Summary of May 30 2011 Meeting

At this meeting, we were transported from a hospital in Hong Kong, onward to Xinjiang, and then to the Amazon rainforest. Ka Wing reminded us of the things we need to bring with us to the hospital to make one’s hospital stay more pleasant, if that is possible. Michael was so taken with his holiday in Xinjiang that he had to share the beautiful sights and the taste of the place. We even got to try the famous extra sugary raisins from Turpan. “Uncle Andrew”’s storytelling took us to the great Amazon jungle where we learned that one must expect the unexpected.

The theme of the evening was Good to Great. Encouragingly, the theme was repeated throughout the evening during speeches and by the facilitators. We also heard that our President wants to take our club from good to great; TME Nat said he wanted to take the meeting from good to great; our Table Topic Master Joanne asked us about the difference between a good and great speaker, a good and a great parent, a good and a great partner/lover/spouse, and finally, about whether one should try to change their partner in order to help them become great. In response to the latter, Jo Manning shared with us her strong view that no one should ever try to change another. Joanne finished off the session by giving us a surprise by rendition of Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are” (“…Don’t Go Changing....ummmm...uuummmmm...I want you just the way you are…”).

We held our club’s Presidential election for 2011-12. We had 2 candidates: Nat Hix and Clement Wong. Both are fairly new members to our club. A total of 19 members attended and the vote was very close. I am pleased to announce that our new Club President will be Clement Wong, who will assume the role from 1 July. Clement will be forming his new committee shortly and for those who are interested to help and support him during his term to ensure our club continues on the road from good to great, please step forward and nominate yourself. We need to fill the roles VP Education, VP Membership, VP Public Relations, Treasurer and Secretary. Please contact Clement to express your interest. There will be a Club Officers Training (COT) on 11 June, so we would need to get this finalized soon.

The great speakers for the evening:

Great Prepared Speech Speaker Andrew Yeung

Great Table Topic Speaker Jo Manning

Great Evaluator Edwin Lui

Please note that there will be no meeting on 6 June due to the public holiday. Our next meeting will be on 20 June. And it being the last meeting of the 2010-11 year, we are planning to serve some light refreshment. Please do make time to attend this last meeting of the year.

Best regards,

Ong Ai Ai

President 2010-11