“Greetings at the End of the Year”
December 27, 2006
Mr. Yoshihiko Miyauchi,
Mr. Yoshihiko Miyauchi,
President of Tokyo Rotary Club
Time flies very fast. Today is the day of the final Regular Meeting of the Club of 2006. It has been six months since I took over the grave responsibility of President of Tokyo Rotary Club together with the gavel from former President Mr. Nagashima. It has been uneasy days for me, with the heavy responsibility of the President on my shoulders but I am glad I reached the turn around point of my term as the President with your cooperation. I wish to thank Mr. Kokubu, President Elect, Mr. Ohguro, Vice President, Mr. Masuda, Secretary and other directors and officers of the Club for their active work. I also wish to thank the members of the Club for their cooperation and office staff of the Club for their supporting work. Taking this opportunity, I wish to thank all of you again.
For this year, I wanted to follow the Policy of the Rotary International, “LEAD THE WAY”. At the same time, I wanted Tokyo Rotary Club to act by utilizing its unique characteristics. Presently we have 341 members and we are one of the largest clubs among the Rotary Clubs of the world. Also we have members in a wide range of ages as well as a wide range of professions with high level of intelligence. In order to make your Rotary club life meaningful for you, I decided “Strengthen Friendship, Enjoy Serving” as the Guide Line of this Club for this year.
I hope that the members of the Club will participate in meetings actively and to get acquainted with each other. I wish members will become “real friends” instead of “just an acquaintance”. Achieving this is a very important step in making your club life more meaningful. With your cooperation, through the Regular Meetings, other various meetings and Family Meetings, I really feel a big step forward has already been taken. Some of you who are busy with your business may not be able to fully participate in activities of the Club or it may be difficult to get to know each other well due to the large numbers, but if you keep trying, your circle of friendship will surely develop and this will be beneficial for you as well as for the Club tremendously.
Looking back over the past year, I notice that there are many countries in the world where internal warfare is still going on and many people are killed everyday. Also, when you look at the domestic environment of Japan, there are some gloomy situations in society, while at the same time political changes and economic recovery are taking place. During the past year, many events have occurred which have made us think about lives of children, education problems, human relationship, and many social and economic problems. I strongly feel that we, adults, have to move actively to improve the social ties of human society. This means the Spirit of Service of Rotary Club has to be practiced. As a Rotarian, each and every one of us, has to take actions actively and furthermore to work together with your “Friends”. In order to accomplish this purpose, I wish you to communicate with each other actively and to have a meaningful Club life and to contribute to form a better society. I hope you will feel the pleasure of serving society by participating in the activities of the Rotary Club.
Next year is the year of Boar, according to the Chinese calendar. The Chinese character of boar means situation of something expected to come out with various energy inside. It is said that next year will be the year everything will become active according to the Chinese calendar. Likewise, in the next year, I hope we can inherit the good tradition of Tokyo Rotary Club and, at the same time, we can create new energy in the Club.
In closing, I wish to send my Year End Greetings to the members of Tokyo Rotary Club and to their families wishing a Very Happy New Year with Good Health.