Message
from Nigel Watt
Club
President 1979-78
This
publication sets out in some detail the events and
activities of the Rotary Club of Hong Kong South during the
Rotary year which ended on 30 June 1980. It also looks
ahead to the new Rotary year and the plans of our club for
the months which lie ahead.
The aim of
our club is to serve our community through team effort and
good fellowship and to use our resources to benefit as many
people as possible. The detailed report of this review has
been prepared by the Chairmen of the four service
committees, Club Service, Community Service, International
Service and Vocational Service, and it is my purpose in this
presidential message to outline the broad policy guidelines
under which these four avenues of service have operated so
actively during the period under review.
Your
President and your Board of Directors are very conscious of
the fact that they were elected into office in a most
significant year of Rotary history. The year 1979/80 was
the year of Rotary International’s 75th birthday,
and we were all determined that during this very special
year, our club should be active in all avenues of service.
Our first
aim was to improve fellowship in the club by strengthening
our weekly programmes, maintaining a pattern of strong and
entertaining speakers, and thereby encouraging greater
attendance at all club functions. The objective of Rotary
fellowship is service to the community, and we recognized at
the same time that an ambitious community service programme
should be mounted during the year. Thanks to the hard-work
of the respective community chairmen, the members of their
committees, and our Directors, these objectives were
achieved. Our club has won the reputation in Rotary circles
of being one of the friendliest and warmest club in Hong
Kong. Also our monthly ladies’ nights have become a regular
and notable feature at the Country Club at Wongchukhang.
On the
community service side, as you will see from the more
detailed report within the pages of this review, our budget
of approximately $70,000 has been our largest annual
community service budgets since the foundation of our club
seven years ago. We have also been more active than usual
in the field of international service and have assisted
people in India and Sri Lanka with gifts of much needed
equipment. We have also strengthened our links in Rotary
International by forming a sister club relationship with the
Club of Centreville, Ohio, U.S.A., mainly through the
efforts of our former President Ed Jones, who is now a
member of that club. This is our second sister club
relationship, the first having been formed with the Rotary
Club of Taipei South a year earlier during the presidency
Paul Young.
On
vocational service, a new emphasis was placed during the
year on good vocational speakers as part of our strengthened
speakers programme. To remind each member of our club of
their Rotary responsibilities, a special plaque depicting
the four-way test was designed by the Vocational Service
Chairman and distributed on 23 February 1980, Rotary
International’s 75th birthday, to every member of
the club, and these plaques now grace the walls of many
notable offices in Hong Kong.
Perhaps
one of the most inspiring aspects of the period has been the
new feeling of cooperation between the 17 Rotary clubs in
Hong Kong and Macau which has developed during this special
birthday year. Members of the Rotary Club of Hong Kong
South have been active in district Rotary service with PP
Robin De Morgan taking on the duties yet again of Treasurer
to the District Conference, and your President accepted the
additional task of Public Relations Adviser to the District
governor and the editorship of two newspaper supplements,
one in Chinese and one in English which were published
jointly by all the Rotary clubs in Hong Kong and Macau to
mark this anniversary year.
Throughout
the year your President and your Board of Directors have
been particularly conscious of the fact that their work has
been made possible only by the work of their predecessors
and also that this will be further developed by the new team
in 1980/81. The fact that we collect money in one Rotary
year for expenditure in the next year has added to this
sense of continuity. This financial continuity has been
even further emphasized during the period under review by
the successful formation of the 300 Clubs which, under the
energetic leadership of Rtn Christopher Brown, has raised
approximately $60,000 for the club’s future expenditure on
community service activities. Our work has also been
greatly aided by our good fortune in having the services for
yet another year of our able and hard-working Secretary, Rtn
Mike Venables. It is he, together with our First Vice
President, Raymond Lu and our Second Vice President, Frank
Archibald, our International Service Chairman John Quinlan
(who was succeeded towards the end of the year by Rtn Jack
Attias) and our Vocational Service Chairman Rtn Rex Huo, our
Treasurer, Rtn Michael Tsoi, and our hard-working team of
directors, which have made this year’s progress possible. I
know that Incoming President Raymond Lu will have similar
support from his committee and the club membership and I
wish him and his committee every success for the Rotary year
1980/81 which lies ahead.
More History
