspondent