Dear Members of Rotary Club of Singapore West and Spouses,

I take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year. We are already into 2013. I have delivered my mid-term report on 3 Jan 2013 and the gist of it will be published in our Club's Bulletin very shortly. Club Bulletin Editor Poh Leng has done a wonderful job thus far, keeping us abreast of the events that have taken place and also highlighting the upcoming events.

This Thursday, 24 Jan 2013, the Speaker is Mr James Dalziel, Principal of United World College Singapore, who will talk about trends in education and the move from traditional teaching methods to one based on analysis and experience. Do come if you are utterly concerned about your children's education. On 31 Jan 2013, we will have Miss Helen Yong and Mr Kelvin Teng from Singapore Association of Mental Health who will talk about understanding mental illness and the challenges faced by persons with mental illness and funding for SAMH.

We will welcome Chinese New Year with our annual "YU SHENG LO HEI" on 7 February 2013. PP Bou Leong has been tasked to arrange for some games with prizes to be won. PP Chuen Eng will be in charge of music and I understand he will teach us to sing a nice Chinese New Year song. Director Perry Tan has already arranged for the Main Hall of Hollandse Club to be decorated most appropriately and directed the chefs to provide us good food. There will be Chinese New Year goodies as door gifts to take home. Yu Sheng will be salmon sashimi and in addition, there will be abalone, with my compliments. Do BYO if you feel like it although there will be more than enough whiskey available that evening.

Swiss Ambassador Mr Thomas Kupfer and Mrs Fiorella Kupfer have confirmed their attendance on 7 Feb 2013. Assistant Governor Teo Pok Zin is also attending as my guest. I have invited Korean Ambassador Oh Joon and Mrs Miri Oh to our "Lo Hei" celebration and they have kindly accepted the invitation. We will take this auspicious occasion to formally welcome Ambassador Oh Joon as our Honorary Member. Please come with your spouses, children and guests. The more the merrier.

On 8 Feb 2013 (Friday), we will be embarking on our community project, Assissi Festive Cheer Year 7. A big group of us will be visiting Assissi Home for the seventh year running, to bring Chinese New Year festive cheer to them. There will be catered food together with the traditional Lo Hei. Mandarin oranges and ang pows will be given to the folks. Stephen Rainey and Denis Tan will be spearheading this project. Please register your names with them early for planning purposes.

There will be no Rotary meeting on 14 Feb 2013, partly because it is within the first week of CNY. Incidentally, it is also Valentine's Day, so don't forget to get something for your wife (a one-carat diamond or a string of Mikimoto pearls at least).

I hope to get our new member to do his classification talk on 21 Feb 2013. Talking about new member, we have inducted two new members, namely Maarten van Marle, who is Managing Director of Fokker Services Asia and Michael Deng, who is Sales Director of Oracle Corporation.

There is one resignation, Loo Sin Yong who has been with our Club since 2001. At this juncture, I urge all members to continue to seek out capable individuals to join Rotary Club of Singapore West. We need to grow and grow to maintain this strong Club.

This year's Charter Night will be on 28 Feb 2013. We will take the opportunity to honour long service members, Paul Harris Fellows and reminisce about the old times, from the day our Club was chartered on 1 March 1960. Last year we had our Charter Member Dr Dennis Hangchi recounting the good old days and got us both enthralled and tickled with laughter. PP Kay Hui will need to come up with a name for Charter Night who will talk to us about our history. Do make an effort to attend Charter Night. I assure you that you will be captivated with our history.

District Assembly and President Elect Training is from 14 Mar to 17 Mar 2013 at Zon Regency, Johore Bahru.

The preparation for our Major Project Golf is well under way. It will be held at Sentosa Golf Club on 21 Mar 2013. The main beneficiary is Bright Vision Hospital, a community hospital with some funding from government and balance funding has to be raised by the hospital. We are hoping to raise S$70,000/- to enable them to purchase a van to transport patients to and from the hospital, as their present van is very old and will break down anytime. Any overflow of monies raised will go to our RCSW Endowment Fund. Major Project Chairman Thomas Wong will be approaching you for support for this event. Please obliged if you can.

President Elect Eric Tan has decided to hold the Strategic Planning meeting in Malacca from 5 Apr 2013 (Friday) to 7 Apr 2013 (Sunday). Two years ago, this event was held in Malacca and we had a lot of fun.  Of course, we also carried through the strategic planning exercise and did not just eat, drink and shop. PP Bou Leong has already got some costing about this trip and we may be staying in a new hotel, Hatten Hotel and may stop at Johore Premium Outlet on our way back, amongst other distractions (otah shop, candy shop and breakfast at JB and seafood dinner) on the way there and back.

Please look forward to oysters, sashimi, roast beef, pasta station and BBQ station and plenty of whiskey and wine on 18 Apr 2013. It is President's Dinner time. See all of you at Singapore Island Country Club, Windows on Bukit, Bukit Location for a night of good food, music and great RCSW fellowship. This is my way of saying "Thank You" to all of you for your support for my year as President. I will remind all of you nearer to the date and take attendance.

Two more dates to record in your diary. District Conference will be in Phuket from 24 May to 26 May 2013. And the Installation Night for the 55th President of Rotary Club of Singapore West, Eric Tan is confirmed to be held on 4 July 2013 at SICC, Grand Ballroom, Island Location.

Finally, congratulations to PP Henry Tan for his appointment as Assistant Governor for Group 7 and PP Kay Hui for his appointment as District Membership Chair, both under DGE Ghim Bok's year.

And a very Happy 60th Birthday to PP Peter Kong.

Yours in Rotary Service,
President Tommy