Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women
Annual Report 2006
Annual Report Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women 2004/2005 Helena May Garden Road, Hong Kong
2 November 2006
Dear Members,
Another year has gone –
The history of all times and of today especially, teaches that – women will be forgotten if they forget to think about themselves.. In remembering and thinking of ourselves and of other women, HKABPW organized a series of great events and participated in other equally fantastic programs in 2006. We had some great achievements briefly highlighted here. A fuller report from each of the committee is available at the table for your interest. The theme for this year is “New Dimensions in Leadership” – which kicked off with a panel of high profile ladies such as Michelle Garnaut from M-on the Fringe, Frederique Deleage, Director, Frederique Spa (Paua Group) Caroline Mak, Dairy Farm Group Health & Beauty Director together with Diane Lin, from TVB as moderator. These ladies shared their experiences and ideas on what they see as new dimensions in their leadership roles. It was an especially meaningful event as the evening was a second collaboration with the HK Women Professional and Entrepreneurs Association. Sandra Lee , Permanent Secretary for Economic Development with the HKSAR was the Guest of Honor to give away the Bursary Awards Besides the HK WPEA, the event was also supported by two other associations – The Women’s Foundation and the Internet Professionals Association This event was also our major fund raising effort and we were able to raise enough
Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women
Annual Report 2006
money for our bursary. This year is the first time we have extended our bursary to female students studying in associate degree program. On the evening the two bursary recipients Ms Law Sum Yi, studying an Associate of Arts program in Translation and Interpretation at the City University and Ms Ling Ka Man, studying an Associate in Business at the HK Community College, Polytechnic University were present to receive their bursary awards. The evening also saw another collaboration. Through Anna Fang, a past president, we had the Centre for Creative Leadership working with us. They offered HKABPW members a scholarship to their Women in Leadership program held in Singapore. The winners were there to receive their scholarship from Carolyn Chan, the Director of CCL. CCL gave one full scholarship to Thong Siew Quen and a half scholarship to Daisy Loh. Thank you to Carolyn Chan and the CCL for such a wonderful opportunity to promote HKABPW and recognize our members. Thank you to the organizing committee headed by Chiang Mei Mei and Lisa Hui, who was responsible for organizing the gift sponsors. And now for the reports from the committees: Membership Committee Membership started off at 67 and Jill was given a target of 100. She has almost reached that target, short of 2 and we hope this AGM will help her to achieve that target. The first job she had was to update our membership card and together with Reena Grewal who arranged for a sponsorship from an art gallery – Gallery Blue, we were able to have an attractive laminated card that we are proud to present. Realising that we still need to boost our membership and promote the Association, it was finally decided to invite an objective facilitator to help us brainstorm for ideas. Fiona Donnelly from Redlinks very generously supplied her expertise pro bono and took us through a very interesting and open discussion to bring out ideas on our directions, our image and how we could boost our membership and enhance the vibrancy of our Association. From there the idea of Member get Member was spawned – Members were encouraged to bring in a member and enjoy a 6 months discount of their membership fee. This program was given a further boost by The Mandarin – Landmark who offered complimentary Yoga at their prestigious Spa. Together with other Convenors such as Programs Convenors, Membership Committee was able to increase its members through interesting programs and the support from
Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women
Annual Report 2006
other committee members as well as Past Presidents like Anna Fang who helped update the membership directory and put it on the website. This success is a clear indication of the joint efforts headed by Jill. Public Affairs Committee Public Affairs Committee has had a very busy year, carrying out the mission of HKABPW in fighting for improved status of women in Hong Kong. Their major highlighsts include: RainLily RainLily a crisis center for rape victims providing a 7/24/365 one-stop service is crucial in supporting the victim and in minimising the trauma of repetition at the hospital, police station and clinic, was established in December 2000 with Jockey Club funding. It failed to gain government financing in November 2005 and again in June 2006. PAC represented HKABPW’s views to the Legco Welfare panel hearings on both occasions. Women in prison In the past year PAC visited two of the four women’s prisons: Tai Lam and Tai Tam Gap. Tai Lam, built for 278, housed 642 women of 21 years and above; Tai Tam Gap, built for 120, housed 177 girls and women from 14 – 20 years of age. Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women PAC has reviewed the Shadow Report (2006) drafted by 11 Women’s Rights NGOs in response to the HKSAR’s 2005 Second Report to the U.N. under this Convention.We are considering our own response to certain issues, especially those of exploitation, gender insensitivity and the role and powers of the Women’s Commission in Hong Kong Funding for grass roots women’s organisations PAC has explored with the Social Welfare Department the problems facing women’s groups, eg Action for REACH OUT, in obtaining crucial funding to enable the latter to continue their supportive and educational work with sex workers. BPW website translation With the help of Anna Fang and Rainbow Pan, the past achievements of the Public Affairs Committee was translated into Mandarin and Cantonese for the website. Programs Committee 2006 was an active year for HKABPW. We were able to hold regular events and monthly gathering y despite limited resources and manpower. We saw an increasing number of attendees at each event especially during the second half of the year. On the average, the numbers range between 15 to as high as 42 at each event. We have generated some funds from the programs this year with the bulk of it through our fund
Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women
Annual Report 2006
raising night in March. We started the year with a Leadership Talk as a follow on with our collaboration with the Centre for Creative Leadership. Leadership theme was followed through the year with talks by various speakers covering managing people and managing high performance meeting. Apart from that, other talks looked at personal and professional development like mind mapping and branding. From a business perspective, we had a talk on building your business to excellence and preparing it for exit. Our activities also included a more social angle with mixers for networking, wine tasting and even a Sudoku evening. A complete list of our events are available together with the annual report. Mei Mei, our Programs Convenor has added her insight and experience in organizing programs. She has found that members enjoy a mix of short talk and a networking opportunity, with topics catering to both young and senior ladies, in their professional or business capacities. From her experience, she has suggested some topics which will be incorporated into the 2007 program by the new committee. Mentoring Program Committee This year, Mentoring Program was made a full committee with Cecilia Lui as Convenor. They started off 2006 with a talk on The Art of Growing your Business from Paul Stefanson, IPAC, focusing on networking and relationship building. This was then followed by other events such as “Organizing for Success” a Chat and share for all Mentoring Program members. This is a very unique activity to MP as it is aimed at helping mentors and protégé build a closer bond through sharing with each other as well as other mentors and protégés. For this purpose, dinners, chat groups and BBQ were organized for the members. A re-structuring of the MP was done between April to May to bring its activities more in line with the general programs and reduce any duplication and confusion. Having proven itself a success after 3 great years, MP was made a full independent committee within the Executive committee. Their activities are focused on its members’ needs in Mentoring and it is open to new prospective mentors and protégés who wish to learn more about the program before making a commitment. BPWI In 2005, the HKABPW Mentoring Program won an Outstanding BPW Medal at the Third BPW International Competition, “Beyond 2000: Helping Women Help
Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women
Annual Report 2006
Themselves.” Since no one from Hong Kong was able to attend the Luzern Congress in June 2005, Naphaphen (Deon) Vejiajiva, representing the BPW International’s President’s Office brought the Medal and certificate to HKABPW this past summer. A note of appreciation and gratitude to those who helped us out recently when we had to find a new home for our 25th Anniversary Booklet. HKABPW would like to thank Sara Beattie of Sara Beattie College for storing the HKABPW 25th Anniversary Booklets since 2004. and this had to end when SB College changed its location. An appeal was sent to all members who generously came forward to help. A very special thank you goes to these members: Jessica Bellas, Anna Fang, Daisy Lo, Kate Mead, Eleanor Sackett, Janet Spence, S Q Thong and Roberta Wong Leung. Companies and organizations who also accepted distributing the booklets include the American Chamber of Commerce, Blue Cross Insurance, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Cigna Worldwide Insurance, City University of Hong Kong, English Schools Foundation, the Equal Opportunities Commission, Harmony House, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Swindon Books, Texon International and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the University of Hong Kong, the Women’s Commission and the YWCA. We also give a big thank you to Crown Relocations who took over 4,000 copies of the booklet and are distributing them to newcomers to Hong Kong. The work would not have been done so smoothly without the efforts of Anna Fang and Kate Mead, both past presidents and Kate is the Chair of the 25th Anniversary Organising Committee. Thank you ladies. Looking ahead Continuing on with our theme on leadership, a panel of ladies will be sharing their experiences in “Creating Opportunities for Leadership Development”. It is an interesting panel with ladies from a wide range of experiences – Aileen Bridgewater, a professional speaker who used to be in the media, Quince Chong Director for Service Delivery for Cathay Pacific Airway,, Deborah Zingg with an education background and a fairly new arrival in Hong Kong and so brings along her experience from her previous city, and Winnie Chiu from the Police Department. This panel is again another illustration of our collaboration with other women’s organizations in HK, as Deborah is a VP from the AWA. We would like to thank these ladies for stepping forward to share with us and make this evening a very unique experience. 2007 – will see some changes in HKABPW – with a new President and committee members, with new ideas and new energy. Possibly we will see a new look to our
Hong Kong Association of Business and Professional Women
Annual Report 2006
newsletter, and a new website. I would like to say a very BIG thank you to all the committee members: VPs – Jill Lander – also Membership Convenor for the great work in building up the membership and her calm and diplomacy - Reena Grewal for her creative help in writing and editing and picking up the pieces Public Affairs Convenor – Moyreen Tilbrook – organizing visits to the jails and keeping the Association involved in bettering the status of women in HK. Moyreen is a real support with her wisdom and experience. Programs Convenor – Chiang Mei Mei – for the innovative and interesting events which brought in more members and participants than we have ever had and particularly for her preparedness to chip in whenever help is needed Treasurer – Huseina Tyebkhan – for keeping the accounts but who is not here now and is enjoying married life in Ottawa Mentoring Program Convenor – Cecilia Lui – for her commitment and enthusiasm in organizing and supporting the mentors and protégés. Her commitment to the Mentoring Program is what has made MP such a success and to have won the award from BPWI. Fund Raising Convenor- Lisa Hui – for the good job of getting sponsors for the International Women’s Day event. Lisa is also a great help with other duties – always done with a friendly smile. Communications Convenor – Claire Bay – for faithfully preparing the weekly newsletter – always done with a smile and hardly any complains – always patient. To all the other sub committee members like Zuliyana, Connie, Therese, and others –thank you. A special thank you to Anna Fang, our past president for helping to keep the website updated and her commitment to promoting HKABPW. She is also our link with BPWI. Molly Lim President 2006