President's Newsletter November 2014

Monthly CLUB Newsletter Members Stats Total Numbers: 41 Board members: 21 In Leave of absence: 4 Average attendance: 50%

It’s party time to end the month of October We had a good line up of speakers for the month of October but this month was affected by generally weaker turn outs as members were either travelling or busy at work. We paid shortfalls for practically every meeting at Hyatt in October. We cancelled one of the Friday meetings in October thinking there could be a weak turnout as Deepavali was supposed to be on a Thursday. It got changed to a Wednesday but the break was good for everyone as we closed the month with considerable revelry. The club had their first ever Halloween Party on 31 October at Woods, Dempsey. Some members came to show off their scary side and there were plenty of laughs, drinks and food to keep everyone engaged at the venue. We were happy to have guests: IPDG Chew Ghim Bok and wife Phyllis joining us. A visiting Rotarian Dr Claude Bege and friend Arnaud Begis went through considerable trouble to connect with us.

They first headed for club lunch to find that it is cancelled, then learnt of our Halloween party and took one hour to find us at Woods in the evening. We are touched and happy to have got to know them and hope to see them at our lunch one day when they are in town.

Rtn Alice brought 14 guests (7 adults and 7 kids) to celebrate and we ended up with a total turn out of 47!

CLUB NewSLETTER

Major rehearsals to prepare for A nation in concert October marks the start of combined rehearsals to prepare for A Nation in Concert. Early rehearsals took place at the aerobics room at Singapore Press Holdings. The first combined rehearsal was at APSN Delta school while the subsequent ones were held at APSN Katong school. It was a tough getting all cast to be present for all rehearsals as everyone is a volunteer for this show. Cast members had to juggle their time between paid work scheduled over the weekends and family commitments.

At the earlier rehearsal, stand-ins were assigned for roles where cast were unable to make it and this President had the opportunity to be a crab and a cinnamon bittern as a stand-n. It was hard work and after such assignments, there would be a need to head out for a massage to relieve aching muscles.

One of the stars for this musical, Patricia Mok shared that she loses weight during stage musicals as the rehearsals can be pretty grueling.

In subsequent rehearsals, this stand in arrangement was changed as the ‘ka la fairs’ create more confusion then assistance in the production. As such the floor manager ended up reading the lines of the missing cast member!

For Rotary Club of Pandan Valley one of our key assignments (other than ticket sales, marketing and ‘fire-fighting’) was to provide food and snacks for the cast during rehearsals. Our members: PP Eric Lee, PP Cynthia Tan, PP Choe Peng Sum, PP Benedict Soh, PE Judy Loh and myself sponsored some of the meals for the cast as an additional contribution to this production.

1 September 2014

Board of Directors Rotary Year 2014-2015 ----------------------------------------President Elsie Chua IPP Rajamohan Munisamy - Immediate Past President PP Benedict Soh - Vice President Rtn Judy Loh - President Elect PP Peter Yap - Hon. Secretary Rtn Stephen Leong - Hon Treasurer PP Eric Lee - Director, Community Service PP Cynthia Tan - Director, Community Service Rtn Dr Leong Sai Fan - Director, Club Service Rtn Benjamin Ng - Director, Club Service Rtn Anne Quek – Director, Vocational Service PP Choe Peng Sum – Director, International Service PP Tan Wah Yuan – Director, Youth Service (SUTD) Rtn Tan Ying Lan - Director, Youth Service (SUTD) PP Michael Loh - Director, Youth Service (SJII/NBSS) PP Lim Cheng Kooi – Director, Public Relations PP Tony Tng – Director, Membership PP Jeffrey Seow - Director, Club Rotary Foundation Rtn Dennis Wee - Sergeant at Arms PP Pang Boon Seng - Sergeant at Arms