1979-80: PP Nigel Watt
Message from Nigel Watt
This publication sets out in some detail the events and activities of the Rotary Club of Hong Kong South during the Rotary year which ended on 30 June 1980. It also looks ahead to the new Rotary year and the plans of our club for the months which lie ahead.
The aim of our club is to serve our community through team effort and good fellowship and to use our resources to benefit as many people as possible. The detailed report of this review has been prepared by the Chairmen of the four service committees, Club Service, Community Service, International Service and Vocational Service, and it is my purpose in this presidential message to outline the broad policy guidelines under which these four avenues of service have operated so actively during the period under review.
Your President and your Board of Directors are very conscious of the fact that they were elected into office in a most significant year of Rotary history. The year 1979/80 was the year of Rotary International’s 75th birthday, and we were all determined that during this very special year, our club should be active in all avenues of service.
Our first aim was to improve fellowship in the club by strengthening our weekly programmes, maintaining a pattern of strong and entertaining speakers, and thereby encouraging greater attendance at all club functions. The objective of Rotary fellowship is service to the community, and we recognized at the same time that an ambitious community service programme should be mounted during the year. Thanks to the hard-work of the respective community chairmen, the members of their committees, and our Directors, these objectives were achieved. Our club has won the reputation in Rotary circles of being one of the friendliest and warmest club in Hong Kong. Also our monthly ladies’ nights have become a regular and notable feature at the Country Club at Wongchukhang.
On the community service side, as you will see from the more detailed report within the pages of this review, our budget of approximately $70,000 has been our largest annual community service budgets since the foundation of our club seven years ago. We have also been more active than usual in the field of international service and have assisted people in India and Sri Lanka with gifts of much needed equipment. We have also strengthened our links in Rotary International by forming a sister club relationship with the Club of Centreville, Ohio, U.S.A., mainly through the efforts of our former President Ed Jones, who is now a member of that club. This is our second sister club relationship, the first having been formed with the Rotary Club of Taipei South a year earlier during the presidency Paul Young.
On vocational service, a new emphasis was placed during the year on good vocational speakers as part of our strengthened speakers programme. To remind each member of our club of their Rotary responsibilities, a special plaque depicting the four-way test was designed by the Vocational Service Chairman and distributed on 23 February 1980, Rotary International’s 75th birthday, to every member of the club, and these plaques now grace the walls of many notable offices in Hong Kong.
Perhaps one of the most inspiring aspects of the period has been the new feeling of cooperation between the 17 Rotary clubs in Hong Kong and Macau which has developed during this special birthday year. Members of the Rotary Club of Hong Kong South have been active in district Rotary service with PP Robin De Morgan taking on the duties yet again of Treasurer to the District Conference, and your President accepted the additional task of Public Relations Adviser to the District governor and the editorship of two newspaper supplements, one in Chinese and one in English which were published jointly by all the Rotary clubs in Hong Kong and Macau to mark this anniversary year.
Throughout the year your President and your Board of Directors have been particularly conscious of the fact that their work has been made possible only by the work of their predecessors and also that this will be further developed by the new team in 1980/81. The fact that we collect money in one Rotary year for expenditure in the next year has added to this sense of continuity. This financial continuity has been even further emphasized during the period under review by the successful formation of the 300 Clubs which, under the energetic leadership of Rtn Christopher Brown, has raised approximately $60,000 for the club’s future expenditure on community service activities. Our work has also been greatly aided by our good fortune in having the services for yet another year of our able and hard-working Secretary, Rtn Mike Venables. It is he, together with our First Vice President, Raymond Lu and our Second Vice President, Frank Archibald, our International Service Chairman John Quinlan (who was succeeded towards the end of the year by Rtn Jack Attias) and our Vocational Service Chairman Rtn Rex Huo, our Treasurer, Rtn Michael Tsoi, and our hard-working team of directors, which have made this year’s progress possible. I know that Incoming President Raymond Lu will have similar support from his committee and the club membership and I wish him and his committee every success for the Rotary year 1980/81 which lies ahead.
