My first year as President has been very challenging and interesting. With the whole team of EXCO members supporting me, we managed to discharge our duties in keeping CAV moving forward.

The Chinese Language School and all subgroups were doing their fair share to make CAV one of the most successful ethnic Chinese organisations, highly regarded by government bodies and all other Associations.

The mid-year Dinner held in the CAV Centre was very successful, bringing together members, friends and guests to enjoy a night’s social gathering. The celebrations of the Zung and Mooncake Festivals also in this Centre were well attended, providing a lot of fun to those who came. The annual CAV Gala Ball was held at Lincoln of Toorak. Once again it was a glamorous function for supporting CAV members, sponsors and guests. We raised over $30,000 to boost up our General Account.

All subgroups have been active, enjoying their normal activities in and outside CAV Centre. The events held last year in this Centre that need to be mentioned are: the Prize Presentation Dinner Night staged by the Golf Group, the Disco Night organised by the Ballroom Dancing Group, and the Shanghai Night run by the Karaoke Group. The Table Tennis Group had a very successful annual dinner at the Shangrila Inn Restaurant.

Representing CAV at outside events are the performances by the Ballroom Dancing Group, the Tai Chi , the Cultural Dance Troupe, the Karaoke Group and the School Orchestra. I would like to thank all those involved for being good ambassadors of CAV.

The WIN group as usual were busy raising fund for Charities, like the Cancer Council. Recently they did an excellent job in organising the “Cultural Corner” at the Glen Waverley Chinese New Year celebrations; and they kept up CAV’s reputation of serving the best “íce kachang”. Vincent Chow and his committee were the main organiser of the Glen Waverley Chinese New Year Festival. It was a very successful event and CAV received lots of praises and recognition.

On our own, we celebrated the year of the tiger at CAV Centre, with variety shows and food stalls. The Chinese Language School students gave a good singing performance. So did the Cultural Dance Troupe and the Tai Chi Group. No celebration in CAV is complete without some excellent singing from the Karaoke Group.

EXCO had not been idling either. EXCO and some CAV members participated in the Botanicasia project to help raise fund for the Royal Botanic Gardens. We took part in the Walk for Harmony organised by the Multicultural Commission to promote multiculturalism & diversity.  The Hon. Mr John Brumby led the Walk. Our members had the chance to meet the Premier and had photographs taken with him. CAV received a personal Thank You letter from the Premier in appreciation of CAV’s participation.

Last year a new-look CAV website had been launched. A lot of thanks goes to Hock Lye Khaw for being our webmaster. The new website has provided a much neater and user-friendly interface for users to navigate around easily. It also included much more up-to-date information about CAV. For example, news about each CAV and its subgroup’s activities, the associated photographs and the past 3 years newsletters have been uploaded to the new website.

At the start of my term, I have stressed that CAV will take extra effort to maintain and improve good relationship with other Chinese Associations. EXCO members and other CAV members had attended many functions organised by other Chinese Associations. Our more active role in supporting and increasing contact with other Associations have further improved our image and built stronger relationship with them.

A very special event happened recently last February. A delegation from the Peoples’ Republic of China, led by Mr. Zhao Yang, the Vice Minister of Overseas Chinese Affairs visited our Centre with representatives from the Chinese Consulate. They were very impressed with our organisation and our facilities. In fact CAV was specifically mentioned in the website of the China News.

Earlier this year a new group joined the BDG. They do sequence dancing, which is loosely speaking a socially oriented ballroom dancing. This group is using the Centre on Wed. night for their passion in dancing. Many members of the group have become CAV members. We would like to welcome them as well as other new CAV members.

The Chinese Language School has performed better than the previous year. For more details please refer to the report by the Chairperson of the School Council, Dr. Chua Ka Sing,  whom I would like to thank for leading the School Council in charting the future for the School.

In closing, I would like to once again thank the members for supporting me, the EXCO team for their cooperation and hard work, the subgroup chairpersons and their committees for their unrelenting effort, the School Principal for doing a good job and the School Building Fund Trustees for ensuring the Fund’s integrity.

Lillian Lai