Club Meeting of Tuesday 22 August 2012

16 Rotarians and guests were present at this meeting. Guests who joined us were Rtn Angus Scott-Walker of the RC of Footscary, Melbourne and his spouse Kathy; Yvonne Kok and Lisa Lee of Cellermaster and Mathias Greier, guest of Rtn Dirk Lenz.

The guest speaker was scheduled to be our very own PP George Abraham who was supposed to speak on the art of telling jokes. He decided to beat the retreat when he realised the extent of polite company present.

In the absence of a guest speaker, PE Jeffrey took the opportunity to clarify that unlike what was told to the club last week, the Red Cross does not take 30% of all donations as administrative costs. Last year Singapore Red Cross booked just over $650,000 as governance and publicity costs out of a budget of over $13 million, ie. just about 5%.. He asked that this fact be made known as it would not be good if Rotarians are seen as putting out wrong information. PP Vincent added that the issue is not so much percentage of administrative costs but the cost of delivering charitable goods or services to beneficiaries. He noted that some charities are very lavish, flying in expensive classes, staying in expensive hotels  and hiring convoys of expensive vehicles accompanied by media, who are all paid,  for,  in order to enhance the image of that charity. This struck a chord will those present.

Highlight of the meeting was the auction of a limited edition Reidl decanter donated by Cellermaster in aid of Sunlove Home. This auction was supposed to be held during the Charity Gourmet Dining on 18 August but was postponed. PP Ron was the auctioneer and PP Vincent quickly put in a bid of $2000. Despite strenuous efforts from PP Ron to encourage more bids none were forthcoming. So the hammer fell on PP Vincent’s sole bid. He immediately declared hat the was donating the decanter to DAS for auction at the coming DAS Charity Dinner in September. Hopefully there would be a better outcome there – and perhaps a better auctioneer.

A rare collection for the Sunshine Box was made which yielded $94.

Charity Gourmet Dinner

The Club’s Charity Gourmet Dinner in aid of the Sunlove Home was held on Sat 18 Aug 2012 at the Prague MicroBrewery. This was an initiative of PP Aaron and Rtn Jeffrey Tan of Melbourne who is a chartered accountant and also a celebrity chef. Rtn Jeffrey and his friends from  Melbourne put out an exquisite 4-course meal accompanied with fine wines for 10 Rotarians from RCRC and about 30 other guests. The venue was donated by Mr Bob Seah of Prague MicroBrewery who closed his premises for this event. Our gratitude to Jeffrey and his team, Bob and his family, and the musicians who played great music that evening, for making the evening memorable and enjoyable.

Charity Film Show

 The annual major project of the Club will be the premiere of the latest James Bond film “Skyfall” in aid of the Sunlove Home and the Colitis and Crohn Society. This will be on Thursday 1 Nov 2012 at the Lido Cinema. The tickets are being printed. Members are urged to keep this date free.

Condolences

We express our deepest condolences to Rtn Sigrid on the recent passing of her father in Manila, Philippines. Sigrid is presently in Manila with her family.