|
Golden
News
Volume
15, Number 03 - Monday 16 July 2001
Soar Like A
Turkey?:
 No folks, it's not Thanksgiving Day. It's just that
President Ebe recently
forwarded me a copy of a District announcement which began:
"Dear Eagle Presidents" and,
at the time, I had no idea why this salutation was used. However I
have since learned that RI President Rick
King expects Rotary leaders this year to "Soar Like Eagles".Of course this immediately reminded me of the saying: "It's hard to soar like an eagle when you are surrounded by turkeys!". I therefore hope that Rotary doesn't have too many turkeys around this year. Gobble, gobble! Pass the cranberry sauce. Anyway, last week's meeting started and finished late, and was reminiscent of the days of PP Ram "Bo" Ramadasan, who used to wear a watch set to Bombay bazaar time! Or was it bizarre time? In any case, we considered ourselves lucky if we finished our meetings by Thursday! To make things even tardier last week, our effervescent Sergeant-At-Arms Susie "Madam Lash" Misini spoke for so long I was tempted to give her a Vote of Thanks. Sheesh! Nevertheless our guest speaker, Ms. Angie Tham, finally made it to the podium. She explained that her programs of "Bubbles & Fizz" and "Touch & Squeeze" referred to the way in which her group of volunteers tries to bring joy into the lives of the severely mentally handicapped, which is certainly in keeping with the current Rotary theme: "Mankind Is Our Business". By the way, our Attendance Director Neerja "Super Surfer" Sujanani advises that our YTD attendance is 69%, which is not bad for July and well within reach of our minimum overall target of 75% for the year. Remember folks, if you cannot attend your own club meetings, please do a make-up. This Week's Meeting:
Dr. Bruce Vaughn will be speaking to us on "The Science of Chiropracty". Or possibly his new book. Rtn. Vincent "Starry, starry night" Lam (who works with Bruce), likes to keep me guessing. In any case, KGM members with smelly feet (we all know who you are!), should not remove their shoes during the meeting because Chiropracty has absolutely nothing to do with athletes foot or bunions. That's Chiropody, and Dr. Scholl will be speaking to us about that another time. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's a corny joke! Milestones: 1) Birthday greetings for 21 July to KGM Charter Member, PDG Dipo Sani who shares his birthday with the late Ginger Rogers, long time dance partner of the late (and legendary) Fred Astaire. This is an amazing coincidence because, in his younger days, Dipo was a keen Tap Dancer, but he kept falling into the sink, thereby dashing his hopes of movie stardom. Despite this, Dipo still gets to mingle with celebrities, because his company manufactures a line of denimwear for Sean John (a.k.a. "Puff Daddy"). Yo, Homie! Word Up! 2) On this day in 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped on the Moon at 2:56:15 AM (GMT), and uttered the famous words which reverberated across the entire world: "Yo Buzz, watch that last step pal, it's a doozie!". BOD Meeting:
The next BOD meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday 24 July 2001. All Club Directors will be expected to present their draft summary of their committee's plans and objectives for the year. Note
that unless advised to the
contrary, all BOD meetings
for the 2001/2002 Rotary year will be
held on the 4th Tuesday of each
month, at Jade Suite II, 2/F, Holiday
Inn Golden Mile.
If you are a male Director (i.e. on the endangered species list), remember to speak only when spoken to, and the correct answer to all instructions is: "Yes, Ma'am". You have been warned. Fellowship
News:
1) Remember on Thursday 19 July 2001, we're having a "Cuban Missile Crisis Night", because we're starting with "Cuba Libres" at 6:30 p.m. at Club Havana followed by dinner at 8:00 p.m. at Balalaika Russian Restaurant. Viva Fidel! Perestroika! Both venues are at 10 Knutsford Terrace, Tsimshatsui, and parking is available nearby at the carpark at Miramar Tower, Kimberley Road (opposite the Miramar Hotel), about 3 minutes waddle away. As our summer fellowships are usually small, intimate affairs (because many members are out of town), the plan is for everybody to pay for their own drinks at Club Havana, but the dinner bill at Balalaika will simply be apportioned at the end. This is called "going Russki", which is similar to "going Dutch", but it involves far more vodka! Of course the highlight of the evening will be International Service Director Elissa "Can-Can" Cohen who has promised to demonstrate her Russian table-dancing skills, which apparently are quite famous in Macau. Bring lots of $100 bills. And Paramedics! Members wishing to attend this event should contact David by email or by telephone 9168 8333. 2) Images from the Chinese Night held at Luk Yu Teahouse in January have been uploaded to our "external" photo archives at Picturetrail. Please do not yell at the Web Monster for the delay, as he only received the images from President Ebe "Roadrunner" Tung last Wednesday. Beep! Beep! Community Service News: Images from the "Free Medical Check-Up" Community Service Project held on Sunday 8 July 2001 have also been uploaded to the Photo Gallery on the KGM web site. Semi-Annual
Dues - Reminder:
KGM Members are reminded that Semi-Annual dues of $1,500 for the period 1 July to 30 December 2001 are now due. If you have not already done so, please prepare a cheque payable to "Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile" and post it to P.O. Box 98129 Tsimshatsui, or pass it to KGM Secretary Clarissa "Ring My" Bellstedt, because KGM Treasurer PP Vince "Scrooge" Pinto, is out of town and will miss the next two meetings. By the way, I urge you to pay quickly, 'coz the Secretary has borrowed the Treasurer's gun, and she knows how to use it. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Member Updates: Former KGM member Brian Kettell (he of the multi-coloured
spectacle frames), has advised The Phantom of his new email address,
which is bkettell@hotmail.com. Brian was
recently appointed Policy Advisor to the Bahrain Monetary Agency, PO BOX
27, Manama, Bahrain. Not too
shabby! District 3450 News: 1) The District Installation, disrupted on 6 July by Typhoon Utor, has been rescheduled for Friday, 20 July 2001 (this week!) at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, Wanchai North. Reports that this event will be attended by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon remain unconfirmed. KGM members who attend at least 60% of this event will earn 1 attendance credit. By the way, Typhoon Utor is one of the reasons why KGM never cancels a regular club meeting. Do you know how many clubs cancelled their regular club meetings in favour of the subsequently postponed District Installation? Neither do I, but it was at least 10 clubs. Hence, as a result of Typhoon Utor, those clubs unnecessarily missed meeting at all during the week ended 6 July. Silly sods! 2) A District Membership Development Seminar
will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday 4 August 2001 at the Hong Kong
Academy of Medicine Jockey Club Building, 99 Wong Chuk Hang Road,
Aberdeen, Hong Kong. I expect that KGM Membership Director Diana "The Red Baron" Chou will soon be looking for members to help keep her company. KGM members who attend at least 60% of this event will earn 1 attendance credit. 3) DG Johnson Chu, and a small delegation from District 3450, will be joining RI Vice-President Gary Huang (Taiwan) on his visit to the Provisional Rotary Club of Beijing on 28 and 29 July. Any KGM member who is interested in being part of the delegation should contact DG Johnson by email. Trivia: When KGM was in the process of being formed, our District Governor was Gary Huang. At that time, our district was numbered 345 (the trailing "0" was added later), and our district included clubs in Taiwan. Click on Club History on the top of the KGM web site for more information. Rotary International
News:
A) Did you know that Rotary's "4-Way" Test was created by Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor in 1932, when he was asked to take charge of a Chicago based aluminium company which was facing bankruptcy? The 4-Way Test was formally adopted by Rotary in 1943 and Herb Taylor became president of Rotary International in 1954. The "4-Way" Test, which every Rotarian should know, is: 1. Is it the truth? 2. Is it fair to all concerned? 3. Will it build
goodwill and better friendships?
4. Will it be
beneficial to all concerned?
B) The next RI Annual Convention will be held in Barcelona, Spain from 23 to 26 June 2002, and you can register on-line here. Hasta La Vista, baby! C) July is designated "Literacy Month" by Rotary International. Click here for more information. D) Plans to celebrate Rotary International's Centenary in 2005 have begun. Dear Geek:
Q: I'm way too busy counting my millions to read your anti-virus advice, and now I'm in deep doo-doo. What should I do? Yours, Alotta Hassle. A: Dear Alotta, My advice is to find a piece of wood, roughly 2" square and 24" long, sit on the chair you use to open your emails, then beat yourself over the head with the wood until you eventually pass out from the pain. Bad, bad girl! Once you regain consciousness take two Panadol for the headache, then install the latest anti-virus software (e.g. Norton Anti-Virus 2001). If you already have the "latest" version, go on-line and update it twice a week. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME?? HELLO ?? You need to update your software at least twice a week. If you need a financial incentive, just imagine what would happen if your personal computer (or perhaps your entire office network), crashed irreparably because you ignored my advice. Enough said? Good but, before I go, a final word about viruses Vs virus hoaxes. Note that viruses (or worms) are usually propagated as attachments to email messages. If you have configured your anti-virus software to scan all incoming email messages and any attachments, you will probably be OK. On the other hand,
virus hoaxes are usually
emails (forwarded to multiple recipients, multiple times),
"warning" you about a "dangerous"
virus and the message invariably asks you to forward it
(again!) to everybody you know. When you receive such messages,
delete them. Do not send them
to "everybody in your address book".
Web Side
Story:
Oh dear. I guess it had to happen one day. Yes folks, it is with regret I advise that your Wicked Web Monster has finally corrupted the minds of our city's youth, and I don't just mean the young ladies with numbers on their bikinis. If you visit the web site of the Interact Club of Ying Wa College, you will note there are many similarities to the KGM web site. A similar design. A similar style of wackiness. A similar treatment with member's images. And no, they haven't won any awards recently either. Quick. Somebody call the Youth Welfare Department. Anyway, if you wish to learn more about the wonderful work undertaken by the three energetic groups of youngsters under our care, you can read their reports for the 2000/2001 Rotary year (and previous years), by clicking on "Rotaract", "Interact Boys" or "Interact Girls" from the top of the KGM web site. We are very proud of these guys 'n' gals, but we would be remiss if we didn't also express our gratitude to our Youth Club Advisors, IPP "Hopalong" Cassidy Lam, Rtn. "Stormin" Norman Liu and Rtn. Miranda "King" Kong for giving invaluable guidance to them and for contributing so much towards their continued growth and development. Well done, Cassidy, Norman & Miranda. Your pals at KGM are so proud of you and we thank you for your dedication. Golden
Smile:
President Ebe has decreed that cellular telephones & pagers will be banned from all regular club meetings, as they are a serious distraction and they also cause confusion amongst members. When a beeper went off during last week's meeting, IPP Cassidy Lam grabbed his pager, Rtn. Balu Chainrai grabbed his cell phone and PP Louis Thomas grabbed his chest. Quotable Quotes:
"Being powerful is like being a
lady. If you have to tell people you are, you
aren't." -- Margaret Thatcher
-- The Phantom |
If you no longer wish to receive this bulletin each week, reply to this message and change the "subject" to remove, or click here. For previous issues of the bulletin, visit our archives. © 2001 Rotary Club of Kowloon Golden Mile. All rights reserved. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of any other member of the club.