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OK, here's the thing. Our old mate Vincent "The Galloping Gourmet" Lam says that the next fellowship will definitely still be held at the critically acclaimed Gaia Restaurant (a member of the Va Bene Group), on Saturday 31 January 2004, and that the owner of Gaia, renown restauranteur Pino Piano wants to attend to us personally, but that's all we know.

 

We have no idea of the time or the cost, so just turn up sometime this Saturday, bring money, and tell 'em using your best Tony Soprano impersonation: "Yo, Vinny Da Lam sent me for some spaghetti and mozza balls. Badabing. Fugetaboutit".

 

 

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2004 Annual Ball - Reminder:

 

 

Yes folks, it's back. The world famous KGM Annual Ball, which was cancelled last year due to SARS, will be held from 7:00 p.m. Saturday 28 February at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

 

This year's theme is "Putting On The Ritz" (as in "Ritz Hotel", not "Ritz Crackers"), and tickets remain reasonably priced at $1,200 per head, which gets you an all-inclusive cocktail hour, a typically excellent six course meal from the Grand Hyatt, free wine all evening long, fun contests, fantastic entertainment, dancing until the wee hours of the morning plus dozens of fabulous prizes to be won.

 

What a great deal - why not organise a table of ten (10) or more for your family, friends and business associates?

 

And, as usual, The Dictator (who has an electronic "kill switch"), ensures that speeches and other formalities are limited to 12 minutes in total, regardless of how many speakers there are, so you and your guests won't nod off in your soup. Remember our Annual Ball is a "FUN raising" event, not a Rotary Information Seminar.

 

Chairman of the Annual Ball is once again our old mate and PE2B Elissa "Babushka" Cohen, who can be contacted on telephone 9481 8378.

For those of you who may wonder if The Phantom is being unfair in his constant criticism of the way District 3450 operates, consider the following.

 

1. District Election Brouhaha: As most of you already know, a committee was appointed to decide who would be District Governor Nominee for the 2005/2006 Rotary Year. One of the two candidates was selected, but the other decided to mount a challenge, so this means each club gets to directly vote for one candidate or the other. OK, I think the system is broken and we should eliminate the committee altogether and go directly to a club vote in order to avoid all the unpleasantness, but that's for another day. It's now club voting time.

So, how does our beloved District allocate votes? Each club gets one vote for every 25 members or "major fraction thereof" (i.e. for every 13 additional members). This means that the RC of Poker Night with 7 members gets 1 vote, and KGM with 57 members gets 2 votes. Hmmmm. So, KGM has 8 times the membership but only 2 times the vote, huh?

2. District Dues: Ah, but when it comes to forking over our hard earned and increasingly difficult to raise money to enable our District Divas to put on their dog 'n' pony shows, they have a different formula. Yes Sir. Suddenly each club is expected to pay District dues on a "per capita" basis, so RC of Poker Night with 7 members pays 7 shares but KGM with 57 members pays 57 shares. Sounds reasonable, right? Dream on, Bubba.

And, in case you're wondering, the District dues are $1,050 per head, so KGM forks out $60,000 a year, which is 33% of what KGM collects from members in dues each year. In other words, of the $3,000 we collect from each KGM member each year, $1,000 goes straight to the District coffers.

 

 

Anyway, The Phantom cannot wait for the next District invoice for District dues to be presented to the BOD by KGM Treasurer Rajiv "Please Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Messenger" Makhija. If you think the fireworks over Hong Kong harbour during the Chinese New Year were spectacular, well, you ain't see nothin' yet.

There's gonna be Big Trouble In Little China.

 

 

In the meantime, here's what's coming up on the District Calendar:

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