Dear Fellow Lasallians,
Over one hundred days has elapsed since I was elected President of the Old Boys’ Association on 4th July 2003. In the past three months or so, the new Committee and a large number of old boys have worked diligently for our pledges to our members and students. These pledges encompass multiple areas such as sports, recreational and community service activities, alumni affairs…etc. We are glad that the new Current Students’ Subcommittee, headed by Dr. Bernard Kong, has worked seamlessly and harmoniously with the School Authority and initiated a number of worthwhile activities for the current students of the College. The Alumni Subcommittee, led by Dr. Louis Law, has recruited over thirty old boys of different generations to be Class Co-ordinators with a view to enhance communication between your Association and various classes. The Heritage Subcommittee, headed by Mr. Peter Kam has invited Rev. Brother Patrick, Rev. Father Edward Khong and Mr. Yick Kwan to be Honorary Advisors and I am sure that they would lay solid foundation for the development of La Salle Spirit and Heritage in the coming years. The Sports and Recreation Subcommittee, jointly chaired by Mr. Lawrence Ng and Mr. Henry Chan, has the strong support of many old boys and innovative ideas will be implemented in the coming season. Last, but not the least, Mr. Paul Wong leads the Communications Subcommittee and would take a fresh look on future directions in this important field. You can read the 100-Day Report by the Convenors of various Subcommittees and give us some feedbacks for improvement.
Secondly, I wish to express my heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Nicholas Ng CBE JP, a highly acclaimed old boy, for being appointed the Asian Representative of UMAEL, the world federation of old boys associations of the Christian Brothers educational institutes. Nicholas will definitely have the full support of old boys of Christian Brothers’ schools in Hong Kong and hopefully we can achieve really something more for the Christian Brothers’ Heritage.
I also wish to take this opportunity to appeal to all the old boys who had studied in La Salle College since Rev. Brother Aimar founded it in 1932 for any ideas, suggestions, and constructive criticism. We welcome your help and please do not hesitate to write to me directly at [email protected]. Mr. Lester Huang is now heading a Task Force on Constitutional Review and its recommendations will be submitted to the Committee for consideration very soon.
We all know that the School Authority is in the process of appointing a new Principal for our dear Alma Mater and, as Brother Thomas has mentioned to me some time ago, we have to pray to God for a successful completion of this historical exercise.
With warm regards to you all and viva La Salle Spirit
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Robert Yuen Kar Ngai ’71
President, LSCOBA 2003/04
100-Day Report - Current Student Affairs Subcommittee After the new committee was elected since the AGM on the 4 July 2003, the Current Student Affairs Subcommittee was set up among six others. I am honored to be the convener of this subcommittee. There are two main objectives: To develop and maintain a strong tie with the current students, teachers and the school authority of LSC. To promote community services among old boys of the Association Members of subcommittee: Constantine Au(87), Louis Law(70), KF Chan(80), Keith Cheung(90), Henry Nip(88), Michael Leung(71), Anthony Yuen(71), Roger Lee(85), Arthur Li(76), Leo Fu(71), and Jim Sin (78) This is the One Hundred Day report since the AGM:- Meeting with Ms. C. Tang 19th July 2003 To better prepared ourselves, we had a meeting with the school career mistress Ms Cecilia Tang . A number of ideas were raised: Career program Overseas studies Life experience sharing Newcomers' Day Form 6 orientation camp Cultural and Arts enrichment in school Underachieve and underprivileged students Community service with LSC students Most of the ideas were incorporated in our action plan 03-04. Current Student Affairs subcommittee Action Plan The plan was approved and endorsed by the committee in the first committee meeting held on 25th July 2003. The action plan was posted to the LSCOBA chat board on the 14th August 2003. Newcomers Day 16th August 2003 More than 800 parents, old boys and students attended. We had a booth to introduce OBA and our lovely souvenirs. The OBA room was opened on that day for visitors. Full report could be found on the chat board and in our September 2003 Newsletter. Thanks to Lawrence Ng, Constantine Au, Keith Cheung, KF Chan and Andrew Wong. Oversea Study talk by Derek Choy (93) 5th September 2003 LSC There were over 50 students attending the talk on a Friday afternoon. The talk was well received and very informative. Derek is one of our webmasters; he graduated from Imperial College, University of London with BEng in Mechanical Engineering and obtained a master degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Mass of the Beginning of the School Year 10th September 2003 Lawrence Ng. Constantine Au and KF Chan attended the Mass on behalf of LSCOBA Bro. Thomas reminded students that it was Teachers Day. Boys should cherish the teachers and challenge themselves, and not the other way round. He asked the students to pray for an old retired teacher, Mr. John Richard Lee, who was very sick in hospital. Swimming Gala LSC 17th Sept 2003 at Kowloon Park Swimming Pool The whole school attended this School Function in a public swimming pool, the first time for over 20 years. Our swimming pool was closed due to the school improvement project. Anthony Wong organized the OBA team. Robert Yuen, Lawrence Ng and Bernard Kong were the Guests of Honor to present prizes to winners and other OBs participated in the OB race. Thanks to the support of the PTA , OBs and teachers, this year we put together 3 teams to compete in the OB race : OB team: John Lee (77),Nelson Yip (75),Thomas Tung (78),Bernard Ho (88) LSC teachers & 03 OBA Excom team : Cheung Sir, Lo Sir, Peter Kam(77), Paul Wong(76) The OB team won the final race. F6 Orientation Camp 19th September 2003. Wu Kwai Sha Youth Village, Shatin We attended the camp and had a chance to introduce OBA to over 150 F6 students. The response from them was very positive and more than 130 put in their applications to join OBA. Special thanks to the following old boys, they worked hard all evening and forgot all about hunger: Leo Fu, Arthur Li, Roger Lee, Herrick Lau, Keith Cheung, Stephen Cheung, Henry Nip and KF Chan. Walkathon on World Alzheimer's Day 21st September 2003 Seven committee members and Leo Fu met in McDonald that morning and later participated in the opening ceremony in the Peak. Altogether, the group donated ten thousands dollars to the Hong Kong Alzheimer's Association. The walk was very pleasant. All of us wore the LSCOBA hats and we also received a trophy for the highest amount achieved in the group section. Robert and Bernard accepted the prize on behalf of LSCOBA Overseas Studies in USA 27th September 2003 Louis Law presented this talk in large lecture theatre of LSC. For three hours the audience learnt about the practical aspect of applying and the importance of a planned preparatory strategy concerning studying in USA. Louis prepared a very comprehensive note on his talk. LSCOBA also introduced the regional chapters and their contacts to the participants. There are plans for follow up actions. HK Opera with LSC Students and Teachers 18th October 2003 We were at the Opera HK with Bro. Thomas, the teachers from the cultural interest group and the students. Thanks for the generosity of an old boy, we were all there enjoying a night of "Bel canti" (Beautiful voices). It was a rare occasion for the Ls Salle family meeting outside the sport arena. Career Fortnight 13th-24th Oct 2003 The Career Weeks for La Salle students started today. It is a joint venture between the Career Team of LSC and the Student Subcommittee of LSCOBA. Special thanks to Dr. Constantine Au and Dr. Chiu Yee Hang Thomas (87) - they spent a lot of time in setting up the schedule. Thanks to Ms. Cecilia Tang who arranged the room and drinks. Brother Thomas was kind enough to come and kicked off the program. Dementia Day Care Center Visit 24th Oct 2003 This is a join project between Wong Chuk Hang Hospital HA and Yu Chun Keung Care and Attention Home TWGHs.. There were more than one hundred people attending the opening ceremony. A guided tour to look at the facilities offered to dementia patients were well arranged. Future Plans and activities: Visit to District Elderly Community Center 8th Nov 2003 Home cleaning for singleton elderly 10 Jan 2004 Prepared by Dr. Bernard Kong Convener Current Student Affairs Subcommittee LSCOBA 03-04
100-Day Report - Alumni Development Subcommittee Here is the 100 days report from the Alumni Development sub-committee. A list of class coordinators from the year of 1955 to 2003, with one to two persons per class, is compiled. At present 59 old boys from 41 classes have signed up to act as class coordinators. This is a continuing effort to complete the list as well as to renew it from time to time. The inaugural class coordinator meeting was held on October 18, 2003 at LSC. This ceremonial and symbolic meeting of class coordinators is a test of solidarity among dedicated Lasallian. 39 old boys from 29 classes were represented. The success of this scheme and the meeting is a boost to the representation of our OBA and will, in real terms, facilitate future support to LSC and us. During this period, we've made rapport with John Tsang: Congratulating his appointment to the post of Secretary for Commerce, Industry, and Technology. The OBA also made him a new membership card and John has replied his willingness to contribute to his alma mater. We'll certainly enlist his contribution in later days. Two class reunions: The Class of 1988 and 1978 held their anniversary reunions in September. Robert Yuen, Bernard Kong, KF chan, Lawrence Ng, Henry Nip were present to promote rapport with respective classes. Bouquet was sent on behalf of the OBA. The Class of 1983 will hold their anniversary reunion on November 22, 2003 and the OBA will send in our goodwill. Lawrence Chan: Our OBA's past president held his Brush Painting Exhibition in September. Louis Law and Lawrence Ng went to congratulate him. Edmonton Chapter: An email was sent to congratulate the launching of the new web page of the Chapter. The Professional Networking Database Two groups have been formed with OBA's patronage and the relationship between OBA and the groups is clarified - one that is financially independent. The Real Estate Group: Jim Yip's group pioneered as the first PND group. His group has been working on its own for three years. With the creation of the PND, it seems logical to incorporate his group under this scheme. Several committee members, Louis Law, Bernard Kong, KF Chan, and Anthony Yuen attended the talk by Mr. Michael Sze organized by Jim at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre on 21 August 2003. The Social Services Group: On 9/27/03, Keith Cheung started this group and held its first meeting at LSC. We have yet to touch base with the two graduating classes viz. fifth and seventh formers, to find out their needs and plans in the run up to their graduation in 2004. The Permanent Donation Scheme It is now agreed within ourselves that the matter, though sound and appealing to the school in principle, be best left to the school to pursue further. It is, for record purpose, that I still strongly recommend such as scheme as a framework for all parties to rally money on a permanent and schematic way. Ad-hoc fund raising does not preclude such a scheme. Moneterization of subvented and non-subvented items. The school would like to take this matter in its own hand and hence my invitation to Bro.Alphonsus to work up the figures is dropped. However, the message is clear to the school that the best way to convince and persuade potential contributors is to have these data shown to them. The data is extremely helpful for any form of fund raising in the future. All in all, the 100 days performance of the Alumni Development sub-committee is in line with our proposed action plan. Some of the proposals are procedural, while many others take time to realize. The Current Student Affairs sub-committee is commended for bringing new blood in vast number in one setting, and it is for all of us, especially this sub-committee to sustain the results and turn these newly joined into quality members, a task that I will pin it on the success of the class coordinator scheme and the PND group formation. Prepared By Louis Law Convener Alumni Development Subcommittee LSCOBA 03-04
100-Day Report - Heritage Subcommittee Efforts were made in the past weeks to identify in what way the OBA can play a more active role in the area of Heritage preservation and promotion i.e. more than mere memorabilia. I am pleased that Rev. Bro. Patrick F.S.C. has accepted our invitation to be our Advisor. It was proposed to focus our efforts in the following three areas:- History The aim is to rediscover our tradition and virtues, cultivate and promote them with a view to set a standard for the La Salle Spirit - A combination of qualities that has influenced the formation of our personality. No doubt, experience of life in our Alma Mater has exerted strong influence in shaping our character. In longer term, we shall look into ways to inculcate the values of La Salle to the students. Other long term project includes the design for the heritage room and publishing a book etc... In order to facilitate communication with old boys, a substantial proportion of work has to be done via the web e.g. appeal for old stories, photos, stuffs etc. Input for expertise is required for future development. Religious The intangible aspect of Heritage consist of the quality of education, in our case---the Christian Brother's Ethos--- which is all the more necessary to promote as it will not be long before the recruitment of a lay Principal for LSC. I am delighted that Rev. Fr. Khong, (an OB) have accepted our invitation to be our advisors. Forthcoming activity will be a visit to the cemetery in November to pay respect to our deceased Brothers. Souvenirs Substantial progress has been made in sourcing and designing various items by Wilfred Ma, Co-convener of Heritage Subcommittee. The Subcommittee is working on the following souvenir items: - Baseball cap T-shirt Playing Cards Mobile Phone Carrying Card Pen Plaque To-date, the first souvenir plaque as shown below has been produced and ready for sale. Prepared By Peter Kam Convener Heritage Subcommittee LSCOBA 03-04
100-Day Report - Sports & Recreation Subcommittee (Sports) We have formed several sports sub-committees since the last election. To sum up, the following are activities ran and upcoming ones. Soccer Sub-Committee - Raymond Chung ( Convenor ) / Herman Bo ( Deputy ) Christian Brother's Cup held during August was a success with five brother schools participating; WYK was the eventual winner with LSCOBA coming in as 1st runners-up. 7-A side tourney was held during the first two weekends of September, with nine teams participating. The Footballers was once again the winner this year. Regular season soccer league started on October 19th in two divisions with a total of twenty-two teams. We anticipate the season to run till June 2004. For the first time, we have arranged St. John's Ambulance team to standby and provide first-aid in case of emergency or injury. Basketball Sub-Committee - Gerald Huang ( Convenor ) / Joseph Ng ( Deputy ) We are planning to start the basketball league in late November or early December. The general consensus is to utilize the indoor gym for the tournament. Golf Sub-Committee - Roger Wong ( Convenor ) As usual, Roger will run two events this coming year. The first event will commence on November 21st at the Century Seaview Country Club in Shenzhan, China. Tennis Sub-Committee - Sunny Souza ( Convenor )/ Anthony Wong & Andrew Lee ( Deputy) This committee has plans to host their first event in late November. Please check our website for more detail. Marathon Sub-Committee - Clement Chan ( Convenor ) This committee is planning to form a team to participate in the upcoming Standard Chartered Bank's annual marathon. Please check our website for more detail. Badminton Sub-Committee - Eric Mok ( Convenor ) We are trying to form this sub-committee within the next two weeks. Prepared By Henry Chan Convener (Sports) Sports & Recreation Subcommittee LSCOBA 03-04
100-Day Report - Sports & Recreation Subcommittee (Recreation) The Subcommittee will host the usual programmes similar to previous years, e.g. Annual Christmas Ball and Spring Dinner. In addition, we have planned to introduce one or more events to widen the enjoyment of our fellow Old Boys. Below are a brief report & forward plans of these events, Christmas Ball - 5th December 2003 Soon after our first OBA Committee Meeting on July 25, a Christmas Ball Organizing Committee (CBOC) was set up. Lawrence Ng was elected as the Ball Chairman, while Anthony Wong the Vice Ball Chairman. Four meetings were held afterwards on August 22, September 6, September 29 and October 18, with substantial preparatory work done in between. Here are some facts to report, After a lot of information seeking and negotiations, the Ball venue was booked and confirmed at the Crystal Ballroom, Holiday Inn Golden Mile, Tsimshatsui. With the help of fellow La Salle old boys, a good deal was obtained. With all food, drinks and wine inclusive, the CBOC manages to offer an attractive price of HK$560 (individual) and HK$6,000 (table of 12). This represents a 36% price reduction for individual tickets and a 43% reduction for table tickets than the Ball held in Grand Hyatt last year. The theme was confirmed to be "Celebrate this Christmas with the Brothers". We have invited our Christian Brothers in Hong Kong related to LSC and we shall revisit old memories of our Brothers and our beloved Alma Mater. This year we shall not engage any pop stars as performers but our own La Salle Old and Current Boys. Announcements on the Website and Newsletter were issued at the end of September, when the CBOC started to take bookings, https://www.lscoba.com/lscoba/announcement/christmasball2003.shtml. As of the time of writing, we have already received reservation of approximately 24 tables and we expect more bookings to come. The CBOC also decided to do a special publication dedicated to the Christian Brothers. An appeal message requesting for photographs, stories, incidents, etc. related to the Brothers was posted to our website in late October, https://www.lscoba.com/lscoba/announcement/publication200310.shtml. Spring Dinner - 12th March 2004 Following our tradition for years, again we shall host the dinner on the final day of the Joint School Athletic Meet and we shall invite the LSC Athlete Team and Teachers as guests. We are currently in the process of negotiating with Venues, Menus and Prices. More details will be provided later. Simply mark your calendar for this day for cheering for LSC in the daytime and partying with your old friends at night. Other Events Other events are in the pipeline and expected to be launched in Spring and Summer of 2004. Tough the Subcommittee may not be able to materialize all these proposed events and host them before July 2004, we endevour to make very effort to come up with events that are both feasible & enjoyable to all old boys. For your information, the events under consideration are Home Coming Day in LSC, Old Boys' Family Day in LSC, Wine Tasting Sessions, Music Appreciation Nights, and so on. Again, more details will be provided later. We sincerely hope that these events will bring enjoyment and fun to all participants and promote our brotherhood and fraternity among fellow Old Boys. We look forward to receiving your kind patronage and support, as well as your valuable comments and suggestions. Prepared by Lawrence Ng Convener (Recreation) Sports & Recreation Subcommittee LSCOBA 03-04
100-Day Report - Communication Subcommittee When there are a lot of actions going on, I guess time runs faster than you expected. When I start prepare the report to re-cap what have been done by the Communication Subcommittee since we were elected, I suddenly realize that 3-month time has gone by. So I would like to take this chance to report to our LSCOBA's members what we have done in these 100 days. This is my honor to be assigned as the convenor of the Communication Subcommittee. As team work is always my work philosophy, I would like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation to my team. Without them, none of the commitments can be achieved. This is only the team that we start with, and we are always welcome anyone to join as we have so many to accomplish. The list of the team members is as follows (in alphabetical order): Au, Constantine (1987) Au-Yeung, Albert (1999) Bo, Herman (1989) Chan, Clement (1987) Cheung, Colin (1993) Cheung, Stephen (1987) Chu, Harry (1987) Chiu, Joseph (1977) Choy, Derek (1993) Chung, Raymond (1997) Fung, Gilbert (1998) Huang, Mark (1985) In, Philip (1987) Kwong, Jeffery (1977) Lee, Larry (1996) Leung, Kevin (1996) Ng, Gary (1999) Ng, Lawrence (1977) Suen, Simon (1997) Wat, Tony (1996) Wong, Willie (1984) Newsletter The first and most obvious event that I would like to report is the first issue of the LSCOBA's newsletter under our term 2003/04. I am sure everyone already received a copy through mail and found out that the format of the newsletter has been changed significantly. Thank you for the good and hard work of the newsletter team led by Clement Chan, and a special thanks to our Honorary Advisor, Mr. Peter Chiu. You can also surf to the LSCOBA website to browse an electronic version of the newsletter. Enjoy your new newsletter and we are welcome for any constructive input to enrich our subsequent issues not only the format, but more importantly, the content. Also, please do send in your entry for the Naming Contest. eMail Domain We are working on both the technical and financial details to set up an email domain for the LSCOBA. In layman's term, an email domain simply means to provide an email address to all of our LSCOBA's members under our LSCOBA's website name, i.e. [email protected]. We believe that this email domain is a very good tool to keep our old boys in touch in so many years to come. We commit ourselves to deploy the email domain to our members during our term 2003/04. The budget will be submitted for the LSCOBA's EXCO to review and approve. This is one of the top priority events that not just the Communication Subcommittee commits to but also the LSCOBA's EXCO. Website Re-development I would like to take this opportunity to thanks all the valuable input and precious time of our members to take part in the website survey that was conducted earlier. All the responses are very valuable to us to re-visit the requirements of the LSCOBA's website. The website re-development team is working on the requirements analysis and will submit the project plan for the LSCOBA's EXCO to review soon. Web Casting We are also looking into the possibility to do web casting of our favorable events, such as the Christmas Ball, Inter-school Athletic Meet, etc. This project will be the most challenging one due to the technical and financial difficulties that we have to face. However, we still like to put down in our plan as long as there is benefit and interest to our members despite of all these difficulties. I will keep everyone informed of this challenging project, even it may take longer to deliver to our members. I would like to end my report with my sincere thanks to all the support from the LSCOBA EXCOs, Communication Subcommittee team members, and the LSCOBA members. You are the driving force to bring the life of all these proposed plans. I deeply believe that all these plans will enhance the brotherhood and fraternity among our fellow Old Boys. Please stay tune to my subsequent status reports. Prepared by Paul Wong Convener Communication Subcommittee LSCOBA 03-04