Rotary

Rotaract Beijing starts 2017

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A new year and lots going on

Rotaract Beijing starts 2017: the two clubs are now pretty busy.
Here some updates

Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA)

RYLA is an intensive training program for young adults. In China we focus on 18-30 year olds. Our RYLA is a four day group retreat of 25 young leaders geared at honing their personal awareness and leadership skills in a dynamic and exciting experience of exploration and adventure
RYLAs are designed for young adults with proven leadership ability and commitment to community service. It will help you discover your potential and develop the skills you need to be a leader in your community, career, and everyday life.
Time and place: Moganshan Bamboo Forest (four night retreat, 10 km from Shanghai), 1 to 4 April 2017
More: http://www.rylachina.org/

See here some pics, our Rotaractors from Beijing were also present.

Some of our meetings

On 30 January: social in Blue Frog, Sanlitun.
On 27 February meeting in SOHO Sanlitun.
On 6 March meeting in SOHO Sanlitun.
On 22 March the Rotaract volunteers visit the migrant children’s school with MCF (Migrant Children Foundation).
On 27 March, Gilbert presents his book Toxic Capitalism in Cafe Ruhe (Pacific Century Place, Sanlitun), the new venue.

Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Last “official” lunch of the Beijing Rotary Club

Beijing Rotary and Rotaract closing the year, first with Rotaract having the last lunch at Kempinski before everyone disappears to celebrate the holidays, in Beijing or in the home country.

Rtn Wei presented a banner he had received from RC Baden-Baden Merkur.
Visiting Rtn Bjorn exchanged a banner with PE Russell.
Visiting Rtn Thibaud presented his club of Discovery Bay, Hong Kong. New club and no banner yet.
Rtn Didier was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship by the club while he was away from China. It was to acknowledge his outstanding contribution towards club events. Rtn Gilbert has kept Didier’s certificate and finally passed it on to him to him.

Rotaract Social Night

As the Winter Ball had to be cancelled – not enough tickets sold – our Rotaractors held a “Social Night” at Legend Beer in the evening of Friday 16 December. We got a great deal at Legend Beer so that we went home, let’s say “pretty happy”.

Nice mix of Rotaractors and Rotarians, see here some of the happy participants.

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.

Child safety seats in China

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Save Kids Lives Project (SKL).

As reported earlier on Child safety seats, see: https://www.beijing1980.com/2016/11/21/district-sr-frank-yih-rotary-beijing/
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.
Our Rotarian James, through his company Ming Jian has been lobbying the authorities on this, with success, at least in Shanghai.
See also (in Chinese):
http://www.mingjian.cn/savekidslives/events

Child safety seats to be made mandatory

See article in Shanghai Daily:
Child safety seats to be made mandatory
By Yang Jian – 10 November 2016
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/metro/society/Child-safety-seats-to-be-made-mandatory/shdaily.shtml

Child safety seats will become mandatory for private cars carrying children under the age of 4, under the city’s draft road and traffic management law released by the Shanghai legislature yesterday.
Using a mobile phone while driving would also be banned, bringing the city into line with many jurisdictions overseas.
The two new clauses would join a raft of offenses that include speeding, incorrect lane changing, not wearing a seatbelt and overloading.
Violators will be fined up to 200 yuan (US$30) and be hit with demerit points.
Drivers who rack up 10 offenses or more will face tougher punishment, under the draft bill’s provisions.