Contents

President's Message - By Raymond Sin
Our beloved Charter President (Part 2) - Alexander Mak
Rewarding Trip to Sathorn - By Stephen Lin
Trip to Bangkok - By Dora Dai
Upcoming Events
The Board

President's Message

By President Raymond Sin (2001-2002)

As you all knew, we visited our sister club, the Rotary Club of Sathorn in Bangkok during the last weekend. PP Ted and Dora, VP Peter, Rtn Amy, Rtn Stephen and Huey Jin, IPP Tom, PP Marco, PE Anwer, Eliza and myself made up the delegation of eleven. There should be more members going except that some dropped out during the last minute when Sathorn changed their meeting from Thursday to Friday night. Before I forget, I would like to thank these people, since they had put in a great effort to make this trip such a big big success. I must thank Rtn Stephen who did all the detail organization of whole trip right from the beginning to the end. That was why we did not have to worry about when we flew, where we stayed and what programs we had. All the past presidents there helped to advise me on some of the formality and protocols for our activities, especially when I made the speech in front of many important Thai officials including Members of the Parliament, senior officers from the Military, the Police force, the local community and PDGs and DGE from Rotary. PP Peter and Rtn Amy took good care of us and our spouses including arranging for Thai Massage and shopping. And now we understood that VP Peter did not want to bend like a bridge. Of course, I cannot forget to thank all the Rotaryannes, for they were so supportive (by allowing their better halves to join in all the programs), so cheerful (we had a lot of fun and laugh) and helpful (they helped to do all the shopping for us). At the end of the trip, we all agreed that it was a right decision to invite our spouses to come with us, so that we could enjoy Rotary as well as family life at the same time. We will make an effort to persuade more of our spouses to go next year.

Regarding the program, I think Rtn Stephen will give a more detail account of it. I must say from my heart that our sister club had done a lot to make us feel at home. We were grateful not only for the many Sathorn members who were involved so many times taking us out for meals, but also their effort and passion in organizing for us all the programs, including the community projects and the welcome party. They really treated us as honorable guests visiting from a service partner in the Rotary family. This year, they turned the football competition into a regular function between us so that we could do it every year when we visit them. The match was not just for fun and was also part of the community service project. Therefore, it was not just a great fellowship trip to Bangkok next time but also one with an even more meaningful cause. I suppose you will appreciate more when you have read the articles from the other members about this trip.

Back to Kingspark, I think we will have many events coming up in the near future, so I would like you to take a look at the upcoming events list and see which ones you can attend. I just want to highlight a few points for you. I have suggested that we all try to achieve 100% attendance in December as we will only have three meetings in that month. Then, there is the most important event - the AGM on 6th December. I am sure everyone of you understand why it is so important. Then there is the annual Christmas party on 15th December. That is the time for all of us to share our joy and happiness with our family. Besides our regular meetings, we will have many occasions to meet one another, like IPDG John's party, the Christmas parties with Spina Bifida and IDEAL, the regular meeting of our Rotaract club and the annual ball of our mother club. See you soon.

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[Editor: This is the second and last part of an interview with John By PP Alexander Mak. In this issue, John talked about his expectation of Kingspark and responded to the comment that, when he was the DG, he acted like a dictator and did not listen to others.]

What are his expectations of Kingspark?

He would like to see a growth in membership, and that all its members understand and share Rotary's ideal of service. He considered that Kingspark is an effective club with a balanced programme and activities. He considered our attendance to be reasonably good and the level of involvement from our members very satisfactory, having regard to the current adverse economic climate. "Because of the economic downturn, many members cannot put in as much time as they would like to and this is understandable," he remarked. "However, it is more important as to how our members feel about the club," he continued. Apparently, this is what keeps our members in the club.

Now that he has stepped down as the district's governor, he said that he could focus more and spend more time on the club. When he was the District Governor Elect, he wrote an article about the role of past presidents. Now that he is also a past president of Kingspark, he said that it is up to Kingspark to seek advice from him as such. If Kingspark wanted his help, he would be more than willing to lend his hand to our club and our members. Understandably, he preferred to leave it to our club's leadership to do this where necessary rather than imposing this on them. An example of his help is on the club's web-site. He was proud of what he had done with the web-site so far. He had promoted the use of web-sites as a communication tool for Rotary clubs ever since he was the District Governor Elect, and he would like to see that this was done at least in Kingspark.

What is it in Kingspark that he would like to see improved?

He would encourage its members to know more about the Rotary Foundation. He said that members should already know something about this, since Kingspark had helped the District to organize a District Rotary Foundation Seminar before. However, he considered that our club's awareness of, and hence participation in, the Rotary Foundation was not sufficient. He would like to see, not a 100% Paul Harris Fellow club in Kingspark as such, but at least a contribution of US$100 a year from all members. He was disappointed that this was not yet happening.

What attracted him to become the District's governor?

His answer appears to be simple. He had served the District through many positions, and governorship is something that he had not tried. The idea of his running for the governorship was also prompted by a few past district governors who pointed out to him that that would be a more effective way for him to serve the District. Furthermore, he would also like to introduce a more systematic approach to the District's governance and implement some of his ideals. He was also motivated by the fact that Rosita had recovered rather well from her first major operation, and he would like to go through the pleasant experience of governorship together with her - an experience that not everyone could have the chance to go through.

The couple was all geared up to his being the District's governor. They went to the Rotary Institute in Taipei together and later the Rotary International Assembly in Anaheim, and were both looking forward to the District Installation in June 2000 when they were shocked to learn of the relapse of Rosita's cancer cells and the seriousness of her illness. All of a sudden, they had to face new problems in their lives. In particular, they were worried about the possible severe pain brought to Rosita in the initial stages of the chemotherapy. Luckily, she responded well to the treatment, but Rosita ended up spending most of her time doing chemotherapy rather than helping John out as they had planned.

How did John manage his time then, when he was torn between his job in the government, his duties as the district governor and his care for Rosita, all at the same time?

"The priority is to care for Rosita," John said. However, this did not actually happen as such. When he was not working, John spent all his time doing Rotary work. Luckily, Rosita did not blame him for that. In fact, Rosita did not feel good in not being able to help him as planned. Emotionally and through the training in Anaheim and Taipei, she understood well that she was supposed to help John in his work as the governor. This understanding was important to John, since otherwise, he would have to account to Rosita for everything he did during his term of office as the DG, which would definitely make his life much more difficult.

Would he regard his district governorship as successful? How many marks would he give to himself in this regard?

He considered that he achieved more than a pass mark. He would like to be remembered as someone who had tried hard, against staunch opposition from certain quarters, to implement a genuine and rational funding scheme for the District. He explained that, in the past, each club shared the district expenditure equally regardless of the size of the respective clubs. The successful inclusion of some of these expenditure into the district budget, which is funded by the per capita dues, has rationalized the contributions of each individual Rotarian towards such district expenses.

He would also like to be seen as someone who had tried hard to make members of the District understand what Rotary was all about and what effective clubs were. In other words, he tried hard to put more Rotary into the Rotarians. This was hard work and he never regretted for a moment what he did.

How would he respond to the comment that, when he was the DG, he acted like a dictator and did not listen to others?

He considered that this was a sweeping statement and thus meaningless. "In bad times, when everyone is having difficult times, we need dictators - what we called 'benevolent autocrats'" he said. He also remarked that very few Rotarians or district officials had in fact come to him in these terms. He believed that was probably because they could not substantiate it with examples. Besides, he considered himself an advocate of democracy in having implemented a democratic mechanism, in the form of the Governor's Policy Committee, to listen to the ideas of all parties. He reiterated that he had tried hard to implement a more systematic approach to the Rotary machinery in the District. He had also responded systematically on the ideals of Rotary through writing his series of 'letters'. "Furthermore, as District Governor, I have a captive audience to whom I have a duty to interpret the Rotary ideal of service," he said. He also added that the office of the district governor was built on the premise of the many opportunities it affords the holder to serve others. "It may require a dictatorial approach, and if that makes me more effective, I would not be ashamed to use it," he remarked with his usual confidence.

What is the biggest challenge in his term as the DG?

His answer is, other than time management, how to overcome his personal conflict. The fact is that Rotary was not his job. Nor was it his family's. So why was it that he ended up spending so much time on it - at a time when any normal person with a seriously ill spouse would want to spend more time with his spouse? His biggest challenge was, therefore, how to rationalize this conflict and yet keep the balance.

Is there anything that needs to be improved in the District?

He would like to see a more systematic and less individualist leadership in the District, one with a high degree of transparency and accountability in its leadership. The level of Rotary information in the Rotarians could also be increased. He believed that if we could do that, the presence of Rotary would be felt more in our community. At present, Rotary's public image was still not very strong and the level of its reception in the eyes of the public was also low. This could be improved if we had a better system of continuity in the District.

He said that, in the past, there was little emphasis on continuity, and most RI presidents used to adopt a new Rotary theme and introduced new services and programmes when they assumed their offices. At that time, many Rotarians were confused as to whether such programmes could continue after the 30th of June after the RI president concerned had stepped down from his presidency. Similarly, he considered that we needed to have more emphasis on the continuity of leadership in our District. According to him, we would achieve more in our District, if all our District leaders could take the baton from his/her predecessors and continue to run the missions. At this juncture, John was not hesitant to point out that there was a desire to introduce more continuity in district projects in the last Council on Legislation. There was a feeling then that all district projects should be agreed upon by the governors for three years in succession, and that projects committed by governors of a particular year should be continued by the governors for the next two years. John considered that this continuity concept was very important to the progress of the District, and that effective clubs need to be supported by an effective district.

At the club level, he believed that continuity is also as important, if not more so. For example, when Kingspark had started a project, like the one on Spina Bifida, and when this became a signature project of the club, it should be continued by the club from year to year until it could run on its own.

The interview ended with John's remark, "I had a vision, I tried and I got there." Clearly, he knew what he was doing and how he could achieve his missions in Rotary, and perhaps life.

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Rewarding Trip to Sathorn

By Stephen Lin

(Stephen Lin is International Service Director - Ed.)