What Happened at Our Meeting
on
22nd September, 2004
What Happened at Our Meeting
on
22nd September, 2004
Pres. Rudy announced commencement of our meeting at 1:20pm.
Visiting Rotarian : Dir. Laurence extended warm welcome to our very close VIP, PDG Anthony Hung of Rotary Club of Tai Po.
Birthday Boy : Celebration to, not only the Birthday Boy of the Week, but also the speaker of the day was none other than our ever green member, PP Andrew Chen. From our hearts, Happy Birthday song was sung to him led by (again being happily chosen) Rtn John V.
Announcement:
Pres. Rudy announced that our Club had already managed to have a rare collection of 5 stamps relating to Rotary, more stamps would be added whenever available. PE Robert informed members regarding the coming President Night for IPP Henry on Friday, 8 Oct. 2004, that:-A. 3 tables of Chinese cuisine at CCC Club were reserved, free to our members and spouses/ partners, so far 24 persons had signed up. More members were encouraged to come and enjoy the fellowship.
B. it would also be a fund raising event, all proceeds would be for our Club's future service projects
C. in addition to Fortune/ Fung Shui talk, cosmetic make-ups, now games and raffle draw being included as the entertainment.
D. members were called for to bring along gifts for auction or raffle draw. Collections of the auction would be for Club's future expenses.Rtn Kishu announced the Excelsior's free car parking arrangement that 2 free parking of 2 hours each, on first come first served basis, being available to our members attending the Wednesday's luncheon meeting. Other than these, parking would be charged accordingly.
Sergeant-at-Arm's Report: Rtn John V's report on Red Box Collection of the day was $640-.
Speaker of the Day : Dir. Laurence formally introduced our PP Andrew, and purposely prolonged the introduction in order for the speaker to have a few more bites of his lunch before coming up to the rostrum.
"A (Fairy) Tale of the present day Drybulk Freight Market"- PP Andrew discussed the recent surge on dry bulk freight market and explained why the present day freight rates for dry bulk were at its historical height.
He explained that as in all business, supply and demand dictated prices in the market places, shipping was no exception. In fact shipping market was extremely sensitive to market demand as it competed in a global market.
The recent surge in freight rates started in the 2nd quarter of 2003, he said, and caught everyone (including all the shipping experts) by surprise. A number of unrelated events (such as the shut-down of nuclear power stations in Japan for safety reasons and the very hot summer in Europe in 2003) had created sudden extra demand for coal. At the same time, the rapid economical growth in China, especially in the steel industry, meant additional demand for ships to transport the much needed raw materials such as coal, iron ore, cement etc. from around the world.
This plus the additional surge in demand for soya bean in China had placed heavy demand on ships for transportation. This sudden demand for cargoes created congestions at both loading and discharging ports. This had the effect of reducing the availability of ships in the market place and pushed the freight rates even higher.
PP Andrew informed Rotarians that shipping had always been a high investment and high risk business. In the past return on investments in this business was very low. The recent surge in demand had resulted in many new building orders. Once supply caught up with demand in the next two or three years, the market will no doubt come down again.
However, at present shipowners were enjoying the good market and its everyone's guess for how long this will last.
Vote of Thanks to Speaker: Pres. Rudy presented to PP Andrew a picture of him in action, and thanked him for the very informative speech. He also mentioned an investment opportunity downunder (interested rich party please refer to Pres. Rudy).
Next Week's programme : Pres. Rudy announced that due to Mid Autumn Festival, there would be no meeting for the next Wednesday (29/9).
Meeting Adjourned : Pres. Rudy adjourned the meeting with a toast to RI and coupled with the Rotary Club of Tai Po.
!Special announcement!
Rescheduled Event Now :
Pres. Rudy announced that the President's Night would be on
Friday, 8th Oct. 2004, at Craigengower Cricket Club (CCC),
Happy Valley, Hong Kong,
free to our members and their spouse/or partner. 3 tables of Chinese cuisine have been arranged, members were encouraged to come and enjoy the fellowship. There will be fortune telling, games, & raffle draw.Please contact PE Robert or PP John for details
Special Rotary News
From reliable source, the nominating committee for RI President for the Rotary year 2006-2007 had met in USA and decided to nominate the following Past RI Director as the successful candidate :
William B. Boyd of Auckland, N.Z.
William B. Boyd
William B. Boyd, of the Rotary Club of Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand, is the selection of RI's Nominating Committee for President of RI in 2006-07, which met on 13 September. He will become the president-nominee on 1 December if there are no challenging candidates.
A former member and past president of the Rotary Club of Wellington South, New Zealand, Boyd has served RI as district governor, director, treasurer, member and chair of regional and international committees, group discussion leader and moderator at the International Assembly, and RI presidential representative to local and international conferences. As a Rotary leader, he has conducted training seminars in New Zealand, as well as Cook Islands, Fiji, and Western Samoa.
Devoting much of his time to supporting Rotary's PolioPlus program, Boyd has served as a member of the PolioPlus Task Force, coordinator in the PolioPlus Partners program, and consultant to the International PolioPlus Committee. He also chairs the management committee of Rotary Down Under, a Rotary regional magazine. He is a recipient of The Rotary Foundation's Citation for Meritorious Service and Distinguished Service Award.
Before his retirement in 1995, Boyd was general manager of Gordon & Gotch (NZ), Ltd., New Zealand's largest magazine distributor. He is a trustee of New Zealand's Trees for Survival Trust. He was an RI representative to the National Kidney Foundation and Intellectually Handicapped Society, and is a former elder and youth leader in the Presbyterian Church and a warranted Scout master. He was also a rugby referee for 31 years.
The nominating committee members are Keith Barnard-Jones, England; Peter Bundgaard, Denmark; Moses Mo-Chi Cheng, Hong Kong; Hipólito S. Ferreira, Brazil; Jack Forrest, USA; William G.B. Gant, Canada; Samuel L. Greene, USA; S. Aaron Hyatt, USA; Umberto Laffi, Italy; Hans J. Müller-Rech, Germany; W. Grattan O'Connell, New Zealand; Donald E. Osburn, USA; Louis Piconi, USA; William T. Sergeant, USA; Antonio M. Serrano, South Africa; Fumio Tamamura, Japan; and P.C. Thomas, India.
District News
District Vocational Service Luncheon Meeting
Thursday 21 October, 2004
Registration: 12:30 pm
Meeting: 12:50 pm
Venue: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Harbour Room, 3/f, Chater Road, Central
Fee: Earlybird ( on /before 30/9) : HK$280
Late registration: HK$300The guest speaker for this function is Mr. Anthony Neoh, SC, JP, the Chief Advisor of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.Mr. Neoh is also the visiting Professor at Peking University. He hold various adjunct academic appointments in universities in China, including Hong Kong. He was chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) from 1995 to 1998 and chaired the Technical Committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commission (IOSCO) from1996 to 1998. Prior to his appointment as Chairman of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, he had been in various directorate position in the Hong Kong civil service (1955-1979) and was at the private Bar from 1979-1995
Members of the Rotary club of Hong Kong Island East are encouraged to join and support this function. Please send an email to Hon Sec. John Kwok to sign up for this very informative session.
Joke
LITTLE BOYS
Two young boys walked into a pharmacy one day, picked out a box of Tampax and proceeded to the checkout counter. The man at the counter asked the older boy, "Son, how old are you?"
"Eight," the boy replied. The man continued, "Do you know how these are used?"
The boy replied, "Not exactly, but they aren't for me. They're for him. He's my brother. He's four. We saw on TV that if you use these you would be able to swim and ride a bike. He can't do either one.
Photographs of Our Meeting
on
22nd September, 2004
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Our speaker today was our own PP Andrew who spoke
on the shipping business.
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PE Robert kept us up to date on our IPP's night on
Oct 8th.
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Rtn Kishu gave us more information on parking facilities
at the Excelsior.
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(L to R) PDG Uncle Peter, PP Andrew Chen our speaker
for today & Pres. Rudy. |
(L to R) Hon Sec. John IV, Rtn John V &
PDG Anthony Hung (Taipo). |
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A friendly twosome enjoying the meeting are PP Tim
& PDG Anthony who moved around. |
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(L to R) Hon Sec. John IV , PE Robert , SAA John V.
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Pres. Rudy congratulates PP Andrew on his birthday,
watching on is SAA John V.
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Another couple of friends are Dir's Jason & Paul.
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(L to R) Hon Tres. Laurence, PP's Stephen, J.L. &
Dir. Hubert.
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Our group photo showing PDG Uncle Peter, PDG Anthony
& Pres. Rudy
with our speaker & members on 22nd September, 2004. |
