DISTRICT GOVERNOR 8/2011-12

HELLO MY FELLOW ROTARIANS,

I am back. The last month or so have been very hectic for Kalimah and I. Hotel rooms have become our homes and Airsia our transport. Almost every night is a late night. Though tired, we both have truly enjoyed ourselves.

Until tonight, we have visited 26 clubs in our District with 36 clubs to go. I hope to visit all remaining clubs by the end of January 2012.

In all our visits the reception accorded to us was excellent and the fellowship was great. Kalimah and I wish to thank everybody for making us feel most welcome and our visits very enjoyable and memorable. We met a lot of our old friends finding them going strong as ever and fully devoted to Rotary as usual. We also made many new friends on the way and some are now our Facebook friends.

We are always looking forward to the next visit with full enthusiasm and expectations and it is these that give us the energy and motivation to go on. The experience has indeed been very enriching and we will cherish it for the rest of our lives. Photos of all these visits can be seen in our Facebook’s.

We just came back from our official club visit of the Rotary Club of Likas Bay. Among the many things that caught my attention during the club assembly was what was said by PP Datuk Lee Chuen Wan during his presentation on public relation that “Rotarians are to behave ourselves especially when in the presence of our spouses, children and potential members”. He said this is essential in maintaining the public image of Rotary and I am sure all of us agree with him. Let’s practice this for the betterment of Rotary.

The first Rotary Foundation Seminar for this Rotary Year was held on the 8th 0ctober in Kota Kinabalu for the Sabah/Labuan sector hosted by the Rotary Club of Luyang. This was followed by the Sarawak/ Brunei Sector held last Saturday in Bintulu hosted by the Rotary Club of Bintulu. It has never been easy to organize a Rotary Foundation seminar. I wish to congratulate all members of the Organizing Committees and the host clubs for having successfully organized the two seminars and a big thank you PDG Abang Nawawi, our District Rotary Foundation Chair, and all speakers and resource persons for their effort and devotion.

The Singapore sector will be held this coming 22nd 0ctober at the Tanglin Club to be followed by the Johor/ Melaka sector on the 29th of this month at the Seri Malaysia Hotel, Melaka. The Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator PDG Muhammad Faiz Kudwai will be attending the seminar in Melaka.

In addition to the above, we have some interesting events coming up your way in these few weeks.

On the 3rd-4th November the Rotary Club of Jurong Town, Singapore will be having the Age Friendly Workforce Asia "On Private Public Collaborations in Workshop Health."

On the evening of the 4th November we will have the UN- Rotary Day- A MDG Partnership and Networking Event to be held at the Holiday Inn, Atrium, Singapore. This event is jointly organized by our District, hosted by RC E-club 3310 and UNAS (The United Nation Associations of Singapore). Kindly contact Rtn. Rovena Plique (rovena.plique@yahoo.com) for more details on this event.

On the 5th-6th November we will be having our Child Sexual Abuse Preventing Training Workshop in Senai, Johor. Assistant Governor Chew Ban Seng (eclub3310@gmail.com) should be able to assist you with more information on this.

As part of our continuous effort to conserve planet Earth a tree planting event will be held on the 11th November at 11.00 am and to kick off in Muar, Johor. This project is the brainchild of the Rotary Club of Muar and they will be planting 1111 trees around Muar on that day and time to signify 11.11.2011, 11.00 am. I understand that there are other clubs in the District doing likewise. For more details on this project kindly contact President Senthil of RC Muar (rublik@hotmail.com).

The famous END POLIO- Trans-Sabah Walk and Climb will be flagged off from Sandakan on Monday, 7th November at 2 in the morning. Joining the Walk/Climb are PP Leong Chee Woh, PP Robin Tay (D3300), PP Wei Lien Tay, President Franco Lee, Thau Fah Lee and Charles Johnson. They are scheduled to reach Kota Kinabalu on Friday 18th November, the first day of the 21st District Conference. The final lap will start at Stadium Likas at 7.00 am and then at Jesselton Point at around 8.30 am to be flagged-off by invited VVIPs and the R.I Special Representative. An estimated 300-350 participants comprising of local Rotarians, their families, friends and members of the public are expected to take part. END Polio t-shirts will be distributed to all participants. All Rotarians are strongly urged to donate generously and raise fund from their friends and relatives to help achieve our target of raising USD 200,000.0. I also urge Rotarians in Sandakan and in Kota Kinabalu to turn up in full force with their families and friends to join in the flag-off in Sandakan and the final lap in Kota Kinabalu. Let's all of us give our brave walkers/climbers our rousing REDBULL support!

I wish to welcome all Rotarians and their spouses who have registered and those intending to register for the 21st District Conference to Kota Kinabalu, the Land Below the Wind. The registration is slowly but surely coming in and we hope to reach the 300 number by the 18th November. I urge all Rotarians not to miss this great event. The organizer under the able chairmanship of PP Warrence Chan and his team has been working tirelessly for the past many months to ensure that the best is ready for all of you. Do come and support them.

Before I pen-off, I wish to remind all clubs that we still have a lot more DDF to be disbursed. Clubs are to urge to look for more matching projects. The closing date for submission of the Matching Grants (MG) is on the 31st March 2012 when the MG application must reach the Rotary Foundation and not earlier.

There are still clubs in our District who have not paid their District dues as well RI dues. All Presidents are to look into this matter seriously.

We still have 14 clubs who have not submitted their attendance list for the month of September. Please do so as soon as possible.

I am sure by now all clubs have received their hard copies of the DG's Newsletter for the month of July and August. You can also access these Newsletters from our District website. The publication for September should be out very soon. Once again I urge all Area Editors to do their parts to get articles and news from clubs under their areas. We want a well represented coverage of news from all parts of our Rotary District. The names and contact details of all the Area Editors can be found on pages 83 & 84 of the District Directory.

My wife and I will be meeting you all soon in most, if not all of the functions mentioned above. Please do give your support by your attendance and participation to make these events a great success.

We wish all our fellow Rotarians who are celebrating Deepavali a HAPPY DEEPAVALI to you and your loved ones.

"Search Within to Embrace Humanity" 

Hj Zainie Abdul Aucasa.