President's Column

By President Joyce Mak

Never Give Up

Having less than 2 weeks' of Presidency at Kingspark, I looked back and realized there are still a lot of outstanding tasks that are unfinished. I have to admit that the time I spent on completing Club's operation and participating at different Rotary functions took up tremendous amount of my time. I felt I have not spent enough time and effort to cultivate a better relationships with all the members and to discuss with my board about future plans for the club. No doubt there were so many ad hoc and unpredictable issues to be resolved during the year, it is still very crucial to stick with the blue print which has been drawn a year ago. As I recall, our late Honorary Member, PDG Raymond Wong mentioned "If you have to dream, DREAM BIG". I still have many dreams in my mind that I would like to achieve at Kingspark and I know I have not completely made those dreams real this year. Given the privilege to be the President of a club, it has been one of the best opportunities in my life to see, explore and feel the world of Rotary. It has been an amazing journey where you could experience all walks of life: the people who are in-need; the people with influence in the society; Government officials; passionate volunteers and many more. Each one of them has his or her own agenda to achieve what they want and I believe as long as they are trying to help someone, Rotary is still a place where they could devote themselves.

It has been a great challenge for me and the board this year when we are facing the attendance issue. We had great turn ups at our various fellowship functions where we had great support, not only from members, but also Rotaractor and sometimes Interactors. There were times of discouragement when I felt really tired both mentally and physically; luckily, I have a group of outstanding PPs who have been really patient with me and who are willing to listen and to give mevaluable suggestions. I would like to thank every one of them for their support and I understand I'm not always the easiest person to work with at times.

I got much pressure from my business this year and it was really difficult to give priorities. However, I believe the object of Rotary is to help the needy and to make the world a better place. Helping the needy turns out to be my biggest driving force and has enabled me to continue and given me faith and courage to overcome my difficulties during this Rotary year. I understand that there are still many problems in our Club, such as membership and insufficient helping hands, etc., but if all our members can team up and bring in quality members I am sure the problem will be resolved, given proper guidance and effective leadership.

To take up the new role as IPP starting from July, it is an important role to be responsible for guiding and giving sufficient support to the new President and the board. He or she (in my case) should be able to give a full picture of the current state of the club and being able to identify areas where the new President could develop further based on the club's strengths and weaknesses. I am a big fan of change and not to hold back if those changes are necessary. Of course change would cause stress and anxieties, and not many organizations are able to cope with any changes at all. I feel very proud to be a Kingsparican, having the 'not to give-up' spirit; the passion to serve and take action without delay. I will continue to fulfill dreams that have not been fulfilled and never give up!