Rotary

Beijing Rotary AGM in Johnnie Walker House

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in Rotary Tagged 1 Comment

Our Beijing Rotary Annual General Meeting

On 29 November Our Club held its AGM in Johnnie Walker House near Qianmen. I visited the House earlier, see:
The Johnnie Walker House in Beijing: simply impressive, see previous post.

So I did not join the tour with the others.
Fifteen members attended thus ensuring the required quorum. The amendments to the club bylaws were approved unanimously. President and incoming board members 2017/18 were also elected:

President             Russell B.
IPP                      Daniel R.
President Elect    Martin G.
Secretary             (position open)
Service                 Lucy M.
Foundation           Jens H.
Membership         Daniel A.
Treasurer             Rene S.
Youth                   Sven H.

(pics provided c/o Rtn Lucy)

A busy evening for our AGM in Johnnie Walker House

Ms. Paloma Sanchez donated a ring to the club for auction during our upcoming Ball on 25 February 2017.
The auction of three whiskeys donated by Johnnie Walker was a big success!
As speaker we had the Swiss Ambassador Dr. de Dardel on the topic of Innovation.
Ambassador de Dardel spoke about innovation in China and Switzerland. Ranking on top of innovative countries, Switzerland has always emphasized innovation with a view of improving people’s livelihood. China and Switzerland have established a cooperation in the field of innovation.

President Daniel R performed the induction of Aish K. who transferred from RC Shanghai.
Rtn Eli K. was made honorary member of our club in acknowledgement of his dedication and continuous support to the club.
Thanks to Rtn Eli for arranging the venue.

2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Beijing City International School

On 3 December the 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar was held again in Shuangjing. Proceeds for the Migrant Children Foundation (MCF) of our Rotarian Helen.
Great job Helen!See: http://mcfchina.org/

Rotaract and Rotary both present

This 2016 BCIS Christmas Bazaar both Rotary Club of Beijing and our Rotaractors were present with a table.
Rotaract sold crafts that were handmade by the kids of MCF school. They raised over 2000 RMB.
Great job by our volunteers Julia, Peter, Vasko, Péha, Elaine, Yvonne and others.

District SR Frank Yih at Rotary Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Our special guest(s)

On 15 November District SR Frank Yih (Special Representative) joined the Beijing Rotary lunch at the Kempinski Hotel, along with other delegates from Shanghai.
SR Frank started his presentation with a video of RIP John Germ’s speech about this year’s theme – Rotary Serving Humanity. Frank then explained the Presidential Citation and the status of our clubs. There are 15 clubs and 5 provisional clubs in Mainland China as of today; there are 7 Rotaract clubs and 11 Interact clubs, see the slides. Frank also presented the district structure, finance and plans. The current District Service Projects are Gift of Life (GOL) and Save Kids Lives (SKL). SR Frank also invited fellow Rotarians to join him in the RI Convention Atlanta on June 10-14, 2017.

Our Gift of Life Program

One of our key project, now gradually the task is taken over by other organizations.
Congenital Heart Defects in China:
The incidence rate of CHD is about 0.7% to 1.1% based on the national data, and in the higher elevation regions the rate is increased to 1.37% to 2.5%.
More than 150,000 born with CHD per year.
About 1/3 died in one month due to the serious CHD or complex malformation
Another 1/3 died in very young age due to the exacerbation or delay of the surgery.
What we have achieved:
Over 20 million RMB raised by Rotary Club of Shanghai, Beijing & Chengdu;
More than 1,000 children from poor family operated.

Visiting Rtn James presented Save Kids Lives Project (SKL).

As few people know. the leading cause of death in China for children under 14 are traffic accidents, another major cause being drowning.
Ever seen kids sitting in the front seat, or back seat, without protection? Adults in the back seat without a safety belt? Those are major causes of death. Chinese totally ignore the terrible risks. In European countries those attitudes are punishable by law. In case of any accidents the kids simply fly through the front window, normally with instant death.
SKL promotes awareness of the danger, with the government and all concerned.

PP Piper explains DDF

PP Piper gave a presentation on the Fund Drive 2016: District Designated Fund (DDF) and the global Impact of Rotary Work.
The mission of The Rotary Foundation is to enable Rotary members to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation supported solely by voluntary contributions from Rotary members and friends of the Foundation who share its vision of a better world. This support is essential to make possible projects, funded with Foundation grants, that bring sustainable improvement to communities in need.

Thanks  District SR Frank Yih for the visit and the presentations!

Two Beijing Rotaract clubs met Frank Yih

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Delegation from Shanghai

Our two Beijing Rotaract clubs met Frank Yih on Monday evening 14 November in TUCTUC. He came with a whole delegation:

  • PP Frank Yih, RI Representative responsible for mainland China development (2016-17) (from USA – in Shanghai)
  • James Feldkamp, Rotary China secretary, Rotarian from RC Fresh Start
  • Calvin Liu, Rotary China Interota Chair, Rotarian from RC Shanghai West
  • Anita Hsu, Interota committee member, Rotarian from RC Shanghai West
  • May Chin, Interota committee member, Rotaractor from Rotaract club of Shanghai West
  • Sasha Wang (Interota committee member, Rotary China Youth Service

We pretty much took over the restaurant, being near 50.
Among the crowd were some Beijing Rotarians like Mike, Sven and Jonathan and a delegate from Dulwich College (our Interact Club)

Animated evening

Frank met the boards of Rotaract West and Rotaract Sanlitun, the gave a talk. Others introduced Interota and more about Rotary. Our two Rotaract clubs also gave an overview of their activities.
The Rotaract club in Wudaokou has now grown quickly. See one of their meetings:

161103-rotaractwest

As for myself, I gave a short talk about my experience as the liaison Rotary-Rotaract.
Frank was so kind to invite us all.

The sad part: it was the last day for TUCTUC to open. They have been losing money – as so many other restaurants – and are forced to close. A pity because we were getting used to that place. I have seen many of our locations being closed over the year: Tim’s Texas BBQ, the coffee shop on Xindong Lu, Trouble Bar, Smokeyard… Business in Beijing is real tough.

Rotarian Gilbert’s Story in our lunch

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Rotarian Gilbert’s Story

During the lunch of 1 November Gilbert gave an impromptu talk, as there was no speaker and the crowd was modest.
He talked about how, knowing a Chinese mechanic in a hotel in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in early 1980 it unexpectedly led him to a circle of new Chinese friends in Beijing. Helping the granddaughter of a former Chinese Rotarian (Tianjin Club) to get a sponsorship from Belgian Rotarians in the early eighties it had a double effect. Firstly, it was probably the first exchange of a Chinese national to stay with Rotarians abroad after Liberation. Then, the Chinese family felt indebted and set a clever trap for Gilbert. They were successful: he ended up marrying the lady they had introduced to him with some made-up excuses. The rest is history.

(pics by Celine)

Our Rotaractors were also present: President Peter Danci, Rotaract Beijing and IPP Anissa Doradou, Rotaract Beijing
We had a visitor from afar: from the Rotary Club of Novosibirsk (Russia), who treated us with some gifts.
Do also note the upcoming Christmas Carol, with a special evening for Rotary on 6 December, all profits going to our Club.