Last week's Proceedings -

President Laurence Chan led a small delegation to attend the handover ceremony of our sister club - the Rotary Club of Makati North, in the Philippines, district 3830, to convey our warm wishes to the new president, Rtn. Jose "Joe" C. Reano for the Rotary year 2007-2008. He was accompanied by pp John Kwok.

Acting President Andy Wong took the chair and welcomed visiting Rotarians and guest to start the meeting. They were Rotarian Nancy Yee from the Rotary Club of Vancouver Chinatown, Canada, plus two Rotaractors from Rotaract Club of Lingnan University, Hong Kong, namely, President Shum Chi Wai (known as Ah Shum) and External Vice President Sit Yuet Mei (known as Ah Yuet).

The following were the announcements made by Acting President Andy Wong :

1. Our club - Hong Kong Island East had been incorporated as a "Limited" Company since 18th June 2007. IPP Paul Chan will follow up the unfinished procedures;
2. Change of luncheon Venue - Due to the increase of lunch charges to $290.00 per head by the Excelsior Hotel, we have negotiated with several hotels and association for a more reasonable lunch price and convenient place, the board had decided to patronize Regal Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong at $220.00 per head and seek the final approval from all members by email voting. By majority opinion, we are moving to Regal Hotel as from 1st August 2007.
3. Learning from local newspapers and TV regarding the earthquake erupted in Niigata, Japan, President Laurence duly sent an email to our sister club - Rotary Club of Niigata expressing our concern. We were glad in receiving their reply stating it was not within their vicinity and all members were in good shape and tried to help the people who suffered from the calamity

Acting President Andy invited the president of Rotaract Club of Lingnan to give a brief report of the club';s programmes and projects of the year. It took him five minutes to finish his report.

Acting Sergeant-at-Arms reported the harvest of the day which amounted to HK$650.00.

The guest speaker of the day was none other than our own PDG Uncle Peter. He updated us about the result of the 2007 Council of Legislation.

Uncle Peter started to mention that when he talked about the Council on Legislation, most of us referred it to the legislative council of the HKSAR which meets frequently on Wednesday. However, Rotary International has its Council on Legislation which only meets once in every three years to review the by-laws and also the Constitution.

Proposed enactments and resolutions are submitted by clubs, district conferences, the General Council or the Conference of Rotary international in Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) or the RI Board. All the proposals to be voted upon by the representatives from each district of the Rotary worldwide. There are over 500 districts the world over and each district will send one representative to attend the meeting which usually lasted for several days.

The last Council on Legislation was held in Chicago, USA in 2004, hence we have our council meeting this year (2007) also in Chicago. The Council received 336 resolutions/enactments and only 97 pieces were adopted. The rest were either withdrawn, rejected, or referred to the RI board.

The speaker selected only those adopted items which directly affect our club';s administration as follows:

Item 07-11 To provide for a club board to cancel meeting for commonly recognized holidays,

Item 07-14 To require members to attend 50% of regular meetings in each half of the Rotary year,

Item 07-30 To consult with the governor when amending the name and locality of the club,

Item 07-42 To exempt recent Rotaractors from paying an admission fee,

Item 07-46 To provide that the president shall continue to serve until a successor who has attended the PETS and district assembly has been elected,

Item 07-330 To allow clubs to elect into active membership Rotary Foundation Alumni even if the classification of the alumnus is filled,

Item 07-160 To allow approval of the per capita levy or a district fund at a presidents-elect training seminar,

Item 07-219 To request the RI Board to consider including Russian as an official supported language of RI,

Item 07-283 To increase per capita dues as follows:

• US$24.00 per each half year
• 2009-2010 - US$24.50 - do -
• 2010-2011 - US$25.00 - do -

Item 07-287 To provide that prorated per capita dues be paid at a rate of one- twelfth of RI per capita dues per month,

Item 07-291 To authorize the RI Board to suspend a club that fails to pay its financial obligation to RI or the district fund.

In addition, Uncle Peter pointed out that most of us are not aware of a regular meeting requirement by RI policy. Usually, we meet WEEKLY at a fixed place/venue.

But in order to maintain or to increase membership of each Rotary club, the RI Board approved a new six-year pilot project to examine the effects of meeting frequency on overall club success. As from 1^st July 2007, the project's goal is to include about 200 Rotary clubs worldwide and to determine their meeting schedules based on members preference rather than RI policy of meeting weekly. Of course, these clubs have to apply to the RI Board before 1^st July 2007. Some of the clubs in Taiwan are practicing a bi-weekly meeting already.

These clubs will report to RI annually, providing insight into the relationship between meeting frequency and contributions to The Rotary Foundation, membership development and retention, success or service project and other elements of an effective club.

After the trial period for six-year and eventually proved to be successful, the RI Board will consider adopting the new method.

The question and answer period raised the interest of the audience which was well discussed and explained by the speaker.

The meeting was adjourned at 2.05 p.m. by Acting President Andy with a toast to RI coupled with the name of the R/C of Vancouver, China Town.

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More About RI Convention

After the report of the 98th RI Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA in 2007, we wish to announce an advance schedule of the coming RI Conventions sites as follows:

The next RI Convention will be held at Los Angeles, USA in 2008.

Tentative RI Convention sites will be in Seoul, Korea, in 2009, Montreal, Canada in 2010, New Orleans, USA in 2011, Bangkok, Thailand in 2012, Lisbon, Portugal in 2013 and Sydney, Australia in 2014.

It should be most appropriate to hold the RI Convention in Seoul, Korea, in 2009 when a Korean is designated as RI President in the person of Dong Kurn LEE in 2008-2009.

Unfortunately, due to some segments of the planning for the convention were behind schedule, these delays and other associated issues hindered the ability of the local Rotary clubs to organize and host such a large-scale, international meeting.

Rotary International's annual convention is a worldwide gathering of Rotary members who participate in a broad agenda of plenary sessions and workshops focused on how Rotary clubs help to make the world a better place through volunteer service.

This decision was taken at the conclusion of the 2007 Rotary convention in Salt lake City, USA attended by nearly 17,000 Rotary members.

The RI Board of Directors has changed the tentative site of the 2009 RI Convention from Seoul to Birmingham, England.

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Group photo	Our speaker PDG Uncle Peter

Acting President PE Andy	Rotaractor President Ah Shum of Lingnan University

Hon. Sec. Norman, PP George, PP Stephen, President Ah Shum and VP Ah Yuet of Lingnan Rotaract Club, Rtn. Nancy of RC of Vancouver China Town	Rtn. Tony, Hon. Sec. Norman, Dir. Eric and Hon. Tres. PP Rudy

PDG Uncle Peter, Acting President PE Andy and Hon. Sec. Norman