Bulletin Issue 561 Volume 13  - No.    2   10th August 2018

(if you have any comments or questions, please contact Denis 
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Meeting Information

 ALL YEAR Dinner Out 1st Tuesday of each month 7pm at a restaurant

Meetings Friday 12.00 noon - 2pm @ Millennium Hotel in Jungceylon
Rat-U-Thit Road Patong Beach
November – April 2nd 3rd & 4th Friday - May – October 2nd & 4th Friday only
Dress code - Smart-Casual
(long pants and shirts with collars for men, women: smart-casual)
 
                                                        
Click for map
 
 
Visitors Welcome
registration mandatory
 
 

 
 
 
 Dear Rotarians and Friends of Rotary,

 

 August is Rotary's membership month.  So I have two questions for you:

  •  Why are you a Rotarian? 

 A really important question! Without understanding why you are a Rotarian you won't be   able to answer the second question --

  • Who do you know that you should invite to be a member of our club?                   Clearly, you can't invite someone to become a Rotarian if you don't understand  why you are one.                                                                                              
 So please contemplate these questions and be ready to talk about your answers when   we meet this month.  
 
 I also need your attention a little longer, while you read my goals for leading the club this   year.  You'll see they are quite focused, and I strongly believe that if we can achieve   these, we will be a much stronger club in June 2019:  
 
 Members have highlighted that they are enjoying the more fellowship, less speaker-   oriented meetings.  They would like more events that are family oriented so members   can get together without Rotary business.  They would like more hands on projects that   bring them together and where they can see the direct results of their efforts.  They’d   like to ensure that projects reflect the needs of the community.
 
Outlined below are some plans on how to make this happen.
 Outline
1.       Build membership, build engagement, build mutual support
a.       Identify “Why are you a Rotary club Member?”
b.       Do a review with members whom they think could be members
c.       Improve overall understanding of what Rotary is and means through            RI tools as well as participation in District events
d.       Highlight roles to all members – so they know what they can do
e.       Fill in gaps with those not participating
f.        Increase fellowship events to at least 1 every 2 months in addition              to regular schedule
g.       Improve communication among members
          (when someone isn’t showing up – who’s keeping in touch?)
h.       Celebrate birthdays each month
i.         Identify small CSP projects that are hands on
 
2.       Community review to identify focus for upcoming projects
a.       Have a community based perspective on what future projects should            be .Use RI template to get in touch with schools, local government,            local police, environment and other charities including other Rotary              clubs on the island. 
         Start planning how 2017/18 donations will be best used in 3 years
3.       Become more active with the Phuket Rotary Community
4.       Review and Update strategic plan and goals.
 
 This year we will start by looking inward towards the club to define who we are and how   to build the foundation for a strong future and then look outwards to work with the   community to ensure our efforts are impactful and sustainable.  
 
 Our goal, at year’s end is that we are a kinder club and every member should feel that   they are the “Inspiration”!
 
 
 Please note a few items for your information:
 
 The attendance requirement as voted by the club is 40% of meetings.  Make-ups are   Rotary events outside meetings and dinners out.  They include committee meetings,   fellowship meetings where all the members are invited, attending a meeting of another   club, other meetings where there is at least 30 minutes of Rotary work
 (training for example.)  It is the member's responsibility to inform the Secretary of   makeups (including the date and reason.)  You can do this by email or through Club   Runner (Members section on the website.)  Chairs of events are responsible for letting   the Secretary know of multiple makeups. 
 
 You can also check that the makeup is there by checking your attendance on the   member section of the website.  We are planning a meeting to review the ByLaws again   prior to the next Club Assembly, where any changes can be voted upon.
 
 We had our board meeting on the 20th of July.  All minutes will be uploaded onto Club   Runner once they are approved.  These can also be found on the member section of the   website. 
 
 We are planning to hold some of our board meetings after our Friday lunches so   members who are interested can participate. 
 Members are welcome to all board meetings regardless.
 
  Have a good week! 
 YIR, Karen
 
 Karen Eidsvik Moody
 President, Rotary Club of Patong Beach
 2018-2019
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
Dinner Out - Friday 10th August 2018  
 
 The August dinner out is actually a lunch out. 
 The Boathouse in Kata has a special during the green season of a great 3 course   lunch with free flow good grape nectars for a very special price of
 1,000 THB / person.  It is only available on Fridays though, so we have shifted this   month. We don't plan to make this a regular feature, or price, but thought we   should take advantage of this opportunity while we can. 
 
Please register when you receive the invitation through Club Runner.  
 
 
 
                           August                                              
                        
      Gary Eidsvik-Moody     15th 
 
     Mark Pendlebury       22nd 
 
 
        
         Friday 20th July  
 
 
 20 July 2018
 12:22 lunch was called by SA Gary
 12:58 Meeting called by SA Gary
 
 Intro of the Guests:
  1. Sumi of the Phuket Hotel Association:
  2. Guest Rotarian from Australia, Nelson Bay,
        Robert and Judy Mitchel
  1. Guest Rotarian, Bertie Jacobs, Rotary Club of South Africa, Potchefstroom
 
 Club Business by P. Karen:
  • Board meeting at 2:00 P.M. after this meeting
  • Tutorial on Club Runner on registering for meetings
  • Under P. Karen’s presidency she hopes to organize more fellowship among members
  • Spoke about Water Safety program headed up by Larry A. : Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays @ 3:00, Volunteers needed and WELCOME
  • Report on BanYa Education Center: A very successful Program to help Myanmar Children in Work camps; originally 20 kids, now 220 kids.  Global Grant is under review by David and Sam. Grant for teacher training and Computer.            Grant money is almost exhausted so program will have to seek other funding (beyond RCOPB commitments).
 
  Intro of Guest Speaker by SAA Gary:
 Guest Speaker: Marissa Jablongski, PHD
 USAID Science & Technology Policy Fellow
 “Engineers for People”
 
  Topic of Presentation:  Single Use of Plastic:
  Notes from a very informative talk:
  • Photo of Lake Michigan and Marissa’s childhood next to the
biggest source of Fresh Water on the planet….this childhood got Marissa thinking/valuing about clean water and clean beaches—
  • Nowadays plastic is ruining the beaches. Plastic Pollution-on-beaches is everywhere.  How do the worlds children see the plastic on the beaches? They have become adjusted/normalized to seeing the beaches with plastic.
  • Micro plastics are very dangerous to the birds and fish of the marine environment. The animals eat the small bits of plastic and feel full but die of malnutrition.
  • Speaker Marissa has visited 20 Phuket hotels in the last few weeks and has investigated the kitchens, the spas, and the trash bins.
She is searching and has found sources of the plastic pollution is all: She interviewed the staff of the Hotels and generated common, salient questions raised:
  1. How does my recycled plastic get into the ocean?
  2.  If we burn plastic, doesn’t that pollute the air?
  3. I don’t throw plastic into the ocean and I don’t know anyone who does, so how does all that debris get into the ocean?
  • Background facts:
  1. Plastic comes from OIL….crude to refinery to chemicals…
  2. #7 plastics are NOT recycleable
  3. 1,000,000 plastic bottles every MINUTE are generated
  4. 1,000,000 plastic bags every MINUTE are generated
  5. Intention of Plastic may have been noble (clean, light, sterile packaging), but we have lost the good intent in over-production…
  6. We all Need a personal Connection to the Death by Plastic,
  7. In Phuket only 20% of Plastics are recycled.
  8. One “Can mine plastic from land fills, so no need to produce any more plastic for recycling”
  • Discussing Solutions:
  1. Plant/Bio Plastics were once thought as the end to polluting plastics. However, they require high temps and microbes to be effective, i.e.
                                             High heat…is not present in the ocean
                                             Bacteria….does not live in the sea water
                                             Will take 90 days minimum…in heated land fill
  1. “REFUSE PLASTIC”  is the new Mantra – the only hope of reducing plastic pollution – just live without plastic.
  2. Intention of the service industry, is to please its guests – however, guests have to be pleased without plastic or they are part of the problem.
  3. We all are part of the “bad” and the “Good”
  4. It’s a big deal, we have to change at a deep level
  5. Change your self; then, your colleagues; then, your company; then, change regionally; then, maybe change the world
  • COMMON PLASTICS FOUND IN HOTEL INDUSTRY:
  1. Water Bottle: issues with weight, storage, recycling, trucking
  2. Plastic Straws: must go to paper in spite of cost
  3. Containers: notion containers, issues with branding, and sanitation 
  4. Import items coming into Hotel: not bags, but cloth, not bags but bins
  5. Trash Bags: other ways of transport and conveyance; plastic bags in kitchen is a hard one to solve;
  • PARAMETERS OF CHANGE FOR ALL OF US:
  • All of these changes away from plastic are not easy, but they are all required:
  • There are always issues with switching all of these plastic out to other containers.
  • Leveraging from local SOLUTIONS to world-wide SOLUTIONS
  • Personal Challenge FOR ALL IS to give up some plastic everyday, every week, every year:
 “MUST HAVE A NEW NORMAL”
  (Speaker was well appreciated, thanked and graciously answered lots of          questions….more supportive comments than questions.)
 
 

 Reporter:  PP O.B. Wetzell  Photos:  Gary Eidsvik-Moody   
Thank you ed Denis 
 
 
URGENTLY WANTED
 
We are urgently looking for members with average computer skills for ClubRunner administration support. You will be assigned and trained on certain modules, e.g. how to publish an event, creating volunteers list, etc.
The goal is to share all the CR administration work for this Rotary Club among more members. The beauty is, these works can be done anywhere and anytime, whenever you are free.
 
Members interested please contact club secretary PP Walter
 
 
   Gary Eidsvik-Moody attended the swimming program - please call in & see the kids in action - having FUN & learning swimming survival.
(Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-call Larry Amsden for details)  
 
 
 
I attended the safe swimming lesson yesterday and the theme was learning, buoyancy and rescue, so I thought I would send a few photos of the day's event. 
 
 
 
 
 
 The kids used water bottles to learn to float. The great thing about this is   they jumped into the pool backwards, and had to float for 20 seconds on   their backs, no fear was felt by the kids to let themselves let go.
 Then they were taught to rescue someone in trouble in the water, in this   case, were the instructors.
 
 The various methods were throwing afloat, using a pole and throwing a line   with a float attached, the most important aspect was not to stand, as you can   also be pulled in, but to kneel and pull the swimmer to the side.
  
 
 
  
   
Thank you Gary - ed 
 
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Since 1993, Rotarians in Chile and the United States have teamed up to provide life-altering reconstructive surgeries

By Diana Schoberg Photos by Daniela Prado Sarasúa

 

Román, a member of the Rotary Club of Reñaca, Chile, is the national coordinator of a  program that has helped thousands of children in Chile with cleft lips, cleft palates, and other birth defects – including this stranger who now wanted to give Román a hug.

“She told me, ‘This is my Rotarian smile,’” he recalls, his voice full of emotion. “It was a very gratifying moment.”

The project got its start in 1993 when San Francisco (California) Rotarians, led by Peter Lagarias and Angelo Capozzi, sponsored a medical mission that performed reconstructive surgeries in Chile. That was the beginning of Rotaplast, a program that evolved into a nonprofit organization that has since sent teams to 26 countries.

In 2004, Rotarians in Chile assumed leadership of the program in their country. Over the years, Chilean doctors became more involved and eventually the program expanded to include breast reconstruction for cancer patients.

“It’s a great commentary on Rotary that you’ve got people in a Spanish-speaking country and people in an English-speaking country working together to get things accomplished,” says James Lehman, a plastic surgeon who joined the Rotary Club of Fairlawn, Ohio, USA, after working with Rotarians in Chile.

In February, Lehman and a team of U.S. surgeons, anesthesiologists, and nurses visited Iquique, a Pacific port city and tourist hot spot about 80 miles south of Chile’s northern border. With financial help from the nearby Collahuasi copper mine, local Rotarians coordinate and pay for the medical team’s food, lodging, and in-country transportation. (Visiting doctors pay for their flights between the United States and Chile; an Ohio-based nonprofit funds the travel of some support staff.)

More than 250 potential patients lined up early on a Saturday morning outside Ernesto Torres Galdames Hospital to try to get a spot on the team’s schedule. They had come from all over Chile, including a family who had traveled from Concepción, 1,400 miles to the south. About 600 children are born each year in Chile with cleft lips and palates, and though the government established eight centers to treat those abnormalities, the long wait list means corrective surgery can lie years in the future. “The demand exceeds the supply of people to take care of the patients,” Lehman explains.

Using four operating rooms – one for cleft lip or palate, one for ear reconstruction, one for breast reconstruction, and one for other issues – the team got to work. Patients were chosen based on need and on the complexity of the surgery. By the end of their stay, the surgeons and their staff had operated on 82 patients. In many cases, however, the complete reconstruction may take multiple surgeries, and some patients return several years in a row to complete the procedure.

But the final surgery doesn’t always signal an end to the relationship between a patient and Rotary. Román, who has coordinated the program since 2004, recalls an occasion involving the young woman he encountered in the department store. At Román’s invitation, she described her transformational cleft lip and palate surgeries at a Rotary district conference in Chile in 2012. Moved by her story, many in the crowd of 300 broke into tears, dazzled by her Rotarian smile.

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 A man is stranded on a desert island for 10 years. 
 One day a beautiful girl swims to shore in a wetsuit. 
 
 Man: "Hi! I am so happy to see you." 
 Girl: "Hi! It seems like you've been here a long time. How long has it been since   you've had a cigarette?" 
 Man: "It's been 10 years!" 
 With this information the girl unzips a slot on the arm of her wet suit and gives the   man a cigarette. 
 
 Man: "Thank you so much!" 
 Girl: "So tell me how long has it been since you had a drink?" 
 Man: "It's been 10 years!" 
 The girl unzips another pocket on her wet suit and comes out with a flask of 12   year old malt whisky and gives the man a drink. 
 Man: "Thank you so much. You are like a miracle!" 
 
 Girl (starting to unzip the front of her wet suit):
 "So tell me then, how long has it been since you played around?" 

 Man: "Oh, my God, don't tell me you've got a set of golf clubs in there, too...!" 
 
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