The lazy, hazy days of the Thai summer didn't prevent a gaggle of Rotarians from partially filling the Hong Kong Lucky's upstairs meeting room Tuesday evening. After sergeant-at-arms Bill Mason had "hushed" the audience, president-elect Shana Kongmun "gonged" the meeting to order at precisely 7:30 p.m. With club president Joe Evans on extended leave, Shana has been getting lots of on-the-job training this month. In her opening remarks, Shana announced that she was interested in having CMIRC "twin" with the Rotary Club of Yangon, which is the same age (two years) as our Chiang Mai club. "One of my goals is to broaden our footprint," Shana added. "I'd like people to get to know us better."
Spreading the word about the good deeds Rotary performs was also the theme of the night's main event, a video Roger Lindley presented. Jennifer Jones, Rotary International Director (2015) stressed the importance of telling stories as a way of creating interest in Rotary. As Roger and others have noted before, only three out of every ten people you ask know anything about Rotary, and Jones believes one way of addressing that knowledge deficit is for members to talk about what we do with non-members. "The more stories we tell about what we do, the more people want to join," Jones said. She listed five "core value" kinds of Rotary stories to relate to others: stories about 1) service, 2) diversity, 3) integrity, 4) fellowship, and 5) leadership. She noted that polishing our "elevator pitch" would help us tell others what we do more effectively and succinctly (I sense a club meeting workshop percolating in my feeble brain). Anyhow...
Guests (pictured below) at the meeting included Joy Smith from the Rotary Club of Halifax, Nova Scotia and her friend Suvanney "Pana" Buy, a Cambodian student studying sustainable agriculture at Mae Jo University.
Odds & Ends
The Happy Bahts were flying Tuesday, with club secretary Jerry Nelson glad that Colorado's Estes Park Rotary Club is interested in supporting CMIRC projects. New member Tom Johnson was ecstatic to have regained his golf swing nearly five years after shoulder surgery, recently going 3 over par in one of his first games since the setback. Along the same lines, after months of shouldering major fundraising responsibilities, Nancy Lindley was happy to have time to exercise - especially when she discovered that her husband Roger would clean their condo while she worked out. Also, "March Madness" has brought a smile to Bob Carroll's face, as he enjoys following U.S. college basketball, even from the other side of the planet. And finally, Bill Mason was on a happiness roll, winning first prize (30,000 baht) at the golf ball drop, getting the good news that his recent heart scare wasn't serious, and winning the club's first revamped weekly raffle (he chose elephant camp passes), prompting shouts of "the fix is in," "unbelievable," and "let's buy a Powerball ticket."
March 22nd Guest Speaker: Comedian Tom Sawyer
The Fat Lady has Sung
It's time to end the first "Power of Small Change" collection. Members have three options: 1) bring their "owl" banks to the next meeting, 2) bring the change from their owl banks, or 3) do nothing! Seems kind of unfair to Peter Bell, who just got his bank at the last meeting (photo below)
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