Rotary Club of Hong Kong South Meeting Report

resident Bob welcomed Rotarians and Rotariannes to our regular meeting.

Fellowship Chairman PP Mike Burrell introduced visiting Rotarian John Clemence of Club Uxbridge UK.

These Rotarians introduced their guests:

Agnes Ting, guest of PP Dennis Ting.

Wayne Robinson, guest of PP Mike Burrell.

Weisen Li and Jamie Lee, guests of Rtn. Gary. Weisen and Jamie are our Interacts' President and Chairman respectively.

Sergeant-at-Arms Rtn. Leslie announced a total of HK$1,600 of fines and contributions has been collected.

President Bob presented our banner to visiting Rotarian John Clemence.

The Birthday Boy this week is Rtn. Nico. He has paid us to sing. As usual, Rtn. Paul leaded the singing.

The following announcements were made:

1. Club 888: First draw has been postponed to Nov. 16.

2. Evening meeting on Nov 16: PP Nick will be speaking to us about his trip to the Lepers and will show us a video.

3. There are 3 district sports events: Tennis, Bridge, and Charity Golf Day (Nov 17). Please sign up with Rtn. Francesco if you are interested.

4. Community Services - Sandy Bay Fair: Students from the HK Sea School and HKIS' Interacts are volunteering to help. At the present, 300 pots of plants, radios etc have been obtained. More merchandize will be needed. Please contact Rtn. Simon for donation.

Weisen and Jamie reported Interact activities with HKIS this year. HKIS has been our Interact since 1987 and this year about one third of its students (a total of 240 students) are participating. Their aim this year is to increase interaction with the community to raise funds for charity. This year's charity activities include visit to old folks home, talent show at HKIS cafeteria, St. Steven's students swim at HKIS and a fashion show.

President Bob introduced our Speaker Ms. Gillian Horsley. Ms. Horsley is originally from South Africa. She has been involved in many fund raising activities in over 4 continents. She loves writing and has made many contributions to journal and magazines. Ms. Horsley is currently the principal of the Carmel School. Carmel School has two campuses. One located on Robinson Road and the other is located just opposite the Island School near Kennedy Road. The school is for students are from 1st Grade to 6th Grade.

Ms. Horsley believes that when we are talking about teaching children, we should not ask the question "what should we teach our children?" But instead, we should ask, "what should children be learning?" For today's children, learning reading, writing and arithmetic is not enough.

Nowadays, universities want to take straight As student with added values. Ms. Horsley believes the values are:

1. Vision - "think outside the box".

2. Attitude - tolerance of other cultures

3. Life-Long-Learning - continuous learning

4. Understanding - teacher and parents are facilitators

5. Enthusiasm - not only for knowledge but what the world offers; exploration!

6. Social Conscience - interaction with the community

Rtn. Nico thanked our speaker in his usual gracious manner.

Everyone was then invited to drink the customary toast to the Rotary International and with that the meeting ended.