1985-86: PP Eoghan McMillan
Message from President Eoghan McMillan
In 1985-86 we attempted to maintain all the Club’s existing Internal and Community activities and, at the same time, to broaden the base.
The carryover activities involved:
The raising of substantial funds through:
- a sell-out of all tickets in our 300 Club drive (thanks to Rotarians Bruce Humphrey, Albert Fok, Marco Lobo and Conrad So);
- donation of members’ and their Rotaryannes’ time for the raising of funds in a bottle sale at the Sandy Bay Children’s Hospital Annual Fair (thanks to PP Mike and Rotaryanne Susan Venables, Rotarians Roger Brookin, Francois de Maurissens, Bill Mummery, Patrick Tse, PP Paul Young, ex-member Barry Moutrey and all other Rotarians who came along that day).
- Supporting many community projects, with members’ time and with financial contributions (thanks to VP Mike Burrell and his Committee) including :
- The Southern District Athletic Meet
- The Little Sisters of the Poor
- The Cheshire Home
- The Duchess of Kent’s Children’s Hospital
- Many others
l Holding various traditional club activities (thanks to PE Francis Tsang and his Committee), such as:
- the Poolside Buffet
- the Putting Competition
- the Annual Ball
The broadening involved:
- Increasing our contribution to Rotary International by encouraging the paying up of additional Paul Harris Fellowships by members and by allocating the proceeds of our Ladies Night raffles to fund for paying up other fellowships, which were given as awards to Club members in recognition of relevant services performed by them (a total of seven fellowships were paid up in the year by one method or the other, thanks largely to the efforts of PP Robin De Morgan).
- Increasing our contacts with other Clubs through the formalization of Sister city arrangements with Clubs in Bangkok and Rio de Janeiro and the opening of discussions which we hope will lead to agreements with others (thank to our ex-member Barry Moutrey and our current members Rtn James King and PP Mike Venables).
- Increasing our awareness of our community, by forming sub-committees within our Community Service Committee, with each one having responsibility for getting to know the needs of a specific geographical area (thanks to VP Mike Burrell).
- Increasing the activities among the members, through the tennis championship (completed thanks to Incoming V.P. Lawrence Tong) and the bridge tournament (organized and ready to start, thanks to Rtn Conrad So) and updating our image by the re-design of our Club banner and by taking steps to provide for the initial reformatting of our Club’s newsletter (thanks to Rtn Ronson Kwok).
- Increasing our contacts with other Clubs, by means of make-up visits (thanks to Attendance Committee Chairman Bill Mummery), our first interclub sports event – a tennis challenge tournament against the Rotary Club of Hong Kong – which did much to help that Club’s ego, while giving our team a lot of good exercise, and by the donation of one fully paid membership in our 300 Club to each club in our District, with the request that they auction their tickets among their members and add the proceeds to their Community Service funds.
- Increasing our contribution to the development of youth by organizing an Interact Club at the South Island School (thanks to PP Paul Young and Rtn Roger Brookin).
The year was an exciting one for the undersigned who only regrets the frequent travels he was involved in, which kept him from presiding over more meetings than he cares to admit. These absences were, however, more than offset by the dedication and enthusiasm with which President Elect Francis Tsang, Vice President Mike Burrell and Program and Attendance Committee Chairman cum Treasurer Rtn Bill Mummery stepped in and kept the Club moving forward. In closing, I must again recognize the efforts of Vice President Lawrence Tong (tennis), Rtn Conrad So (bridge), Rtn Ronson Kwok (new banner and newsletter formats) and Rtn Albert Fok and other (300 Club) and express my thanks to them and to all other members of the Club who provided such strong support during the year.
