Well another week has flown by and I am sure that you will have grasped with both hands the chance to “I want to break free” to reacquaint yourself with humanity, indulge in unfettered acts of retail therapy while invigorating and assisting the recovery of the local economy through “contactless” deductions from your Credit Card.
I am encouraged by the fact that Rotarians and families appear to have survived the health impacts of the C-19 pandemic and that is an exceedingly good thing for all of us.
For those of you who have felt the economic impacts of the pandemic, in your business, through your employment or through reduction of income, we are extremely sympathetic to your plight. We all have a role to play as we are all able to provide some level of support, and perhaps have an obligation in this regard to stimulate the local economy and the region.
Supporting local businesses is a tangible way that we can assist to keep people employed in our local area. By shopping in this locality, whether in person or online, we are ensuring the dollars we spend are directly impacting individuals and our community.
If it's within our means, and we have comfort doing it, we should definitely go out and support a local store or business. That's an incredibly powerful way to help them exist. Where there is a lack of comfort in face to face contactless trading, we're lucky that almost everybody has developed some form of online offering so we should be able to find an avenue where we can purchase online.
So to Rotarians and partners in business, we stand together with you and offer our moral support as we partner with you to navigate the obvious pressures and tensions that will exist.
Queenstown Rotary Seeks New Members. For Clarity we seek the following Classifications:
Accountant:
Someone who knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
Auditor:
Someone who arrives after the battle and bayonets all the wounded.
Banker:
A fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining but who wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
Economist:
An expert who will know tomorrow why the things he predicted yesterday didn’t happen today.
Statistician:
Someone who is good with numbers, but lacks the personality to be an accountant.
Programmer:
Someone who solves a problem you didn’t know you had in a way you don’t understand.
Lawyer:
A person who writes a 10,000-word document and calls it a “brief”.
Consultant:
Someone who takes the watch off your wrist and tells you the time.
Financial Planner:
Someone who has less that 10% of your wealth but who can show you how to make money.
Diplomat:
Someone who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you will actually look forward to the journey.
Return to Rotary:
Monday 25 May we hope that we will hear the PM announce an expansion of the gathering numbers that will inform our decisions and will enable us to return to Tuesday Rotary meetings. You will recall that in last week’s Bulletin, I stated that I had had a conversation with the team at the Holiday Inn who confirmed that they are hoping to resume service very soon.
Indulla reported that they will be having a team meeting on Monday to determine their plan to reopen and will advise me of the outcome post that meeting. The outcome of that meeting is signalled in the email response from Holiday Inn ‘Re Resumption of Rotary Meetings’ tabled for your information below.
Hello Ross,
I hope you and the family are well! It was lovely talking to you over the phone and, as discussed, the Holiday Inn Queenstown, Frankton Road is open for the Rotarians to conduct their weekly meetings.
As per the restriction on the number of people being able gather being limited to 10, understandably we will have to abide by. However, following the Prime Minister's address on Monday, provided this restriction is lifted, we are happy to run these meeting as per usual.
Our restaurant is not open to the public, however, we are happy to have the meals prepared for your team as we have always done in the past. Since we will be ordering the supplies in particularly for the function, we would appreciate getting the number of attendees two days prior to the meeting.
As far as safety and hygiene is concerned, we have taken the following measures;
- We will move the function in its entirety to the restaurant as it gives us a space advantage.
- We will spread the seating arrangement to create space between the Rotarians.
- We will have hand sanitiser readily available at the hotel entrance, restaurant and at the function space.
- For tracing purposes, a sign in sheet will need to be filled by every attendee. This will be done at the entrance to the hotel by the reception.
The date for the first meeting is tentatively scheduled for the 2nd of June, we will wait for your confirmation. Thanks a lot Ross. We are all hoping for the smooth recovery here is Queenstown.
Regards,
Indula
I will be meeting with Indulla and the team during the week to finalise arrangements, subject to the “social gathering” numbers being expanded. I will email you all with the detail once we know that we can navigate a return to meetings.
Given that we are successful in the resumption of our regular Rotary meetings, then next week’s Bulletin will see the resumption of the weekly Duty Roster. So after indulging your weekly passion of trying to stay wake while you read the Bulletin, please refer to the Duties Roster, you may go down in history as being on duty the first meeting post Covid-19.
Watch this space.
How is “on line” learning working?: