Contents

Editorial (Changes and Continuity) - By John Wan
President's Message - By President Raymond Sin
Letters to Editor
Good Luck in the 2009 Bid - By Harry
Also in the Members Only Version - Editor

editorial

Changes and Continuity

This is the time of the year when our Rotary organization is busy preparing for leadership changes at every level, from the RI President at Evanston to the governor in every district and the president at the local club. For nearly a century, Rotarians have accepted this annual changing of guards as given. At the international level, RI has developed mechanisms to ensure continuity thereby maintaining the necessary consistency and credibility. For example, all RI Directors serve a two-year term so that at any one time at least half of the board members are veterans. Then there are the Rotary Foundation Trustees and their committees, the Council of Past Presidents, and very importantly, the Office of the General Secretary. Between them, the Rotary leadership have developed a system which enable them to serve the world better.

It would seem logical that similar mechanisms ought to be developed at the district level. Indeed, following Carlo Ravizza's call for continuity, the district leadership created a continuity committee whereby three successive governors would sit together regularly to discuss major issues affecting the District. More significantly, in 2000-01, the District hired a management consultant to advise how the Rotary Information Centre can better serve the interests of the leadership and membership. The consultant made a series of recommendations aimed at making RIC more relevant to present day needs, including staff training and development. Unfortunately, Governor Johnson Chu appears to be content with the Report gathering dust and has not seen it fit to implement many of the recommendations.

We now spend more than half a million dollars each year to keep the RIC running, mainly on staff, or about 40% of the annual budget, but many senior and experienced Rotarians in the District have questioned whether the contribution is value for money, or more fundamentally, what we are getting out of it.

Let us pause to see how our partners in service have been doing. I refer, in particular, to the Lions Clubs International (LCI) District 303 and the Hong Kong Junior Chamber (HKJC). Now, both organizations manage a functional and effective secretariat funded by membership dues. Both organizations provide their elected representatives a budget and authority to incur reasonable expenses on administration and community service. And naturally, both organizations charge their members district dues at rates rather higher than what we each contribute to our district.

One very interesting angle about these two organizations is that they both have high regard for continuity in leadership notwithstanding the high degree of financial autonomy and authority vested in the reigning leadership. Past governors of LCI District 303 and past national presidents of HKJC have continued to be active not only in their organizations, but also in the community. They help shape long range and strategic planning. In the case of LCI District 303, for example, the past governors have helped to forge vital links and develop understanding between Hong Kong and the Mainland, resulting in two service clubs being established in the Mainland. In the case of HKJC, the senior members have developed close links with the All China Youth Federation and quite a few senators and past national presidents hold posts at provincial and national level.

Back to our District, we too have past governors and past presidents who can open doors in the Mainland at many levels. Many of them have been active in the community, but they are generally not identified with Rotary when they perform such good work and are not duly recognized by Evanston even when they hold themselves out as Rotarians while building schools and healing the sick in the Mainland.

We need to think afresh and decide how we should position ourselves in the community, in the District, in the region and in the world, particularly in relation to service in the Mainland, not because we need public recognition as such, which would help our membership growth, but because it would facilitate our work in the Mainland and make us so much more efficient and effective in delivering the service to the people in the Mainland who badly need our service. We need to start somewhere and fast. As a first step, we must learn to preserve our strengths and consolidate our resources. Gloria Chan will assume the Office of District Governor in a few days. We hope she would give priority to a Continuity Committee and revisit the recommendations in the consultancy report on RIC. We look forward to her leadership and we believe she can expect unqualified support from all her predecessors.

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President's Message

Kingspark won the District Governor's Special Award

President Raymond Sin - Published on 18 June 2002 in Members Only Version

DG Johnson Chu set up a Special Award Programme for all current presidents of District 3450 (50 clubs altogether) this Rotary year. The Programme aims to encourage each club president to motivate his members to support the Rotary movement and District 3450 in a number of ways. The rules and the point system developed for the programme are all related to performance as a club, for example, how the membership fared in club projects, in club administration and in attendance, at District functions and events, in contribution to the Rotary Foundation, in recruitment of new members and so on. The DG would allocate points for each area. With the support from all of you, Kingspark has become the Champion in the Award Scheme, winning 920 out of 1000 points (full marks)!

This year of presidency has changed me tremendously. It was a very tough time at the beginning. I had to catch up with a lot of things and problems, settle down quickly and find solutions to these problems. It was really nice that I received much encouragement and support from some of you to enable me to get through fiinally. The run-in period gradually turned into a fully efficient period, and I started to gain a lot of friendship in the JPM and at the district level, which had in turn made my job easier and myself happier. Thus , even though I had a bumpy ride towards the end of the year, I could still keep myself strong in the mind to serve the club and Rotary. I must say that it is everyone of you who has made this achievement possible. Without your fellowship and support, I could never have carried out my duty in such a fruitful way.

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Letters to Editor

You are welcome to write to Club Webmaster John Wan on any topic, particularly in response to articles published in Kingspark News. We would publish all contributions as long as the authors identify themselves, the contents are not offensive or abusive, and would not offend common decency or common sense. You need not be a Rotarian to write to us and you have a choice to withhold your name in the published version. Where the contents make reference to statements or policies of individuals or organizations, we would try to obtain a response fro the latter for publication in the same issue if possible.

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Good Luck in the 2009 Bid

By Harry

I would like to respond to your editorial in Kingspark News on your district's bid to host the 2009 convention. I thought I would make a few comments regarding the difficulties of organizing such a large scale activity, despite the apparent readiness of Hong Kong in terms of resources, backing, etc. It reminds me of the Olympics and the competitive bidding wars and long drawn-out process of selecting venues and host cities/countries. In some cases, there have been historical cognizant accommodations, such as the choosing of Athens for a particular Olympic anniversary. There are, however, surprise selections, such as the city of Atlanta for a summer Olympics which raised many eyebrows. And in fact, post Atlanta, many complaints were voiced at the organization and host city. The presentation of those Olympics, the idea that they were "America's Olympics" turned off many viewers and countries, the haughtiness to label something as worldly as the Olympics as "American".

It would seem that a heavy dose of politics is involved in these matters. For example, the United States continues to gain repeated bids for various summer locales, under the guise that the venue be warm-weathered, etc. Without a vigorous system for selection, the process lends itself to criticism of haphazardness and unscrupulous conduct, as witnessed by the exposed scandal emanating from the Salt Lake bid, etc.

It doesn't sound as if Rotary is under such scrutiny or at such a level, but such elements or the basic underlying sentiments would likely exist. It is likely that a network of precedents would exist, and there tends to be the playing of favourites, merely taking turns at the helm. I can see how this can thus block legitimate bids and leave unsuccessful bidders scratching their heads. If it were as simple as meeting basic criterion and then joining a rotating circle, there might be more of the foreign concept that many view merely as a utopian ideal, namely equity.

Regardless, I wish you much luck in your 2009 bid.

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1. Rotary's New Program to Create Future World Leaders - From RI News Basket
2. Jokes - From District Website
3. Letter from Mr Yim Chin Ming, Principal of Wong Fut Nam College
4. Smidsson scores only goal - By Michael Eyles
5. Board Composition - From Club Website

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