Contents

Editorial - By John Wan
President's Message - By President Raymond Sin
The loose ends of the gossip - By Francis Wann

editorial

A Web-based Bulletin

It is never easy to run a club bulletin. It never was and never will be. The primary purpose of any bulletin is to inform, to inform the readers the bulletin is created for. Kingspark News started to issue shortly after the club was formed, and as the charter president of the club and the first editor, I know full well why the bulletin was created and for whom. Kingspark News was created to inform, to educate and hopefully to entertain its readers. And who are the readers? The answer is simple - anyone who would come across Kingspark News.

Our Club began with thirty something members, but the circulation of Kingspark News has always exceeded 100 copies from the beginning. Why? We wanted feedback from other experienced and seasoned Rotarians in the District, so as to enrich our club bulletin and to benefit our members in turn. On the advice of past governor and then club adviser Raymond Wong, we distributed by post the first issues of Kingspark News to all club presidents, district officials and past district governors, in addition to club members of course. It was at a time when communication through the post was the norm and just before fax gained prominence. It was also a rather costly process. It went on for a few months until sending communications through the fax machine became more acceptable and respectable. I gave our readers advanced notice for at least four weeks that future issues for a certain date would be distributed only through fax unless readers specifically requested for them to be delivered through the post. At the club level, and to prepare for the new technology, all members were encouraged, enticed and cajoled to install a fax machine either at home or in the office. I recall that Raymond Sin, now President Raymond, was one of the remaining die-hards who would not acquire a fax machine until quite late. By then, Kingspark News had become rather popular in the District, and readers were demanding for copies, with some continuing to ask for hard copies for quite a long time even after the fax version became the norm. But we tried to satisfy our readers. The result was that our bulletin became even more popular in the District.

Members were very proud of Kingspark News, and quite rightly so. The Governor of the day would, during his official visits to clubs, tell the club presidents and officials to emulate our club's efforts in the production of Kingspark News. Our club got the district award for Best Bulletin for a few years in running and when our bulletin stopped circulating in the District, readers asked why they were taken off the mailing news.

Technology has once again caught us up and today, emails and websites are common modes of communication. I started promoting the District Email System when I was Governor-Elect and many clubs had set up club websites many of which have become the focal point for communication between club members. When I volunteered to be Club Webmaster and with the consent of President Raymond, my first task and mission was to upload all current issues of Kingspark News on the Website as soon as possible. It was something I had enjoyed doing, for I learnt new techniques in the process.

The Club has now decided to have two versions of Kingspark News, one regular version for members only and one web version for everyone to read. This is therefore the first issue of Kingspark News in the web version. Both President Raymond and Editor of the regular version of Kingspark News have agreed that the Webmaster would have independent editoralship, but that articles would only be published on the web version with the consent of the authors. There would be consequential changes tn the club website to provide information on up coming events, for example. The Editorial Board was hopefully that the arrangement would encourage club members to contribute to the regular version.

As the de facto Editor of the Kingspark News Web version, I now urge all readers, whoever and wherever you are, to contact me by email and to contribute to it. This is a new experiment. Let us see what would happen.

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President's Message

By President Raymond Sin (2001-2002)

First of all, I need to apologise to all Kingspark members and the editorial board of the Newsletter for not having written for a few issues. This was because I was terribly upset and distracted recently by some personal problem. Although the problem is not resolved yet, I managed to recover gradually from the down tide of it. I hope that I can get a good outcome, if not the best one. Thank you IPP Tom and CP John for your kind concern and help.

Since I have not written for a while, you could have missed out many accounts of Rotary activities during this period. I would rather, therefore, tell you the most recent ones while my memory lasts and while the interest is still these. Our District held its 42nd Annual Conference at the Kowloon Shangri-La Hotel on16-17 March. Many of the those who attended considered it one of the best conferences in many aspects. The attendance was high, so we would not have a deficit problem. The content was good. The speeches from the RI President Personal Representative Past RI President Clifford Dochterman were excellent. He is the kind of person who speaks like your father, with a soft and sensational tone. He would appreciate what you did right and would not let you feel guilty for not having done what you should have. I was very impressed and deeply moved by his speeches.

Ms Siao Fong Fong was, of course, the most attractive and popular speaker of the event. It was a full house when she spoke to us right after the youth forum. She is definitely a super star. The youth forum was another highlight of the conference when the Rotaractors, Interactors, Rylarians, GSE and Rotary Scholars gave their reports and presentations on what they had achieved in the past year. The presentations were so good that many of us considered that the time was just too short for this forum, if the young generation is the focus of Rotary.

As expected, the Governor's Banquet was definitely a highlight. With PP Haywood Cheung of RC of New Territories as Chairman of the Banquet, you would not be disappointed. This year, he had asked the Presidents to take part in the show. We did a kind of can-can dance, and of course it was just fun. Everyone attending this Conference had enjoyed it very much. You do not know what you have missed if you were not there. I suggest that you go next time just to feel for yourselves the sense of belonging of being a Rotarian. I will try to get the video tapes of Dr Dochterman's speech in the Conference and show it to you in our regular meeting. Then you would know why he ask you the question "When did you become a Rotarian, my friend?"

The other thing I really like to share is the PHF program of our club. At the District Conference, Kingspark gained 3 Awards and also a lot of recognition from the District mainly for our efforts relating to the Rotary Foundation. These recognition and awards belong to all of us. It is the collective achievement of all Kingsparkicans. The District Awards we got are, namely, (1) 100% PHF Club, (2) Highest Number of PHFs and (3) Major Donor to Rotary Foundation. As our club's Rotary Foundation Chairman, PP Ted, had said in the ceremony on 7/3/02, although this program was initiated by a small group of members, it would not be successful without the support and involvement of all the other members (I am sure that PP Ted will give us a full story about this Rotary Foundation program of our club very soon in this newsletter.). Talking about the Ceremony on 7/3, I like to thank all those who were present and who shared the joy with us in the event. In particular, I thank DG Johnson, PDG Anthony Hung (the District Rotary Foundation Chairman), PDG Raymond Wong, AG Johnny and IPDG John for coming to officiate the ceremony. That was a wonderful time. We had presented the PHF Certificate and Pins to 23 new PHF members. As part of the program and to ensure that there is continuity in supporting the Foundation, the program provided the seed money for a fund to be developed by contributions from our members. This fund is intended to motivate, support and match the contributions from Kingspark members (particularly the new members) to enable them to become PHFs in future. Well done, Kingsparkicans.

I like to take this occasion to congratulate our member Rtn Vera. Vera has become a mother on 8/3/02. She has given birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl who weighted over 8 lbs. Girls who were born on 8/3 must be very strong in character. Congratulation, Rtn Vera and well done.

Lastly, our next week's meeting on 28/3 (Thursday night) will be preceded by the March Board meeting. The latter will start at 6:30pm and the former at 7:45pm for regular meeting. Two special points worth noting are that (1) it will be a Joint Board Meeting and (2) the 3rd club assembly will be held in the same regular meeting. So please mark your diary and come to the meeting on 28/3 evening at the Chinese Club.

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The Loose Ends of Gossip

By Francis Wann

(Francis Wann wrote the article on 13 March, shortly before he attended the Editorial Board Meeting - Ed.)

These days and every now and then the chief editor of Kngspark News tends to remind us of our obligations. First it was a passionate appeal, then diplomatic but subtle reminders via emails, then strained messages like "Any articles for issue 19?". Poor Alex. He probably has been steaming with agony in his hot seat. Yes the glorious tradition of a weekly newsletter has made Kingspark a cut above the others, but how much longer?

I sat next to Alex at the celebration dinner last Friday (March 6), and the first thing he mentioned was my contribution, or rather my lack of contribution these days. Indeed what's the role of a Chief editor, were there no articles to edit? My conscience was guilt-ridden temporarily though there wasn't any obvious reason to be so. Should there be a change of direction or focus in the club's bulletin? This and other things would be our focus at this week's editorial board meeting.

Calvin was at our table and Alex asked him to make an arrangement for an interview. Calvin was visibly taken aback at the request and started dillydallying on the subject. When asked to write a profile himself, Calvin said, half jokingly, that he'd simply write "No comment, no comment, no comment."

He thought the interviews were too serious and he's not ready. I made a pledge and gave it some thought. Calvin said he didn't want anything personal, but what's not personal, at least as I see it, was hardly interesting. Calvin, an IT consultant at Hong Kong Economics Times until recently, is senior enough at Kingspark to merit an independent profile, having been one of our charter members. What's on his mind all these years?

With Antony Leung's budget speech still hot in the air, I asked Alex if there had been much discussion about it. Not much, and indeed there's not anything much worth of any serious discussion. There were at least three accountants at our table but all seemed to agree there wasn't any earth shattering gestures in his maiden speech. Designing a budget, especially when it's not your own money, is something like playing jigsaw puzzles, and I suppose the Financial Secretary must have a list of priorities up his sleeves, be it healthcare financing, or land departure tax. Talking about budget, Alex told me the gala premiere raised about HK$280,000 and the bulk of donations came from corporate sponsorship.

Dominic Ko said he's amazed at the term Cognitive Science which allegedly refers to a degree program at a local university. If Dominic has been more in touch with today's trend in higher education, he would have accepted it as part of life. You probably never heard of earth science, materials science or even life science when you were doing your degrees. What is cognitive science today was simply psychology In those days. The diversity of disciplines has produced plenty of obscure university programs, and of course experts of equally obscure branches of knowledge.

Alex is serious and passionate when it comes to education, and he clearly knows what he's talking about. We talked about the much-criticized and much-abused Quality Education Fund, and we lamented at the quality of today's students. What as Rotarians can we do? And what at Kingspark can we do? Maybe it's a sign of the times. I remember I overheard two young blokes at the Foundation Seminar last September who were on the subject of applying for sponsorship for university functions, "Mention Rotary and they seldom reject your application." In our quest for global understanding, have we momentarily forgotten to keep our house in order?

Kingspark is currently sponsoring an international youth conference modelled on the United Nations Assembly and is actively seeking an appropriate venue for the occasion. I guess it should be an exciting one with youngsters of every creed and race decending on a podium discussing (and debating of course) matters of considerable importance. What our human race is up to perhaps largely hinges on how the next generation sees things. And what's on their agenda could be anybody's guess.

While tying up the loose ends of the evening, PDG John arrived apparently after an earlier official function. A copy of one of those sensational weeklies was left on the table with the disgraced playboy Louis Lo Siu-fai on the cover. His day to day adventure should be enough to fill all gossip columns, and undoubtedly there's a market. Yes aren't we all into our own brand of gossip? In a jocular mood, Calvin said he never generated gossip; he only passed it. And John named Mike the gossip keeper which he didn't actively deny.

From gossip to writing, Calvin complained about John's letters as there're quite a lot of medical terms, and he had to reach for his dictionary. Well I remember Peter told me he asked his son to study the letters. Mike joined the fray and confessed he sometimes consulted the Bible to check the facts. Calvin said he would just click, delete, and trash whenever he sees another letter. What a bunch of lovely Rotarians.

Listening to Calvin's remarks has convinced me of his interesting personality. And as I did promise not to be serious in his profile, perhaps he's more prepared to share his thoughts now.

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