Golden News

Volume 13 - Number 10

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The weekly newsletter of the Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile, Hong Kong.

Web site: www.freez.com/kgm

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SPIKE CITY ?

Judging by last meeting, it looks like Edward Scissorhands recently attacked a few of our members, who turned up with "Haircuts From Hell" !!

Firstly our Program Director Brian "Ragtop" Hodgson arrived looking like he had just auditioned for The Beatles. To make matters worse, he was humming "Love, love me do" as he entered the Crystal Room. I guess we should be grateful for small mercies, because at least he wasn't dressed like Austin Powers, nor did he have the bad teeth or bell-bottom trousers. Yeah, baby !!

Next a decidedly youthful-looking PP C.K. "One" Tsang arrived, but minus his usual flowing locks. However his hair also looked a bit darker than in previous weeks, and we sincerely hope that he does not use Rogaine *and* Viagra at the same time, otherwise he could end up looking like boxing promoter Don King.

Of course your Bulletin Editor is hardly one to poke fun, because the remnants of his last attempt at a "Do It Yourself" hair dyeing session are still apparent, with sickly red streaks still evident within his increasingly thinning hair line. Never again.

Anyway, President Ram "Bo" ran the meeting in his usually efficient but mild-mannered way, although he has yet to finish a meeting by 2:00 p.m. !  We really must adjust his watch from "Indian Time" to Hong Kong time.

IPP Raju "Do I have a deal for you" Daswani was obviously upset by comments in last week's bulletin about his choice of necktie, so he immediately showed me his new necktie with a Giorgio Armani label. Of course we all know that only the label is made by Armani. The tie is still made by little old ladies in Sham Shui Po, but don't tell him I said so, OK ?

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WELCOME TO THE TRENCHES !

At KGM, we use two distinctly separate funds for the administration of club income and expenses:

GENERAL FUND - Income for this fund is generated solely from joining fees ($2,000) paid by new members prior to induction, and the semi-annual dues ($1,350) paid by all members twice each year in July and January.

The General Fund is used to cover all club overheads and expenses such as dues payable to Rotary International and District 3450, printing and stationery, Rotary supplies, the cost of speaker's lunches, subsidies for members attending District events and so on.

Additionally, if we have a KGM fellowship event which makes a loss, this is *temporarily* funded by the General Fund until the loss can be recovered at a subsequent fellowship event. Similarly if the club needs to pay a deposit or other expenses in advance for a fellowship or any other event, this is *temporarily* funded by the General Fund until it is repaid on conclusion of the event.

COMMUNITY SERVICE FUND - This is what I refer to as our "Sacred Fund".

Income for this fund is derived solely from our fund-raising activities, donations and other contributions made to the club. The nett proceeds (after deducting reasonable and directly incurred expenses) from fund-raising activities are credited to this fund. This is also the fund where "contributions" extorted by our Sergeants each week for our "blue boxes" are deposited !

Later, when worthwhile community or international service activities have been identified and approved by the Board, the funds are disbursed, provided we are satisfied that the funds (or goods in kind) will be fully received by the intended recipients.

Note that EVERY SINGLE DOLLAR we raise through our Community Service activities is disbursed to worthwhile charitable causes through our Community Service Fund, and this has been the keystone of KGM policy since the club was chartered.

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THIS WEEK'S SPEAKER: Jon Hakim (http://www.boom.com).

Topic: Online Securities Trading.

Presumably our speaker will discuss his company's Internet based stock market trading facilities.

Unfortunately when I visited their web site above, the English version was not working. Perhaps our Chinese members should visit the web site in order to prepare to ask relevant questions of our speaker.

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NEXT FELLOWSHIP EVENT - Final Reminder - Payment Now Due !

WHERE: FAT ANGELO'S, the hot new critically-acclaimed Italian restaurant at G/F, 414 Jaffe Road (corner Canal Road), Causeway Bay. Ample parking is available at nearby Elizabeth House.

WHEN: 8:30 p.m., Saturday, 11 September 1999. (They have two sittings each evening, so we have opted for the later one.)

WHY: If you have to ask this question, you wouldn't understand the answer.

EMMA CHISIT: $350 per head (if paid by Wednesday, 8 September, otherwise it is $400 per head - NO exceptions !)

WHAT YOU GET: Enormous servings of great Italian food including 3 appetisers, minestrone soup, 7 main courses, 4 desserts, unlimited beer, wine, soft drinks and brewed coffee during dinner (if you arrive early or want spirits and/or exotic coffee, a cash bar is available).

What a fantastic deal !!! (or, as they say in Italy: "Eh Luigi, watta fantastico deal-o, pisano ?").

WEB SITE: http://www.fatangelos.com/ (Check it out - nice web site, which includes a location map and reviews).

To make your payment, see Hans "The Hun" Peter. Trust me, you don't want Hans to come looking for you .........

For information on other club fellowship events currently being planned, visit the KGM web site and click on "Club Calendar" under the "Member's Stuff" section.

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NEXT BOARD MEETING:

Club Directors are reminded that the next Board meeting will be convened tomorrow evening, Tuesday 7th September, at 6:30 p.m. at the 2/F of the Holiday Inn Golden Mile.

Directors who cannot personally attend are required to send a written report to the President or Secretary not later than midday of the day of the meeting,

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KGM WEB SITE:

Important message from the Webmaster: "Go away and leave me alone !". The new web site at www.rckgm.org is up and running, but unfortunately there are still a few problems with images, graphics and so on.

Anyway despite the Webmaster's ongoing trials and tribulations with FTP ("Fool The Putz" ?), software, he has added a new item on the existing web site called "Hong Kong Links" which you will find under the "Invitation" section.

This provides links to informative sites concerning Hong Kong. If you have family, friends or business colleagues who intend to visit Hong Kong, direct them to this new item, which will be in a constant state of improvement, as and when additional Hong Kong sites are found.

Check it out.

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NETIQUETTE - Understanding web addresses.

A web address, like any other address, provides a progressively specific locality.

For example, if I tell you the Holiday Inn Golden Mile is (in typical Chinese order): Hong Kong, Kowloon, Tsimshatsui, Nathan Road, Number 50, this provides a specific address for a particular addressee. However if I do not include the "Number 50", then the address will end simply as "Nathan Road" and, as we all know, there are numerous addresses in Nathan Road.

By the same token, web addresses can provide broad or specific addresses.

For example, the specific web address for our electronic "Make-Up" form is http://www.freez.com/kgm/archives/mureport.htm and, if you click on this, you will be taken directly to the address for this form. Hence this is no different to the specific physical address to the "Number 50" level given earlier for the Holiday Inn Golden Mile.

However if you wanted to know what else was available from a particular web address, you simply need to highlight the address on the top of your web browser, and progressively delete the part to the right of each "/" symbol.

If you do this with our electronic "Make-Up" form above, you will end up with http://www.freez.com/kgm/archives/ which, in our case, shows you a list of all the documents filed under our "archives" section. If you want to go one step further and delete the word "archives", you will end up at our "root address", which is our main web page. Go ahead, try it out.

Why would you want to do this ? Quite simply when somebody sends you a web address to see a particular item, and it is interesting to you, it is often worthwhile to see what else is available from the "root address".

Try this out the next time somebody sends you a specific web address. You may be pleasantly surprised at what you will find !