I feel very honoured to have this privilege to communicate with you as the newly elected President. Please give me and the 2011 Exco team your support. We are always available to you. We would like any feedback from you and we shall do the utmost to attend to your concern.

On behalf of all CAV members, I would like to thank the immediate past president, Mrs Lillian Lai for all the good work she has done for CAV in the last 2 years. I would also like to convey our appreciation to the Exco members who worked alongside her.

Another year of hard but challenging work is ahead of me and the Exco team. We shall do our very best to manage CAV’s affairs and to improve CAV from the excellent foundation we inherited from all the previous Exco and CAV members.

In 2011, we shall continue with the projects carried forward from last year.

1. Stage 2 of the Courtyard project is to begin. It involves building of a timber pavilion at the western end and landscaping the adjacent areas. Subject to Knox Council approval, the pavilion should be completed in 3 months.

2. We shall pursue to expand the merchant discount outlets. In this push, Exco would like all subgroups and CAV members to help. The aim is to sign up as many as possible merchants which would offer discount to CAV members. Please contact me or any Exco members for more information and forms.

3. The Building Project Committee is busy planning to develop a master plan for the development of the empty land at the front. The objective is to extract best value from the land in order to provide CAV with a constant revenue and capital reserve for future expansion of the CAV Centre. As soon as we have more details, we shall communicate with you.

While we are busy with these projects, we have not forgotten our members. All Subgroups and the Chinese School under their respective excellent leaders will continue to cater to your needs and recreations. We shall improve our communication with all members, present and past, in order to keep everyone informed of what is happening in CAV, irrespective whether you come to take part in any of the activities or not.

Two issues needed attention from the new Exco are updating members with their latest membership status; and providing more information to members regarding when the CAV newsletter, now published in our website www.cavinc.com.au, is going to be uploaded.

Please keep up-to-date with CAV by logging into our website, or when you visit the CAV Centre, have a look at the notice boards.

Exco has planned the following activities for 2011. Please keep these dates free and support us:

• Duanwu Jie celebration Sunday 5th June 2011
• Mid year dinner on Saturday 25th June 2011
• Zhongqiu Jie on Sunday 11th September 2011
• The GALA BALL on Saturday 8th October 2011
• Food Fair on Sunday 13th November 2011

I hope to see you in one or more of these events.

Rex Lai