Last week's Proceedings -

President Laurence chaired the RCHKIE luncheon meeting for this special occasion - District Governor visit (Regal Hotel, Causeway Bay) and it was well attended.

DG Peter Wong, DGE Albert Wong, DS Albert Poon and DAG Wendy Mung came early to meet with the board members and Club Advisor PDG Uncle Peter at 11:30am to review our club plans.

PP Rudy introduced the visiting Rotarians and guests attending:

• District Governor Peter Wong (RC Kowloon East)
• DGE Albert Wong (RC Kowloon West), though did not stay for the luncheon
• DGN Ada Cheng (RC Wanchai)
• DS Albert Poon (RC Kowloon East)
• DAG Wendy Mung (RC Peninsula)
• Rtn Nancy Yee from Vancouver Chinatown (to be inducted into RCHKIE the same day)
• Pres. Laurence had also invited 2 guests from Rotaract Club of Hong Kong Island East (IPP Mimi Lau and VP Kenny Kwok) and 3 guests from Rotaract Club of Lingnan University (Pres. Shum Chi-Wai, IPP Jerry Wan and VP May Chan)

SAA Heman reported a red box collection of HK$2,060 including the handsome contributions from DG Peter Wong, ($500), DS Albert Ng ($300) and DAG Wendy Mung ($300).

Pres. Laurence made the following announcements:

• PP George was invited to update us about the Hebei girl pupils sponsorship programme (for the third year), that proposing a trip to Beijing / BoDing City between September 16 (Sunday) – 18 (Tuesday), with Hebei Education Department to provide transportation to visit a few of our sponsored girls studying at local primary schools. PP George proposed to bring some children needed stationery and picture books etc., along with some moon cakes to thank the good work from their local teachers at those primary schools.
• Pres. Laurence reported that the Water supplies project (joined with our sister club, RC Makati North) received District Simplified Grant's initial approval.

A historical moment was witnessed by DG Peter Wong, when our club formally inducted Rtn Nancy Yee (from our sister club – Vancouver Chinatown) to transfer to Hong Kong Island East. Rtn Nancy, was proposed by PDG Uncle Peter, became our first lady member since 1954. SAA Heman escorted Rtn Nancy to the head table and Pres. Laurence performed the induction ceremony; with DG Peter Wong to present the member badge to Rtn Nancy.

Rtn Nancy expressed her privilege to be our first lady member and promised to put her expertise in public relationship for the benefits of Rotary movement in Hong Kong.

PP John Kwok took a "giant step" to promote Membership Retention and he wrote the lyrics, based on the same tune of (You are my sunshine). PP John took the floor and led us to sing it for the first time in public.

You are my members,
Our only Members
You make us happy
When skies are grey
You never know dear
How much we need you
Please don't let your members leave

We always need you
And make you happy
If you will only do the same
But if you leave us to join another
You'll regret it all, --someday

The highlight of the luncheon meeting was an address to the audience by DG Peter Wong, who made his effort to visit us (his 18th club visits since July):

• DG Peter was glad to witness a new member induction at our club, an indication of our club's effort and commitment to promote membership growth.
• DG Peter encouraged all the clubs to focus on membership development, with the backing of strong China economy. DG Peter quoted the message from RI President Wilfred Wilkinson on his vision of encouraging our members to get new member, "So I urge each of you, this very week, as proud Rotarians, to share Rotary with a qualified individual. Submit the name of at least one prospective member, and if approved, ask that person to join – just as someone did for me, and just as someone did for you."
• DG Peter motivated our members to cheer ourselves to be one of the most efficient and effective NGOs as we were adopting hands on approach for our local community projects and the Rotary Foundation being one of the few with very low administrative costs in running our foundation resources.
• DG Peter pointed out that Public Relationship would be an effective means to bring awareness in the society about the Rotary movement and our community projects.
• DG Peter also stressed the importance to invest in our next generation, to bring up young people in their education and future career, with a wholesome character to become responsible citizens, with an objective in life and a commitment to their local community. DG Peter pointed out that our Rotarians could participate in more mentorship program to help make the youth development programs "tick" in Hong Kong.

PDG Uncle Peter gave a vote of thanks to DG Peter Wong for his coming and his encouraging remarks to our members and guests. Pres. Laurence presented a Polaroid picture of DG himself as a memoir in action.

Meanwhile, we would have Wine Tasting (organized by Mr. Horace Cheung) as our next week program – on August 22 (Wednesday), again at Regal Hotel in Causeway Bay.

Women in Rotary

Female Rotarians serving high post in Rotary International is initiated by Rtn. Carolyn E. Jones, from Alaska, USA, the first female Rotarian ever selected to serve as one of the trustees of The Rotary Foundation in 2006. She visited Hong Kong February 2007 to share with us her experience in the Rotary Foundation.

The world is changing and so is Rotary. Women in Rotary started in 1989. We have a strong number of women in Rotary throughout the Rotary world.
This is also the first time we have elected a woman to join the RI Board of Directors.

First female Director-Elect, Rotarian Catherine Noyer-Riveau joined Rotary in 1991 as a member of the Rotary Club of Paris. She served RI as District Governor in 1999-2000 and also an International Assembly training leader in 2004 & 2005. She is a practicing physician.

For information, this is the way how it works out to elect a RI director. They are elected from different geographic regions and are responsible for setting policy and overseeing funds for the organization. Each director serves a two-year term.

Directors-nominee are selected by nominating committees in RI's 34 Zones on a rotating basis. Each district elects a representative to serve on the nominating committee. Committee members typically have risen through the ranks, serving as club president and district governor and on various international committees. The nominee is elected at the RI Convention by voting delegates, who are selected by their clubs.

By coincidence, during the official visit of District Governor Peter Wong, we inducted into our club to-day, a lady member in the person of Ms Nancy Yee, business director of a most famous media firm by the name of JCDecaux, Hong Kong. President Laurence had the honour to officiate the induction while D.G. Peter of district 3450 witnessed and donned her with the badge and Rotary pin. We all warmly welcomed Nancy to join this big Rotary family. At this juncture, Nancy was assigned a job to assist the Public Relation Committee. Pictures of the induction are reproduced in this bulletin.

While making history in our club to admit a female member into our club, it is certainly a milestone that this is the first time we ever have a lady member in our club which had been dominated by male persons since we were chartered in 1954. In this particular occasion, PP John Kwok rewrite a new lyric from the song "You Are My Sunshine" to celebrate this occasion as follows: