Meeting of Tuesday 14 August 2012
Report by PE Jeffrey Chan

21 members and guests attended the lunch meeting at the Gilmour Room of the SCC. Guests included PDG Fong Hoe Beng; PP Alfred Gremli of the R C of Kusnacht-Zurich and a potential member of our club Arun Shenai. PN (Designate) Corina Lai continued her efforts to members on Facebook by explaining how easy it is to get on to Facebook and upload photos.

PDG Fong Hoe Beng was our guest speaker, informing us of the changes to RI’s Matching Grants Programme that will come into force on 1 July 2013. This simplifies the present procedures for RI  Matching Grants and District funding and will also ensure greater accountability. Districts will have to enter into an MOU with RI to participate in this new programme, while clubs must enter into legally binding agreements with their Districts in order to access the funding. All these will be explained in a Rotary Foundation workshop to be held in Oct and a “Qualifying Seminar” to be held in April 2013.  Attendance at the “”Qualifying Seminar” is compulsory and every club must send at least one member. That member is expected to brief the club on the new programme after attending the seminar so that the club can decide whether or not to enter into a legally binding with the District. This has grave consequences as it means that clubs who breach their agreements with the District can be sued. PDG Hoe Beng offered to answer any request for further information.

Charity Gourmet Dining

President Cze Hong announced that because of some pull-outs, there are seats available for this event. Date is Sat 18 August 2012. Venue is the Prague Microbrewery at the Amara Hotel along Tanjong Pagar Road. Dress code is jacket without tie for men and formal wear for ladies. The food will be prepared by celebrity chef Rtn Jeffrey Tan from Melbourne and his team of chefs from Australia. The beneficiary is the Sunlove Home.

Hari Raya Visit to the Jamiyah Home for the Aged

This will take place on Sat 25 August from 1-4 pm. Several Rotarians have indicated that they will be participating together with our Rotoractors.  PP Ron informed that during this yearly visit, the club would entertain the residents and also distribute “zakats”. These are cash gift to all the residents who usually eagerly look forward to this.  He urged all members of the Community Service and New Generations Committees to participate. Vincent noted that this is a club project and not confined to only the CSC and NGC.  All members should try to participate.

 District Governor’s Visit

The DG’s visit has been confirmed for the evening of 18 September. As the SCC is not available for dinner, another revenue is being identified. More details will be announced in due course.

Paul Harris Fellows

PP Vincent announced that for this Rotary year, 10 members have pledged to be PHFs by contributing US$1000 each to Rotary Foundation. He urges all members to consider being PHFs. We should try to get every member to be a PHF.

Forthcoming Club Events

• The club’s major project which is the charity premiere of the latest James Bond movie “Skyfall” will take place on the evening of Thursday 2 November 2012 at the Lido Cinema. More information will be issued in due course.



Rotary Club of Raffles City 2012/2013 : President Low and First Lady Elizabeth

• The Joint Medical Mission in Sabah to be conducted with our sister club the R C of Luyang has been confirmed for 1-4 March 2013. Members who are able to participate in this medical mission please inform PP Jimmy Daruwalla. You don’t need to be medically qualified to participate. There are plenty of things to do  besides providing medical services.

President Low and First Lady attending Ngee Ann Poly Rotaractors' Installation Ceremony





National Day 

and 

Hari Raya Fellowship Dinner

Date : 25 August 2012

Time : 7.45 PM to 10.00 PM

Place : Mamanda Restaurant,73 Sultan Gate,Next to the Malay Heritage Center,Istana Kampong Glam.

Food : Traditional Malay Cuisine of The Royal Court

Club Meeting of Tuesday 7 August 2012

Report by PE Jeffrey Tan

Nearly 20 members of RCRC and 2 guests attended the meeting. The guests were Arun Shennai, a possible new member of our club,  and Frank Browne, guest of Luis Coronado. President Cze Hong brought his computer and projected numerous slides of major club events where no reports have been filed. These include the Installation activities and recent club visits to Luyang and Hong Kong. He promised that write-ups will be done on these and published in the Club Bulletin in due course.

The speaker was PE Jeffrey Chan who spoke as penance for not being able to obtain a speaker for this meeting. He spoke on “The International Law of Human Rights’, tracing the development of Human Rights from its beginnings until the present day. He underscored that the rules of Human Rights are designed to protect individuals from the power of their own rulers. They define the intersection between governmental power and individual freedoms. But in the international sphere, powerful states have always used human rights as an exception to the principle of state sovereignty in order to intervene in the affairs of other states in order to pursue their own political agendas. These can include destabilising states they see as challenging their own national interests. This can be seen in the actions of the US in pursuit of its present policy of containing the growth of China. Human Rights are claimable rights and were always understood to be protections against governmental power. However, this has changed and now the concept of Human Rights is often used by special interests in a country to obtain entitlements for themselves at the expense of the state. These notwithstanding, there are still many people who genuinely believe in promoting and protecting the Human Rights of others. PE Jeffrey clarified that there is nothing Western about Human Rights. The main drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were not from the West. In fact at that time Western nations had little interest in Human Rights since they were colonial powers and had little regard for the Human Rights of their subject peoples.

PE Jeffrey received a polite reception to his talk. His request that, as the speaker, he should not have to pay for his lunch was however unanimously rejected. So he paid for his lunch.

The meeting was followed by a Board Meeting chaired by President Cze Hong

Board Announcements

The Board of the Rotary Club of Raffles City has resolved to terminate the membership of Aravinth Kumarasamy for failing to pay his debts to the club despite numerous reminders to do so. He has also continuously failed to attend club meetings. This decision means that Aravinth will not be able to join any Rotary Club in the world. His debts to the Club remain outstanding.

The Board decided to accept the resignation of the following, all of whom have intimated either orally in writing their decision to resign from the club:  Mark Davis, Nitin Doshi, Chow Nam Kit and Wong Meng Lin. All except for the latter are members in good standing. The Club will endeavour to recover all outstanding debts.

The Board also accepted the resignation of Ho Kok Koh, a member in good standing, and thank him for his donation upon his resignation of the sum $1000 to the Club. He is truly an example of the Rotary spirit. We hope that those who resigned will return to the club when circumstances enable them to do so.

National Day/Hari Raya Puasa Fellowship

The Club’s National Day and Hari Raya Puasa Fellowship will be held at the Mamanda Restaurant at Sultan’s Gate on Sat. 25 August 2012 from 7.45 – 10 pm . All members and spouses are urged to attend to celebrate these events together with their fellow Rotarians. Please inform Club Service Director Sigrid if you are coming. The closing date is 15 August - but a smile to Sigrid can earn an extension of time.

Charity Gourmet Dining

The Club’s fine dining event for charity will be held on 18 August at the Prague MicroBrewery at Amara Hotel. There are still some places available. Cost is $200 per diner. Please contact President Cze Hong if you can come. All proceeds will go to the Sunlove Home.

Dyslexia Association of Singapore 21^st Anniversary Dinner

This is a club project and will  be held on 8 September 2013. It is a fund-raiser for DAS and the club’s contribution up to this time has reached over $180,000. A suitable occasion will be identified for the formal presentation of the cheque from the club to DAS. This will enhance the profile of the Club.

Charity Premiere

The Club’s Major Project for this Rotary Year will be the Film Premiere of the latest James Bond movie “Skyfall”. This will be at 9 pm on Thursday 1 November 2012 at the Lido cinema and will be in aid of the Crohn's & Colitis Society and the  SunLove Home. More details will be made available in due course.

Club Community Service Projects

It has been noted that the visits to the charity homes which are a feature of the Club’s community service projects are often supported by the same few Rotarians. Many Club members have never been to any of these visits which are usually conducted in conjunction with major festivals and involve also our Interactors and Rotoracters. Members are urged to come along and support these visits. Announcements will be made in due course. The next visit is on Saturday 25 Aug 1.30pm-4 pm . This will be the annual Hari Raya Puasa visit to the Jamiyah Home for the Aged at Tampines. Please contact Community Service Director Mohan Pillay for details.

Club Funds

As informed by the Treasurer, the club incurred a deficit for this year’s Installation activities. This affects the resources available to the club to carry out our proposed activities. All committees thus are urged to be mindful of budgetary constraints when planning their activities.

Medical Mission to Sabah: joint project with R C of Luyang

This is planned for the 1^st weekend in March 2013. Details will be made known nearer the date.

District Conference

The District 3310  Conference 2013 will be held at the Graceland Resort & spa in Phuket, Thailand from 26-26 May 2013. Registration is now open. Please visit the District’s website at

< http://www.rotarydistrict3310.org.my/index.php/2012/08/22nd-district-3310-conference-2013-phuket-thailand/> .

There are special offers for early bird registrations.

For more information email to  < reg2013phuketconference@gmail.com 

District Governor’s Visit

Our DG of Rotary District 3310 Lee Kong Hwee will be visiting our club for the annual DG’s Visit on the evening of 18 September. There will be a Club Assembly in conjunction with this visit. All Directors are to complete their plans before the visit and make short oral presentations of not more than 5 mins each to the DG at the Club Assembly. Members are urged to bring their spouses and partners along for this Club Assembly. More details will be make known in due course.

Next Club Meeting

The next Club meeting will be held on Tuesday 14 August 2012 at the Gilmour Room of the Singapore Cricket Club at 12.45 pm. The Guest Speaker will be PDG Fong Hoe Beng. He will speak on “Future Vision Matching Grants”.