NEWS FROM THE CLUB

One-to-one interaction President’s address Governor’s address

Teacher’s Day celebrations at St.Patrick’s School, Gandhinagar.

Every year the club honours two teachers from St. Patrick’s school on the occasion of Teacher’s Day, by presenting cash awards to two teachers, selected by the school authorities. We continued this tradition also by awarding a cash award of Rs. 1500/- each to 2 teachers. Rtns. Ramakrishnan, Kuppusway and V N Krishnan, led by president S Krishnan arrived at the school at 9 am on 4

th

September 2015 to participate in the teacher’s day celebrations of the school. The school had nominated a celebration committee headed by Mr Julius Caesar to oversee smooth functioning of the various events planned for the day. The celebrations started with a mass, conducted by one of the religious heads of the St. Patrick’s brothers. After the mass and prayers, teachers and students were blessed by the Father. We, then, adjourned to the staff room, where a cake, decorated with a photograph of the school was cut by Brother Jacob, headmaster of the school. Mr Julius Caesar paid rich tributes to the teaching staff as well as the student council members who were part of the organising committee. Refreshments were served to all staff and to the Rotary club members. Breakfast, snacks and lunch is organised by the school for all the teaching staff. The celebrations continued with various cultural programs, presented by teachers and students. The Rotarians did not wait to witness the cultural events, due to other commitments. On the whole, it was a refreshing experience for the four Rotarians on morning of Friday the 4

th September.

District Governor’s visit.

District Governor C R Raju along with district secretary Raghavendra Rao and Assistant Governor Raghunathan made their official visit to our club in the evening of Wednesday the 16

th of September 2015. After the mandatory scrutiny of club documents, the

district team had an interaction with all board members. During this interaction, the club directors appraised the district team regarding the on-going projects of the club as well as the projects planned for the rest of the Rotary year. During the interactive session, President Krishnan explored the possibilities of assistance from the district for executing a community service project at Kumizhi. The project envisages refurbishment of existing Primary Health Centre at Kumizhi, which is currently in a dilapidated condition. Governor Raju explained the possibilities of obtaining funds from the Rotary Foundation for executing such projects. In the regular club meeting that followed, Governor Raju elaborated on the importance of contributing to The Rotary Foundation. He went on to narrate success stories of other clubs, wherein the club’s contributions have been matched up to three times over, thus enabling projects with larger funds outlay to be executed with ease. He exhorted members to donate more to the Foundation. The meeting was followed by a lively fellowship and dinner session. During the fellowship also, Governor Raju was seen explaining the various possibilities of obtaining substantial grants from The Rotary Foundation. All in all, the evening was informative, fun-filled and most importantly, very relaxing. The club thanks Rtn V C Krishnan for sponsoring the dinner on the evening of District Governor’s visit.

THE CREEK A PUBLICATION OF

THE ROTARY CLUB OF MADRAS BESANT NAGAR

Issue OCTOBER 2015

President: S Krishnan Secretary: Maheswaran Sridharan Club Trainer: R Ramakrishnan Imm Past President: S Venkataraman President-elect: N Ramamoorthi President nominee: Aroonkumar Treasurer: A Ramamoorthi Dir Club Service: K V Krishnan Dir Community Service (Health): Dr. Arasu Mohan Dir Community Service Development: K Suresh Dir Vocational Service: V N Krishnan Dir New Generation: R Krishnamurthy Dir International Service: K Ravindran Chairman Membership Development: M Krishnamurthy Chairman Public Relations V C Krishnan Chairman Rotary Foundation: P G Kuppuswamy Chairman Polio Plus M K Subramanian Seargent-at-Arms Raja Kuppusaami

Housewarming by Rtn Ramkumar

Rtn T P Ramkumar and Ann Kousalya celebrated the purchase of their new dwelling at Gandhinagar, Adyar, by conducting a simple religious ritual of Grahapravesam. Club members arrived at the new premises in the morning, when the religious ceremonies were in progress. Thereafter, members marched to Gandhinagar Club, where the hosts had organised a sumptuous and delicious breakfast. Club members wish the Rotarian and his Ann all the very best in their new abode and pray that God blesses both of them with a happy, healthy and hassle-free retired life at Adyar.

Religious rituals at Ramkumar’s new residence and a sumptuous breakfast at Gandhinagar club.

Many Happy Returns of The Day to

Name Birthday

Rtn T P Ramkumar Oct 04

Rtn R Ramakrishnan Oct 06

Rtn Maheswaran Sridharan Oct 09

Rtn K Suresh Oct 09

Annette Sai Swasthika Oct 10

Ann Madhavi Oct 11

Rtn M Laxman Oct 12

Rtn A Ramamoorthi Oct 23

Ann Bhanu Vishwanathan Oct 29

Annette Manoj Krishnan Oct 29

Health Screening Camp on 27th September, 2015.

The club organised a medical camp in coordination with MCDS on Sunday 27th September 2015 at Kannagi Nagar, OMR road stating at 8.30 a.m. Rtn Dr Arasu Mohan Director Community service (Health) led the entire proceedings from the front.

The disciplines covered were dermatology, eye, diabetes and general health. Dr Sivakumar, Dr Krishnamurthy, and Dr Kanagaraj were magnanimous to lend their time and expertise in conducting the screening tests in dermatology, diabetes and general health of the participants who turned out for the camp. For eye screening, Dr Vasumathy Vedantham of Radhatri Nethralaya, also a Rotarian, sent a team from her clinic.

Thanks are due to Rtn Ramki who initiated the project and Rtn KVK who has organised the project by coordinating with all concerned.

214 persons were screened during this camp. Out of this, 79 underwent screening in general health, 66 for eye related problems, 23 for diabetes and 46 in dermatology.

Rotarians President S Krishnan, R Ramakrishnan, Suresh, K Ravindran, R Krishnamurthy, M Krishnamurthy, Venkataraman, V C Krishnan, N Ramamurthy, Mahesh and Dr. Arasu Mohan participated in the camp. Dr. Arasu Mohan, Director, community services (health), himself took an active lead by participating as a screening member during the camp. As usual, a sumptuous breakfast at Adyar, was preceded by the attendance at the camp.

Marking their presence Screening in progress

District Governor Official Visit Guidelines

The following guidelines have been provided by Rotary International.

Purpose of the Official Visit:

Once a year the District Governor (DG) is required to make an official visit to each club in the District. The purpose of the visit is:

To allow the DG to communicate with Club members; To be a useful counsellor to further the Object of Rotary among the Clubs in the District and to assist those Clubs that

may need some guidance; To motivate Rotarians to participate in service activities to strengthen the programs of Rotary; To bring attention to important Rotary issues as they relate to Rotary International and to the District;

And to recognize the contributions of Rotarians in the Clubs.

Process:

Prior to the DG’s visit your Assistant Governor (AG) should meet with you and your Club officers to prepare for the visit. The AG should also meet with the DG in advance of the visit to brief the DG on any particular issues on which the DG should be made aware. You should reconfirm with the DG well in advance of the visit to resolve any questions as to information, format of the visit and any special requirements;

Remember also that the DG is a guest of your Club when making his visit. Be sure to communicate any special plans, inductions, recognition ceremonies you may have for the DG so he is not surprised;

If the DG’s schedule permits, ideally, he should meet with the Club officers either before or after the visit. The AG may also wish to attend this meeting;

Clubs are not responsible for providing transport to or from the Club meeting or accommodation for the DG.

Meeting Procedure:

The AG, if present, should introduce the DG. If the AG is not present the Club President should introduce the DG. The DG’s bio is printed in the District Directory;

The DG’s presentation is the program for the Club for that meeting and it is not appropriate to schedule any other program for that day;

Encourage members to arrive early for the meeting and to stay late in order to meet the DG; Presentations of Paul Harris Fellows, induction of new members and other honours are especially appropriate for such

visits and the DG should be asked to participate in such events; It is not appropriate to fine the DG or to charge the DG or his spouse for the meal; The Club President and Club Board should understand that the DG is not there to tell a Club how it should be run, but

to share ideas about growing and strengthening Rotary; and

Personal gifts are discouraged. Instead the Club should use Club funds towards one of their projects or make a contribution to Polio Plus, or The Rotary Foundation.

NEWS FROM ROTARY INTERNATIONAL

Evanston Day of caring.

Evanston-based Rotary International helps support the Evanston Day of Caring with a full week dedicated to doing good in the community. This advance initiative – beginning Monday, Sept. 14 – has been dubbed, Rotary Week of Caring in recognition of the city-wide event on 19 September.

More than 100 Rotary employees contributed over 200 collective hours of community service, performing a myriad of activities from packaging medical supplies to be sent to developing countries, to beautifying local playgrounds in Evanston and the Chicagoland area. Rotary staff volunteered at 10 different locations in and around Chicago.

Rotary – a 110 year-old international humanitarian service organization – was established in Chicago and moved its headquarters to Evanston in 1954. It has been at its current location, 1560 Sherman Avenue, since 1987. Members of Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and regions passionately give their time and energy to carry out impactful and sustainable projects in the areas of peace and conflict resolution, disease prevention and treatment, water and sanitation, maternal and child health, basic education and literacy, and economic and community development.

Rotary's primary goal is the eradication of polio, an infectious but vaccine preventable disease that still threatens children in parts of the world today. Since Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative launched the effort more than 30 years ago, the incidence of polio has plummeted by more than 99.9 percent, from about 350,000 cases a year to less than 400 confirmed in 2014. To date, Rotary has contributed more than $1.4 billion and countless volunteer hours to fight polio.

Some facts about Rotary:

1,207,102 Rotarians

537 Rotary Districts

34,823 Rotary Clubs

8,028 Rotary Community Corps

NEWS FROM DISTRICT

MISCELLANEOUS

Compiled and edited by Rtn PP PHF V N Krishnan, Rtn S Krishnan and Rtn PP K V Krishnan

President: Rtn S Krishnan. Secretary: Rtn. Maheswaran Sridharan. Club Service Director: Rtn PP K V Krishnan

A Significant Gesture

K S Jeyaraman, a member of Rotary Club of Madras Northwest is a man of simple living and high thinking. He heads “Autotech Industries” which has grown into a well renowned Auto Ancillary Manufacturing facility with multiple units employing a large work force that is committed with good delivery. A very unassuming person but a hard task master, he has a charitable disposition and has helped and contributed towards many a cause. He has contributed to the Rotary Foundation in good measure and has come forward to support the initiative to strengthen basic education, literacy, water sanitation and hygiene in schools identified by our District under ‘Sangamitra’, with a contribution of 100,000 USD, a gesture which is very much appreciated.

Navarathna Sangamam

A novel initiative by nine city clubs resulted in a joint installation of 9 Presidents. The clubs that participated in this venture were the following:

RC Annanagar West, RC Chennai Galaxy, RC Chennai Infocity, RC Chennai Mambalam, RC Chennai Nolambur, RC MCC, RC Madras Fort, RC Madras Pallava, RC Tambaram. Kudos to the clubs for bringing down the installation cost considerably.

Humour Corner

A farmer buys a new Mercedes E-class from Three Point Motors. He was annoyed that standard equipment and accessories are called and charged extras. The bonnet, steering wheel, head-lamps, Door handle etc...were charged extra as accessories, whereas the farmer had assumed that these are standard components of a car.

A month later, the Director of Three Point Motors buys a new cow for his farm. The farmer makes the following invoice:

Item Price (USD)

Cow, standard version, Base price 2400

Colours (Black & White) extra 150

Leather upholstery 100

Milk reservoir (summer & Winter) 50

4 milk taps @ $ 12.50 50

Fly-swatter, semi automatic 35

2 Bumpers, finished in horn 30

Environmental friendly Exhaust 60

All-terrain weather boots 100

4-Wheel drive 400

Multi-tone Horn 135

Halogen-tone Eyes 150

Multi-fuel intake system 1250

Total 4910

September snapshot. District Governor’s official visit to the club on 16

th

September

Teacher’s Day celebrations at St. Patrick’s School

Rtn Ramkumar’s house-warming ceremony

Medical camp on 27th

September

Way to go Rotarians!!!

Rtn P G Kuppuswamy, Rtn T P Ramkumar and Rtn Aroonkumar have shown what a motivational speech by DG C R Raju can do. During the fellowship session after the DG’s address, Rotarians P G Kuppuswamy and T P Ramkumar committed USD 1000 and USD 500 respectively to the foundation. A couple of days later, Rtn K V Krishnan was contacted by the Ranipet based trust for assistance in an artificial limbs/wheelchair project. The project outlay was estimated to be in the region of INR 250,000. President Krishnan, without loss of any time informed the members through WhatsApp. The reaction was spontaneous and heart-warming. Rtn Aroonkumar came up with a contribution of INR 25,000. Ann Usha Krishnan has also pitched in with a contribution of USD 500. Besides the above, Rtns Ramki, VCK, SK, VCK and Varadhan are donating USD 100 each as part of EREY. Way to go Rotarians!!! With such tremendous support from members, the club is confident of obtaining a Global Grant from the Rotary Foundation to execute this project. A big thanks to the large-hearted RCMBians. More details of this project in next issue.