District Sports Day
13 January 2003

The District held its Annual Sports Day yesterday (12 January). This is one of the family days of the District when members are encouraged to take their families for a day out and have some fun. Each year, the District Governor appointed a club to take charge and traditionally, the club which collected the most points and won the overall championship in one year would become the host club of the Sports Day for the following year.

The District must have had this event for over ten years. In the past, the president of the host club would go to the Joint Presidents' Meeting (JPM), present a budget and seek the consent, support and cooperation of his fellow presidents for the programme. Invariably, no club would object to Sports Days being organized for it would be politically incorrect to openly frustrate or object to motherhood and apple pie. However, they did not feel so inhibited when it came to coughing up the money for it. First, they would discuss ad nauseum the payment method: should each club share the costs equally regardless of the membership size; or should only clubs which agreed to send in sports team pay, Rotary being a democracy; or should it be "users pay" in the same way we organize intercity meetings; and so on. Then the District evolved the District Projects concept which can be loosely defined as projects agreed by the majority of the presidents at the JPM such that even clubs which do not agree to the project would also need to pay. This has in turn, however, led to rather serious consequences. Some clubs would simply not pay and there was no sanction or method to enforce. I recall the club president of the the host club going to the JPM pleading other clubs to pay up for a few meetings, months after the Sports Day.

Such unnecessary agony and ignominy were dispensed with in one stroke when the JPM of 2000-01 decided that the Sports Day being an indisputable District Project should be funded from the District Budget on a per capita basis. The generous presidents in fact allocated $100,000 for the event that year. Successive governors left an allocation in the District Budget with some adjustments, but it has meant that the host club for the annual sports day now no longer need to go cap in hand to other clubs for funding.

This evolution is indeed positive, except that clubs and members these days do not seem to treasure what they have fought so hard for over the years. These days, they do not patronize the event as much as before. This year, for example, the host club has hired a professional team to organize the event which can cater for many participants. The day before the event, only eight clubs indicated they would field a sports team to the event or any members at all. At the peak of the event, there were about 200 participants, of whom at least half were spouse and children. One past governor was there throughout and another stayed for the opening. It became a match between a few clubs. Quite a few events were short of participants and for some, registering for the events would guaranteea medal. Those who were there had a great time. It was a very pleasant and fine day. The sky was blue, the air unpolluted, well, almost and the temperature, perfect. In the end, the host club, luckily or unluckily won the overall championship.