What Happened at Our Meeting
on
10th September, 2003
President Henry opened the meeting by welcoming the District Governor Jones Wong, DGE Alex Mak (Kingspark), AG Joseph Chan (Wanchai), District Secretary Tony Wong (Happy Valley) and PDG Anthony Hung (Taipo).
Director Laurence welcomed the visiting Rotarian PP Ozer Ebrahim (HK Northeast).
VP Robert came forward to give the Sergeant-At-Arms' report that collected $1500 from members and guests. That was bumped up to $2000 while he was still talking. What a good job of raising donations by VP Robert.
He also announced a coming up gathering on the 27th of this month at Director Laurence's house at Fairview Park, Yuen Long. This is going to comprise of karaoke, BBQ, wines etc.
Pres Henry then made a few announcements. First he gave a report on the Board meeting held on the previous Thursday. We received an application for funding from the HK School for the Deaf. The purpose for the funding is to support their building up of a multi-medial room in preparation of their conversion from special treatment school to mainstream school in September 2004. The Authority concerned has approved that. The club examined the project and decided to approve the funding at the amount of $300,000, which is going to be met by members as well as financial re-organization in the coming year. This project is going to mark our 50th anniversary. PP Hubert will be heading the funding.
There will be a Jokes night in October. PP Robert will have the details in due course.
There will be the District Conference on the 15 and 16th of November. The early bird registration is by the 8th of October. The club will meet the registration fees of $1000. However there will be a Governors' banquet which costs $800 a ticket and members will have to pay for themselves. Members who wish to go to the Conference please contact Henry's secretary Connie.
For the RI Convention held on 23-26 May 2004, our club will organize a delegation to our sister club Osaka Jonan for their 25th anniversary for 2 days just prior to the Convention. The delegation plans to leave HK on the 20th and already 12 people have registered. Director Lawrence will have the details for members interested.
Then DG Jones gave an account introducing our RI President JONATHAN B. MAJIYAGBE. He is from Nigeria, Africa and it is the first time in RI's history that an African holds this post.
The following is a summary of his profile:
Jonathan B. Majiyagbe is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, is principal counsel in his own company J.B. Majiyagbe & Co. He is a member of the Honourable Body of Benchers, a former member of the interim judicial service committee, Kano State, a past vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association, and a member of the International Bar Association. He has served as a trustee of the Kano Lebanon Club and the Kano Club.
He was a long-time Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Kano and is currently the Chairman, Nigerian Red Cross Society, Kano Branch. Mr. Majiyagbe is also a member of the Kano Chamber of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture.He has been a Rotarian since 1967; Mr. Majiyagbe is a member and past president of the Rotary Club of Kano. He has served Rotary International as district governor, International Assembly instructor, committee member, director and trustee of the Rotary Foundation. He is a recipient of the Rotary Foundation Meritorious Service and the Distinguished Service Awards.
He gave us the theme of the year: "Lend A Hand" which reminds us to readily give our hands to help the others in need.
DG Jones then expanded on the idea of "Lend A Hand".
We can lend a hand to the community, the club, the world and the people in our vocations.1. Community: develop projects to provide food, shelters, and clothing and improve the quality of life to the poorest members of the community.
2. Vocation: uphold high ethical standard, use our knowledge and skill to help younger people to progress in their career.
3. World: reach out to the people in all cultures, religions, and race, develop projects to educate the uneducated and achieve world peace.
4. Club: diversify the membership, make members feel they are an integral part of the club, strengthen friendship upon which the Rotary Foundation is build, work to expand the membership.
He mentioned that nothing will happen unless first there is a dream and we take risks to make the dream a reality. One of his own dreams is to increase the district membership by 5% and he is glad to see our club has put the target down as 10%. He recently chartered 2 new clubs in Mongolia and increased the membership by 57 already.
His other dream is to reach the target of raising US$250,000 from the region, which would be possible if clubs with 20 members or less can raise US$3,000; clubs with 20-50 members US$5,000 and clubs with 50 members or more US$8,000.
He announced the centennial project of the district that is to give hepatitis B vaccination to 1 million newborn babies in China in the next 10 years. HK$2 millions is needed for this project.
He invited nomination of one good dedicated Rotarian from individual clubs for the service citation award, which is awarded by the RI President. The deadline for this will be in early February 2004.
Lastly DG Jones presented to our club 45 pins. Each of these has 4 flags on it: China, Hong Kong, Macau and Mongolia. These are warmly received on our behalf by Pres Henry, who thanked the delegations visit and closed the meeting by proposing a toast to RI coupled with the Rotary clubs of HK North East, Mid-Level, Wanchai, Taipo, & Happy Valley.
Elite Chicken Farmer A woman walks into her accountant's office and tells him that she needs to file her taxes.
The accountant says, "Before we begin, I'll need to ask a few questions.
He gets her name, address, social security number, etc. and then asks..................
"What is your occupation?"
The woman replies, "I'm a high-priced whore."
The accountant balks and says, "No, no, no. That will never work. That is much too crass. Let's try to rephrase that."
The woman says, "OK, I'm a high-end call girl".
"No, that is still too crude. Try again."
They both think for a minute, then the woman states, "I'm an elite chicken farmer."
The accountant asks, "What does chicken farming have to do with being a whore or a call girl?".
"Well, I raised over 5,000 little peckers last year."
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& Hon Tres. Clark |
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