Our first meeting back focused on our club’s activities for 2024 - up until June in particular.
President Neil spoke about our NZ Golf Open commitments (car parking and BBQ’s), the Home Show (carparking and entry door duty), and the ‘Opera in the Park’ event on 11 Feb –names to Lee-Ann please of those available for carparking with complementary admission following.
Neil also spoke about a Friendship Exchange visit involving Rotarians from New Orleans, USA in April. Home hosts are sought to accommodate and entertain our American guests (2 couples and 4 singles) for 3 nights from 16-18 April. Those able to host, please let Neil know.
80th Celebrations - Neil and Joan spoke to the Club’s 80th celebrations in April to be held either 13 or 27 April (TBA).
Joan also spoke to our District 9999’s one day ‘conference’ on 20 April in Christchurch where the keynote speaker is 2022-23 Rotary International Immediate Past President Jennifer Jones from Canada, and our first woman International President. There will also be a mental health focus. More about this later with links to speakers below.
Youth - Lee-Ann talked about our Youth activities including RYLA, beginning here today (Sunday).
Rotarians are invited the RYLA BBQ (Tues 5pm), providing help with The Gully conservation project (Wed 8.15 -11.15am) and the Gala Dinner on Thursday (5.30pm).
Lee-Ann also spoke to our other Youth activities - Outward Bound, Blue Light, the Rotary National Science Fair and the Wakatipu High School Rotary Diligence Award.
Conservation - Richard Bowman talked to our conservation commitments, namely our ‘plot’ above the skyline and a working bee coming up (see details of next working below). He also covered our Lakeland Park commitment with another project during RYLA next week, and our assisting KAPOW with their efforts at Arthurs Point.
2024 Duck Race - Tim Wiltshire talked about the Duck Race that will be held on the last Sunday in October. He talked about improvements that his team have in mind. More about that later.
Rotary Foundation - Joan Kiernan spoke about our giving and fundraising opportunities to meet both our Foundation and Polio Plus commitments.
Hospice Project - Stuart Maclean provided an update on our future big project in conjunction with Lions and other organisations. He indicated that this project will still take some time to get off the ground.
District Club Survey - Keith McIntosh spoke about the survey submissions and what Rotarians in D9999 (the South Island) are saying regarding their concerns and also their expectations of District 9999’s role. In general, Club and Rotarian respondents want District to continue in it's support roles i.e. Training & Development, Youth activities, Club coordination (the AG role), the Rotary Foundation, and being Clubs’ link to Rotary International.
The key issue of concern is declining membership and help is sought by several Clubs to attract membership and to promote Rotary in communities, including help with social media. Also, the role of communicating information including sharing project successes and ideas of things that work.
An update on the Regionalisation Pilot Project will be provided shortly including how this will affect Clubs.
