Bulletin 201906 (Jun 30, 2019)

President’s Message for May & June 2019 Bulletin

Welcome to my final Bulletin in 2019, a combination of May and June.

It has been a great honour to be the 2018-2019 President of the Rotary Club of Hamilton – a Rotary Club with 63 years of history.

Thanks all the board directors and the members for your support to make my presidency a memorable journey. A detailed annual report will be presented on our club forum on 9 July.

Hugh Springer will inaugurate the President 2019-2020 on 13 July at our joint changeover night with Rotary Club of Nundah. Wish Hugh and the new board a great success.

Here is the summary for what our club have achieved in May and June.

40^Th Rotary Art Spectacular (RAS) 13 -17 May:
This year is the 40^th anniversary of RAS. This spectacular Rotary event has supported many local artists, raised over 2 million Dollars for charities and became one of the biggest community art show in Brisbane.
Working with Rotary club of Stone Corners and Brisbane High-Rise, we made this 40^th RAS a great success. We donated $40,000 for our beneficiary Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and each club also got $10,000 to support their own charity programs.
Thanks for all the members who helped with the opening ceremony, securities and pre and after show preparation.
Three Rotary clubs had a joint RAS meeting on 20 June and decided we will do it again in 2020!
3^rd Space site visit (28 May):
Collaborate other Rotary clubs to supporting local communities is one of my goals in 2018-19.
3^rd Space is Queensland’s largest drop in centre providing vital services to homeless people and people doing it tough in Brisbane.
Six Rotary clubs and 40 Rotarians and their friends visited 3^rd Space on 28 May. We learnt a lot about what the 3rd Space do to help homeless people and our club's donation ($1,000) will help them refurbish the TV room which is a popular place for homeless visitors.
2 RALA reports (25 June):
Our club supported two people for annual RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) program. Our two RYLA participants are Tiana Meikle and Damian Vejnovic. They came and presented their great experience in RYLA.
One Rotary Youth Exchange Student Story (4 June):
We all know Rotary Youth Exchange is a great program and changed the life of many young people. Marcel invited his doctor Joe Cotterill talking about how the Rotary Youth Exchange program changed his life over the past 15 years. A story started with an accident.
Marcel had a car accident and Dr Joe treated him at the emergency department and found out the host family he stayed with when he was a Rotary Youth Exchange student is only over 300 meters from the house where Marcel was born. They got connected since then. Marcel also visited Dr Joe's hosting club and his host father last December.
Dr Joe highly praised the Rotary Youth Exchange Program and thanks for all the great services the Rotarians did for the community and the world.
Marcel also asked our members to mention one of the most memorable "Rotary Moment". We are all proud of being a Rotarian.
Another Charity support young people – Langports Foundation (21 May):
Langports Foundation is another charity that supports Aboriginal students to private high schools and young students from Vietnam to learn English at Langports.
Founder John is a believer in education and he is confident to help young people to change their life through education.
John France talked about his mentor - his mother who told him "people who have privilege also have the responsibility".
John migrated from England to Australia in 1987 and set up his own English School - Langports in 1989. With the success of his business, John set up Langports Foundation which is making a difference to the lives of many disadvantaged children by providing them with educational opportunities.
Our club donated $500 to Langports Foundation.
When Worlds Collide (11 June) – Guest Speaker John Hale:
John’s interactive talk "When Worlds Collide" showed us the value codes that make up humanity. We had over 20 members and guests jointed the meeting.
I heard one guest share, "I really learnt a lot tonight. I learnt that when worlds collide, it is not countries or people that collide, but their value sets. To understand people, we need to meet them at the same level of their values!”
The 2019-2020 Rotary Theme is “Rotary Connects the World”. Let’s connect the world with the understanding of each one’s values.
Club Night (7 May):
For our weekly meeting, we not only have guest speakers but also ask our members give updates on their projects.
Gary Lillicrap gave us a very scientific and detailed update on Polio. John Leddy also gave a well-prepared introduction of the Sailability project. Our club has agreed to donate $4,000 for their shed extension project. Other directors also gave their reports.
We are a Rotarians with Action.

Literacy Kit Ascot State School (23 May):
Literacy kit is a Rotary project to collect and send books and stationaries to kids who need them.
Ascot State School students helped collect items throughout the year. On 23 May the students came and packed the literacy kit in 45 boxes. They worked very hard and very efficiently. Great job.
Mike Byrne delivered the boxes to Rotary DIK (Donation In Kind) to ship to schools in PNG, Nauru and Solomon Islands.

Key dates:

13 July: Joint changeover night with Rotary Club of Nundah.
23 September: Golf Charity Day
12 October: Swimathone.

Members:

Pam Beaverson, Colleen Dixon and Desmond Yen resigned from our club. We wish them all well.
We are expecting five new members in July!
Averil Ward won a Rotary Golf Trophy, Congratulations!

Donations we gave:

Rotary Foundation – Approximately $3800
DIK - $2000
RAM - $1000
Rotary Health - $1000
ROMAC - $1000
3rd Space - $1000
Langports Foundation - $500
Sailability Shorncliffe – $4,000 for extension of the shed.
Meals on Wheels - $1,000 for five new Eskies.
Senior Citizen project - $3,500 for Men’s Shed North Shore to buy a new shipping container.

District & Cluster:

30 June: District 9600 Changeover, 11:00 am - 3:00 pm, Aussie World, 1 Downunder Drive, Palmview. Purchase tickets online at: https://events.humanitix.com.au/district-9600-district-governor-changeover
28 July: Einbunpin Festival Sandgate. Volunteer required.
RYPEN (23-25, August): Our club will support three students.
Rotary club of Albion we chartered closed after 49 year servicing the community.

Birthdays & Anniversaries:

Happy Birth Day in June to Hugh Springer and Margot Sexton.

Travis Pullen 5 Years with Rotary! Well done, Travis.

Congratulations to all.

Now is the end of my Bulletin. Thanks for reading my Chinglish in the past 12 months.

What will I do when I retired from the “Presidency”?

I will continue enjoying my Rotary life as a Rotarian. I will also learn more from other Rotary Clubs in my new role as an Assistant Governor.

On top of my own business, I will also do a research on “The History of Chinese Business in Queensland” as the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame Fellowship. Happy to be back as a “Historian”.

It will be another busy and wonderful year.

Wish all the members and readers the best in the new Rotary Year 2019-2020.

Together, we connects the World.

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