PP Fred Palmer 1981~ 1982

One of my most memorable experiences was when I was in fact Sergeant at Arms, roughly speaking in 1978/79.

Back in those days all the big shots, top officials and government people were members. Sometimes to get money out of them from was very restrictive. I remember one time when we passed the box around and the collection was very low although about 30 members had turned up. I had an idea, I brought a bottle of port and put it to auction. I asked them what they thought it was worth and we had some reasonable offers say $50 / $60 then I told them that they could all have some for the price. They were surprised but we brought glasses and poured for them all, I did tell them it per glass, and of course they paid up. We had never raised as much before!

Those days were different than today. Back then there was a place in Coloane, Ka Ho near the cement factory now. It was a school run by the church for Vietnamese refugees. Back then as President you had to do things for yourself. I had a supermarket at the time and we took food by truck and distributed it occasionally.

In those days we did not have the custom as now where we raised funds for the next President, you had to raise funds for your year yourself. For the Annual Ball I made the change so that Rotarians bought four tickets each and brought a gift, a custom which is pretty much as today.

Although the club was an English speaking club most of the members were Portuguese, Chinese and English.

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