What Happened at Our Meeting
on
15th January, 2003
President Chris began the meeting with a warm welcome. He invited Rtn. John Yao to introduce the guests and visitors. They were:
1) Rtn. Robert Harland from Bacolod Marapara, Philippines
2) PP Peter Tse from TST East
3) Dr. Stephen Chow, friend of Rtn. John YaoPresident Chris exchanged the banner with Rtn. Robert Harland. He then shared with us the beautiful golf courses in his club district. He invited us to visit them.
Acting Sergeant-at-arms, Rtn. Andy reported that a total collection of HK$ 1,200.
PP Hubert introduced today's speaker, Dr. Clement Chan, an orthodontist, graduated from UK, friend of PP Hubert and members with a number of professional bodies in Hong Kong. The topic was: In Search of Hidden Orthodontic Cures.
Dr. Chan shared with us by introducing his trip to Hawaii with a close look at the volcano. He then told us although there were about 1,700 registered dentists in Hong Kong; there were only 27 registered orthodontists in Hong Kong. The requirements was there needed an additional six more years of studies after years of practices in dentistry.
Dr. Chan illustrated with a number of pictures on the importance of straighten the teeth. The idea was to treat these teeth earlier with protection. He showed us a number of treatments by pictures on how to shift and move these teeth. The use of braces was one of the traditional ways. A new method was the use of aligners.
He then showed us two videotapes to introduce this new method. This invisible way to straighten teeth without braces used a series of clear removable aligners (no wires and brackets). The service provider, Invisalign, based on the inputs from the local orthodontist, prepared a set of aligners for the patient to change in each two weeks. This week-by-week improvement would continue until the teeth had straightened to the final position. Hong Kong was the first place available for such service in Asia. Dr. Chan told us that the minimum cost would be in HK$ 60,000. He ended with his speech to show us more pictures about his trip in Hawaii, the lava explored from the volcano.
Rtn. Tony thanked the speaker and presented the thank you card with the speaker's photo.
President Chris ended the meeting by proposing a toast to the Rotary International and Rotary Club of Bacolod Marapara, Philippines.
Rotary International has designated several months to emphasize the importance of each subject throughout the Rotary year, such as January - Awareness month; February - World Understanding month; April - Magazine month; July - Literacy month; August - Membership and Extension month; September - New Generation month; October - Vocational month and November - Foundation month.
Stepping into January, I wish to concentrate on "Awareness". It seems very wide that we should be aware of things about Rotary. The first few common items should be top priority in Rotary administrations. Such as :
1. Pay club dues and R.I. Dues;
2. Renew Rotary membership card;
3. Notify RI about your club's elected officers for the ensuing year, viz. the President and the Hon. Secretary with full name and address;
4. Make a half yearly survey about club's projects and membership drive;
5. The dead line for submitting Centennial Project has been extended to 1st July 2003, so you still have time to register a Centennial Project with RI;
6. The RI board encourage Rotary clubs to highlight the "Declaration of Rotarians in Business and Professions by including it in their weekly bulletin, Distributing it at induction ceremony, posting it in prominent places and reading it at meetings regularly. For ready reference, the Declaration is reproduced hereunder : "As a Rotarian engaged in a business or profession, I am expected to
1. Consider my vocation to be another opportunity to serve;
2. Be faithful to the letter and to the spirit of the ethical codes of my vocation, to the laws of my country, and to the moral standards of my community;
3. Do all in my power to dignify my vocation and to promote the highest ethical standards in my chosen vocation;
4. Be fair to my employer, employees, associates, competitors, customers, the public and all those with whom I have a business or professional relationship;
5. Recognize the honour and respect due to all occupations which are useful to society;
6. Offer my vocational talents; to provide opportunity for young people, to work for the relief of the special needs of others, and to improve lthe quality of life in my community;
7. Adhere to honesty in my advertising and in all representations to the public concerning my business or profession;
8. Neither seek from nor grant to a fellow Rotarian a privilege or advantage not normally accorded others in a business or professional relationship."The RI board also discontinued the Disaster Relief activities, effective from 1st January 2003. Rotarians are encouraged to work through experienced international relief agencies.
The Rotarian and Rotary regional magazine will now be known collectively as the Rotary World Magazine Press.
The RI board noted the Anaheim International Institute has been attracting fewer and fewer registrants and lacks the internationality of the International Institute held annually in conjunction with the RI Convention, hence such meeting will be discontinued beginning 2003-04.
The coming RI Convention will be held in Brisbane, Australia from 1st to 4th June 2003, followed by another RI Convention in Osaka in Japan, 23rd to 26th May 2004 while the Centennial RI Convention will be at Chicago in 2005.
Hong Kong is bidding for the RI Convention for 2009. Our competitors are Turkey, Korea and Thailand.Another subject close to our hearts is Rotary in Mainland China. At present, we have one Rotary Club in Beijing and another in Shanghai. These are only provisional clubs, though we can make up our attendance by attending their meetings. The question of "When Can we have a chartered Rotary Club in PRC " ? has been ringing in my ears for years, especially when Lion Clubs are recognized properly in Kuongzhou and Shenzhen.
From reliable sources, Lions International had 20 full-fledged Lion's Clubs in PRC with local Chinese nationals as members and each club has at least 30 members. Why Rotary cannot do likewise ? It was per unconfirmed report that Lions International made a certain concession regarding the Taiwan national flags and national anthem while RI stood to its rules. At the present time, it is better to wait for the NGO legislation to be implemented.
Lulu was a prostitute, but she didn't want her grandma to know.
One day, the police raided a whole group of prostitutes at a sex party in a hotel, and Lulu was among them .The police took them outside and had all the prostitutes line up along the driveway when suddenly, Lulu's grandma came by and
saw her granddaughter. Grandma asked, "Why are you standing in line here, dear?" Not willing to let her grandmother know the truth, Lulu told her grandmother that the policemen were there passing out free oranges and she was just lining up for some.Grandma said "Why, that's awfully nice of them. I think I'll get some for myself," and she proceeded to the back of the line.
A policeman was going down the line asking for information from all of the prostitutes. When he got to Grandma, he was bewildered and exclaimed, "Wow, still going at it at your age? How do you do it?"
Grandma replied, 'Oh, it's easy, dear. I just take my dentures out, rip the skin back and suck them dry."
The policeman fainted....
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