This Week - Business Meeting despite the Public Holiday

 It's only a week to the Golf Day so that is obviously first on the agenda....and there is only one more Business Meeting before the new President and the new board.  The year seems to have gone so quickly!

Next Week

It's the annual Golf Day so there will not be a meeting at the usual time, instead we will be meeting at the Royal Johannesburg & Kensington Golf Club for the prize giving and to be sociable  It's very important that we are there to thank those who support our golf day and show them how much we appreciate their presence.

Emzini Restaurant

Address: 12 Lewes Rd, Westdene, Johannesburg, 2092

Also, next week on Saturday 8th June we will be having a Social Breakfast/Brunch at Richard Griffin's restaurant, Emzini in Westdene.  It was suggested at the meeting but our Youth Committee took up the idea as they were keen on working with Richard Griffin and Debbie Cockrell and felt that it would be an advantage to bothe our Club and the Rotary Club of Johannesburg North Central.

Many of us were intrigued at their approach to the problems of Westdene and also to what they had been able to achieve in the Westdene Dam area.

Last Week

It was a project meeting when we looked at some of our existing projects and discussed new ones.  Andy Stevenson had been to look at a Rotary Aquaponic  Vegetable Project which he felt we should look at.  There was some discussion on Aquaponics as opposed to Hydroponics.  There is no prize for knowing the difference between the two.

You can see how aquaponics function from the picture of this small system.

We also discussed hearing aids for a an elderly lady at Gerald Fitzpatrick home and made some progress there and much more.  A very productive meeting.

International - Japan

Paul Harris plants a tree in Japan in 1935

Rotary founder Paul Harris visited Japan with Bob Hill, then president of Rotary International, and his wife. They stopped by on their way to the 5th Pacific Regional Conference in Manila. On that occasion, Paul Harris commemorated the occasion by planting a laurel tree in the garden of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The tree was on the verge of dying, but an attempt was made to propagate it, and several trees fortunately took root and are now growing vigorously all over Japan as second and third generations of Paul Harris' laurel trees.

Rotary had grown steadily since the founding of the Chicago Rotary Club in 1905, but World War II put it through a major challenge. Clubs in Europe, such as Germany and Austria, were forced to disband one after another. Japanese clubs were no exception. They tried to find ways to continue, but in 1940 they finally resolved to withdraw from Rotary International. However, not all clubs were dissolved at the time of withdrawal, and many clubs continued to meet, changing their names to more Japanese names such as Wednesday Club and Thursday Club.

In 1940, the Rotary Club of Japan withdrew from Rotary International (RI), but was allowed back in 1949 after the war. On March 29 of that year, the Rotary Club of Tokyo was re-registered with RI under the old registration number 855, and on April 27, Secretary General George Means handed the charter to President Masakazu Kobayashi at a regular meeting.

Today in Japan there are 2 205 Clubs with 88 900 Rotarians.  Three Japanese have become Rotary International President.