President Nick welcomed Rotarians and guests to our feature packed OPEN DAY luncheon meeting.

Fellowship Chairman PP Paul thanked for our condolence before introduced our long list of guests.

PP Tang Kam Tim, Rotary Club of HK Sunrise

A.G. Jose Jantos, Rotary Club of Portimao, Portugal. GSE program with Mario Lexerm, A. Da Silva, Pavol Canha, Mario Pires.

These Rotarians introduced their guests:

Mrs Norma Yeung & Mrs Thomas Yeung, Guest of Rtn Nico Kooij

Mr F Yim, Guest of President Nick

Mr & Mrs John McMeekan, our ex-Rotarian form Portgual

Miss Joyce Chong, Miss Chai Hong, Guests of Rtn Peter Barrett

Miss Kiko Ko, of HK University, Guest of PP Ronald Lu

Announcement:
Mar. 18th : Spring Dinner
Mar. 20th / 21st : District Conference at HITEC. Please sign up for dinner.
Our leper project and bulletin work will be on display.
1998 District Conference Findings. It is available, please contact Rtn Deborah. President Nick highly recommended every Rotarian to read it. In addition, we showed our appreciation for PP Ronald for his conference work despite recovering from a serious car accident.
April 28th : Horserace Night - Fellowship program.

Sergeant-at-Arms Rtn. Simon collected contribution totaling $1670 with our Birthday Boy PP Albert paid not to sing.

Rotary at Work

Due to significant numbers of potential good members, President Nick described our Rotary in Action : [from global, our HK district, and our HKS club actions.]

Polio plus: For the past many years, Rotary International has been active in assisting Polio prevention globally. Many countries have been declared Polio-free: China, Philippines, and others. Last year our district involved in a special program in Bangladesh giving 20 million children Polio medicines.
With all the flooding in China, Rotary HK district has setup a Rotary Village in China to provide basic living aid.
Duchess of Kent Hospital Fair: Our Club annual event for the past many years [before your writer joined Rotary]. We have donated a computerized machine to measure artificial limb applications.
We have donated a van for Cheshire Home for their staff and patient to travel to remote sites. During this last Chinese New Year, we held a dinner visit to a blind home.
In this month and coming months, our international program will be working on a project for Lepers in the Sichuan Province and Zhuhai, GD province.

Program Chairman Bob Wilson introduced our speaker Mr. Keith Choules, Executive Director, Outward Bound Trust of H.K. He is also a fellow Rotarian of Rotary Club of Kowloon.

History

Outward Bound emphasis is on "thrive on change." British Sir Lawrence Holt of Blue Funnel Shipping Line found outward Bound. During WWII, its ships were rescuing sailors on its way to England. Survival rates of young sailors during rescue were lower than older sailors. Sir Holt were puzzled until his finding that youngster were giving much more easily with much less life experience.

With the help of Mr. Kurt Hahn, headmaster of Gordonstoun a British Royal's favorite school, and Mr. Jim Hogan as the first director, Outward Bound was founded. At that time, their objectives were to provide survival skills, life experience, self-confidence, and teamwork in a 28 days program. The results were the young sailor's survival rate increased significantly.

Hong Kong operation

In 1945, Outward Bound became a registered Charity. In 1970, it was found in HK with 48 all male participants age between 16 to 25. Their HK main base and office is in Tai Mong Tsai, Sai Kung. In 1980, "Ji Fung" was acquired with a 10 person permanent crew and 36 participants. Its 1999 schedule includes the ports in Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, and Philippines. In 1990, it has extended with a Wong Wan Chau Island Base for team development with minimum support. Outward Bound China operation is opened at GuangZhou, of GD province. Mr. Choules is the chairman of that Board with the future hope for a replacement. Also, eventually, their China operation will be self-sustained in the long run.

Some numbers:

Current course : The normal lengths are 2 to 18 days. 18 days is for diploma. 14 days are for summer youth. 5-7 days for school group. All the MBA programs in HK have a 7-day events at Outward Bound.

Corporate client program focuses on team building, change management, commitment, and leadership skills. Many well-known local companies have been clients of Outward Bound.

Because of its non-profit natures, public and education groups pay their fee at cost. One of other principles is "No person shall deprive from Outward Bound experience, financial aid is available especially to special groups or persons. Corporate clients only pay cost plus minimal profit for subsidization.

Financial: They have a financial budget of $26 million with no allowance for capital budget. That means major capital purchase must come from fund raising. 40% of the participant received financial aid.

Clients compose of 34% corporations, 35% public, 21% education, and 10% special group.

Before finishing, Mr. Choules emphasized that only 60% time were spent on activities. The rest of the time is for review enhancing their principal learning-by-doing methodology.

President Nick thanked our speaker and cheers for an eventful luncheon.