ExxonMobil Talk: 19 March 2009.

At yesterday's RCS lunch meeting, we had 18 RCS members ( 67%) but we were nearly outnumbered by 6 Visiting Rotarians and 10 Guests !! Total 34 present.
 

We were short of food ( was quickly replenished.... thanks to our member Desmond Tay ) and short of seats ( added another table to the existing 4 tables).

RCSS also took the opportunity to welcome Mr Bill Cummings of ExxonMobil who presented an interesting & enlighting talk on the Corporate Culture of ExxonMobil.

Quite apart from focusing on making a profit from running the petroleum business, the company among other things is also involved in research on renewable energy to help the enviroment as part of the global endeavour to make the world a better place for all mankind.
 
ExxonMobil ploughs back a portion of its profit to help the less fortunate & needy of society as part of its commitment to the Corporate Culture of ExxonMobil is quite an eye opener for the members & guests present during the meeting that not all companies care only for the bottomline. ExxomMobil after all also cares for the community.

We were heartened by the good food and more importantly, the fellowship amongst rotarians and guests. The icing on the cake is feedback from ExxonMobil expressed their desire to speak at our lunch meeting again with a new Speaker and Topic.

We shall all be looking forward to another interesting topic from ExxonMobil.

MEGA Induction Night - 5 March 2009

5 March 2009. This will be the day that will be remembered as Rotary Club of Sentosa Singapore was officially unveiled to the rest of the Rotary Community. Sure, those in the know would have found out about the Chartering of the new club as well as potentially who the charter members were.

But tonight, we stepped out into the limelight!

We had a great turnout, and a total of 10 new members were inducted into Rotary Club of Sentosa Singapore! More on them later.

We also welcomed a large number of visiting Rotarians and Distinguished Rotarians, who joined in the festivities of the night. We were also very lucky to have many out of town Rotarians who were in town for the Inter-City Meeting the following night.

Our distinguished guests for the night included:

Rotary International Director Jackson Hsieh,

Dist Governor Edward Burungoh and Spouse,

PDG Fong Hoe Beng,

PDG David Tong,

PDG Dr Wu Dar Ching ,

and of course, our Club's PDG Ben Chng & Lily!

We had the honor of having RI Director Jackson Hsieh to share some words of wisdom with the members and visiting Rotarians and we are amazed at the number of members that his home club was able to recruit! We certainly aspire to follow his lead for our newly-minted club.

Rotarians and guests at the dinner were treated to a sumptious dinner of chicken or salmon together with a desert buffett spread, and thereafter the induction program began proper.

The moment that many were waiting for finally arrived, and all the people at the dinner was introduced to each and every aspiring candidates. Sponsors rattled off the successes of each member and I am sure many Rotarians at the meeting will be happy to call our aspiring member a Rotarian.

PDG Ben Chng opening the Induction Ceremony by introducing his candidates.

The list of candidate grows

Until we had 10 new Rotarians.

PP Dr Khoo Chong Yew reading the Charge to the inductees

PDG Ben Chng attempting to get 10 people to read the Pledge

Our new members included:

1. Ernest Ong
   
2. Elaine Teh
   
3. Steve Chiang
   
4. Desmond Tay
   
5. Dr Robert Faltermeier
   
6. Casey Teh
   
7. Wan Fook Kong
   
8. Jimmy Teo
   
9. Dr Tony Wong
   
10. Dr Marcus Wong
    

This was on top of the 2 new Rotarians that were inducted earlier.

The club also took the opportunity to recognize our PHF (Paul Harris Fellows) contributers. Our batch of PHF for this round included:

1) Rtn Alan Koh (Level 1 PHF, major donor)

2) PP Linda Wong

3) CP Michael Quek

4) Rtn Wan Fook Kong

5) Rtn Elaine Teh

6) Rtn Dicky Ang

7) Rtn Poh Ee Mei

8) Rtn Jaclyn Ng (who was not able to attend the dinner that night)

And lastly, there was still the opportunity to network and enjoy the fellowship of other Rotarians.

We all look forward to the next fellowship function!

Welcome Rotarian Suresh Divyanathan

Rotary Club of Sentosa, Singapore had a small induction ceremony for new Rotarian Suresh Divyanathan last night to accomodate for Rtn Suresh's hectic travel schedule.

Suresh joined Drew & Napier LLC in 1999 and was made a Director on 1st May 2008. His area of legal expertise is International Commercial Arbitration although he also does some civil litigation before local Courts. Since 2006, Suresh has been named every year in the annual "Leading Lawyers of Asia" survey publication.

Outside of legal practice, Suresh enjoys golf & takes his National Service commitment to his country more seriously than most people think he should. 

Suresh has been married to Jeanette for just over a year. He still feels that everyday with her is a miracle. Suresh is always grateful for the daily miracles in his life.

Here PDG Ben Chng laying out the rules and regulations of being a Rotarian to aspiring Rtn Suresh.

Rtn Suresh can't believe what he cannot do now that he is a Rotarian!

CP Michael Quek congratulates Rtn Suresh on being inducted into Rotary Club of Sentosa, Singapore.

Rtn Dr Ho Choon Hou pining the Charter Member pin onto Rtn Suresh's shirt to signify his entry into the Club.

Welcome Rotarian Suresh!

Qigong and Health - Fellowship 26 Feb 2009

Our weekly lunch fellowship was held, sadly for the last time at PDG Ben Chng's house. On behalf of Rotary Club of Sentosa Singapore, we would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to PDG Ben for opening his house to us while we await our Charter certificate and to allow us some time to sort out where is the best place for us to hold our lunch and dinner fellowship meetings.

Today was "Lawyer's" day at RCSS. We had an incredible 4 lawyers at our lunch fellowship. Thankfully they were all in different classifications within the legal business.

The good news of the day was that CP Michael Quek announced that the club has received its Charter approval and the Certificate would be presented to the club by District officials within the coming weeks. PP Linda Wong also took the opportunity to remind members who are present and attending the District Assembly to confirm up their participation to get the rooms and dinner tickets arranged.

Our speaker for the day and visiting Rotarian was PP Sim Teow Gok, who looked about 10 years younger than his actual age. His secret was not Botox, but the age old practice of Qigong. PP Sim gave a quick historical account on how he became a practitioner of Qigong, starting with him being afflicted with Polio when he was a child. His parents, when confronted with the option of amputation and letting him be, decided to let the young boy be and let fate takes its journey. To proove disbelievers that he was a Polio victim, he showed us scars on his legs from the leg braces worn when he was young.

As luck would have it, PP Sim met with a Qigong master and started practicing Qigong and in the process, strengthened his legs and his health. So devoted is he to the practice of Qigong that PP Sim even makes it a point to practice Qigong when he is travelling!

He tells us that Qigong is able to remedy minor ailments such as headaches, tummy pains as well as muscle pains. But he also goes on to inform us that there have been cases where the practice of Qigong has led to remission of cancer in some practitioners. To proove a point, he brought out a press release from Hong Kong about a terminally ill cancer patient who recovered completely from his cancer by practicing Qigong, much to the surprise of the Western trained doctors. 

He futher explained that Qigong is best practiced early in the morning, and preferably in proximity of pine trees. The Qi, as he tells it, will circulate round the body, and also allow oxygen to flow through the blood into all parts of the body.

His closing statement to the members present at the fellowship was to join him and give Qigong a try as we may not know what other benefits, apart from being healthy, it will bring us.

With that, the meeting ended, and the members adjourned to meet another time. 

Next week will be an Induction Dinner, where the club will induct a new batch of members. Watch out for more pictures and stories from RCSS' first Induction Dinner.

PP

Feb 12, 2009

At this week's fellowship luncheon, we're happy to enjoy the fellowship of our fellow members and also the good food.

President Michael Quek provided the members with a brief of what are the upcoming activities. These included:

1) The District Assembly in Melaka in from the 16 - 19 April, 2009

2) RI President's Visit on March 6, 2009

3) RCSS Induction Dinner at the Pines Club on March 5, 2009

RCSS President Michael Quek opening the meeting.

The President encouraged all the members to attend the functions, especially the RI President's Visit as the Club will obtain its Charter certificate directly from the RI President himself, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that should not be missed.

This meeting we had the opportunity to meet up with potential new members: Steve Chiang, Tommy Lai, and Marvis Wong as introduced by PDG Ben Chng, and Walter Tan as introduced by PP Dr Khoo Chong Yew. 

PDF Fong was also kind enough to give the members, especially the new one on what is Rotary Foundation and what does it take to be a Paul Harris Fellow (PHF). It was certainly informative, and we're all heartened to learn that Rotary Foundation will match Rotarian's contribution to the Foundation for community activities.

"What is a PHF?" as explained by PDG Fong above.

Following PDF Fong's briefing, Rotarian Jean-Paul Deslypere gave a light-hearted but useful insights on travelling, since he is a frequent visitor to many countries across the world. Among the tips he gave included putting a "large" hand-carry luggage in a locker while checking in (to prevent the counter staff from scrutinizing the luggage too much) and then taking it out before heading into the terminal, and also also very humurous comments on airplane food, which most of the members could relate to.

"Quick, hide your hand carry!" advises Rtn Jean-Paul