President Henry kicked off the meeting by inviting PP CY to introduce our visiting Rotarians Roland Dibbs of Fournsborough - UK, Tony Luce of Princeton Corridor - New Jersey; Benny Ratnani of HK North East and our guest for the day, Mr Chan from Hong Kong School for the Deaf. Next, President Henry extended his welcome to Rotarian Kenny who had just returned from his vacation to Canada, PP George from Taiwan and PP Hubert from Guangzhou.

PP. John and Rotarian Kenny were the birthday boys this week. PP. John led the birthday song to celebrate this special occasion.

PP George gave a lively report on his trip to Makati North which took place only one week before the coup attempt in the Philippines. Along with 3 other HKIE members, PP George visited the Rotary Club of Makati North in mid-July. The three-day visit included attending the Makati North's 30th anniversary celebration dinner and golfing at the Tagaytay Midland and Alabang courses. PP George was also happy to announce that Makati North had promised that they would send a big delegation to celebrate our 50th anniversary on April 17, 2004. To make their trip more interesting, PP. Tajwar would organize a trip to Shenzhen as well. President Henry took the opportunity to give a brief report on the progress of our 50th anniversary organization. Aberdeen Marian Club would be the venue for the celebration diner. Members please mark your diary for this very special occasion.

Uncle Peter proudly announced the club's newest multiple Paul-Harris fellow, Rotarian Kenny. Other Paul Harris fellows Uncle Peter mentioned were Rotarian Andy, PP John and President Henry. President Henry quickly noted that his cheque was already in the mail.

VP Robert outlined his "one for one" project to get members to be actively involved in Rotary matters. VP Robert asked each member to commit to at least one Rotary project this year. Projects could range from participating in one of the avenues of service to becoming a Paul Harris fellow. A minimum of 3 prizes would be given at the anniversary ball to the most outstanding participants. A list of possible projects/services for members to choose would be circulated by VP Robert in due course.

Sergeant-at-arms Andy reported that contributions from members were a handsome total of HK$1,400. There were 20 members attending.

Next, we came to the highlight of the meeting. Ms Lai, principal of the Hong Kong School for the Deaf, gave us an overview of her school.

Hong Kong School for the Deaf ("HKSD") was established in 1935 and has a very close relationship with HKIE. Three HKSD board members are current HKIE members. They are President Henry, PP. George and Dir. Jason. The school is situated at Diamond Hill. School facility includes gymnasium, computer rooms, playground, backyard garden, etc. offering a very dynamic and colorful environment to the students. With 80% of the teacher population being Special Ed. Specialists, 70% graduate teachers and 12.5% master degree holders, the school offers curriculums from kindergarten to high school.

The school has gone through many stages of development. The first stage was dedicated to the building and operating of a school for the hearing impaired. Second stage was the expansion of support services to include those hearing impaired students studying at the mainstream school system. The third stage, currently underway, is to provide mainstream, integrated education to all students by September 2004. Significant amount of efforts and resources have been spent on preparing the school to meet this new challenge. Converting smaller classrooms to bigger ones and the construction of a multi-media room were some of the projects Ms Lai highlighted.

Finally, PP Hubert thanked Ms Lai for her informative presentation. PP Hubert also noted that one of this year's community project proposals would be to work closely with students at the HKSD and Victoria Park School for the Deaf ("VPSD") for the development of a website dedicated to the hearing-impaired. The website would be under the name of both HKSD and VPSD. This would help preserve both the name and history of HKSD and VPSD after VPSD's closure in 2004 and HKSD's change to a mainstream school. The board of HKIE would also be looking at a proposal to sponsor the construction of multi-media room at HKSD as our club's 50th anniversary community project.

President Henry adjourned the meeting with a toast to Rotary Clubs of Hong Kong North East, Fournsborough, UK, & Princeton Corridor, New Jersey, USA.

Past Presidents Council

It is interesting to note that other Rotary Clubs in district 3450 have Past Presidents Council similar to the one likes ours though the name is different in style. For information of our members, the following is an extract from the recent club bulletin of the R/C of Kowloon Golden Mile :

"The Kowloon Golden Mile (COPP) Council of Past Presidents was formed during the 1993/94 Rotary years and is composed of KGM Past Presidents who remain active members of KGM.

The primary function of the COPPs is to serve as advisors to the incumbent President and/or the Board, if and when their guidance on any matter pertaining to KGM is sought, however, the management of club affairs and a final decision remain with the incumbent President and the KGM board of directors.

Since inception, the COPPs have invariably been asked by the board to serve as the nominating committee in respect of the selection of all candidates for our annual election of officers, particularly our President-Elect, as they know what it takes to serve as President and they themselves are not the candidates."

It is not the desire of the club to admit past presidents from clubs other than their own club to the members of the COPP of KGM.

A middle aged guy bought a brand new Mercedes convertible SL500. He took off down the road, pushed it up to 90 mph, and was
really enjoying the wind blowing through his (thinning) hair. "This is great," he thought and accelerated to an even higher speed.

But then he looked in his rear-view mirror, and there was a police car behind him, blue lights flashing. "I can get away from him
with no problem" thought the man and he floored it some more, and flew down the road at over 130 mph to escape being stopped.

Then he thought, "What the hell am I doing? I'm too old for this kind of thing" and pulled over to the side of the road, and waited for the police
car to catch up with him. The policeman pulled in behind the Mercedes and walked up on the driver's side. "Sir," he said, looking at his watch.
"My shift ends in a few minutes and today is Friday the 13th. If you can give me a good reason why you were speeding ... that I've never heard
before, I'll let you go."

The man looked back at the policeman and said, "Last week my wife ran off with a policeman,...... and I thought you were bringing her back"

The policeman said, "Have a nice day."

Ms. Lai, giving us her update on the Hong Kong School for the Deaf in Diamond Hill, Kowloon.

At the left head table were seated PDG Uncle Peter, Ms Lai, & Pres. Henry	At the right head table were seated Hon Sec. Eddy, Rtn Roland Dibbs (Founsborough, UK) & VP Rudy.
Rtn Roland Dibbs exchanging club banners with Pres. Henry.	Our birthday boys this week were none other then Rtn Kenny & PP John IV, who also let the birthday song to Kenny & himself.

PDG Uncle Peter presented to Rtn Kenny his multiple Paul Harris pin. Thanks for your support, Kenny.

(L to R) Rtn Tony Luce (Princeton Corridor, New Jersey), PP's Andrew, Tim, Taj, & Rtn Kenny, VPE Robert.

(L to R) Rtn Benny Ratnani (HKNE), Rtn's Andrew II, Heron, PP John IV, PP C.Y., Dir. Jason, & PP George.

(L to R) PP Hubert, Mr. Chan, the guest of Ms. Lai, & PP Stephen.

( L to R) VP Rudy, PP J.L. & Program Chairman, Dr Tony.

Group Photo of our visiting Rotarians, PDG Uncle Peter, guest speaker & our members on 30 July, 2003.