Our Fellowship Chairman today was PP George and our Sergeant-at-Arms was PP Kishore. Our Sergeant-at-Arms managed to collect $790 between the raffle and fines.

President Tobias announced that the Inter-city meeting organized by Area 3 would be held on 5th Dec at Ritz Carlton Hotel. While the Rotary Centenary Challenge Club would be held on Shatin Racecourse on 17th December, the District Conference would be held on 22-23 April 2006 at Regal Airport Hotel. The RI Convention, in addition, would be held on 11-14th June 2006 at Copenhagen and Malmo.

Our Club is organizing the District Sports Day, and will be held on 19th February. We will have St. Stephen Fete on 3rd Dec at St. Stephens College at Stanley and will need help from members. While our Christmas Party will be held on 15th Dec at Aberdeen Boat Club, the sign up sheet is ready for members. The AGM will be held on the lunch meeting on 29th December. Meanwhile, the raffle prize of today is an Annual Pass of Hong Kong Museum.

The speaker of today was Ms. Catherine Maudsley and her topic was "The Art of the Deal". Catherine Maudsley is a fine arts consultant who has participated in the auctions for twenty years. She was a graduate student in the early 1980's at Beijing's prestigious Central Academy of Fine Arts before becoming a Commonwealth scholar at the University of Hong Kong. By combining her scholarly background, in-depth knowledge of Chinese art and hands-on experience, Catherine is uniquely qualified to explain the astonishing rise in the Chinese arts market.

The Chinese arts market is growing in leaps and bounds, regularly setting new auction records. A six-inch tall porcelain vase sold recently at Sotheby's for HK$115.48 million, and the buyer is a Mainland Chinese whom had indicated the wealth of some Chinese Arts Buyers. Also she quoted that the three animal heads auctioned in Hong Kong couple years ago got a very high price. In fact, the main purpose of the buyer was to retain the Chinese antique back into a China Museum. The economic situation in China has changed a lot, and China has plenty of collectors now investing in the Chinese antique market, in which keeps bidding up the prices.