They were booted out, but the executive committee headed by Josie Lau said last night that they would remain members of Aware.

In fact, they would even be willing to serve as volunteers if the newly elected executive committee would have them, they said.

Ms Lau, 48, and her team members Jenica Chua, 35, Lois Ng, 44, Sally Ang, 60, Irene Yee, 38, Maureen Ong, 55, and Charlotte Wong, 63, received an overwhelming vote of no-confidence from the 3,000 people at the extraordinary general meeting.

The eighth remaining exco member, Ms Peggy Leong, did not attend yesterday's meeting.

Speaking at a press conference called after they lost the no-confidence vote resoundingly at the EGM, Ms Lau said members of her team would gladly volunteer their services as they had all joined Aware to contribute in specific areas.

She, for one, had wanted to contribute to marketing the women's group and their hotline, which she said received only a small number of calls.

Other than Ms Lau, who had a ready smile and was calm and composed, the six others with her looked tired and wore a stoic look.

They explained why they had disappeared for half an hour to decide if they should resign.

The members gathered in the meeting had given them only five minutes to make up their minds.

Ms Lau and her team left to meet elsewhere, and when they did not return, rumours flew that they had slipped out of the building.

Ms Lau said five minutes were hardly enough.

'We had to consider the legal advice we were given,' said Ms Ong, who was the honorary treasurer.

Ms Lau added: 'But in the end, we decided to step down as the members have spoken and we want to respect members' feedback.'

When asked if her group was likely to mount a legal contest of the proceedings, she said no.

She repeated her call that Aware should go back to its original objective, which is the advancement of women in the social, political and economic spheres.

The group also made a point that they did not think the 3,000 Aware members who turned up yesterday represented the general population of women.

Ms Lau said Singapore society is 'by and large conservative', suggesting that Aware was of a more liberal bent.

Ms Chua added: 'Do the 3,000 today represent the views of two million women in Singapore? Based on today's expression of thoughts, in my personal opinion, (they) may not.'

Ms Lau also stressed that the group had not coordinated the takeover of Aware, and insisted that the members had been elected through an annual general meeting.

She noted that Ms Ng, for example, had garnered over 80 per cent of the vote during the March 28 AGM because of her speech on why she wanted to serve on the exco.

After the press conference, a smiling Ms Lau said she was fine when The Sunday Times asked her if it had been hard to take the stinging criticisms throughout yesterday's marathon meeting.

'I am fine, I am okay,' she said, as her friends called out to her to go for dinner.

This article was first published in The Sunday Times.