BULLETIN 1 MARCH 2019

NOTICES:

Congrats Dave Woodhouse 32 years with Rotary both here and UK.

Thanks to Bob and Jen for hosting Bob’s world famous BBQ. A great night. And we raised $150 to go towards Threads across the Pacific.

Hosting students from Hong Kong – Still need some hosts 23/24 April. Please contact Michele Beaton.

Julie Hignett –Announcing The Big Sing !!. An innovative idea and great social event . Friday 5 April at Lone Star upstairs on the Strand. There are 30 slots for singing. Julie has handed out sheets and you can buy / sponsor a singer for $2. The singers with the most sponsorship sing Karaoke .

Sounds confusing – not really. Pick as many people as you wish on the forms Julie is passing around and come along for a great night.

Dave Robinson – RYLA weekend still looking for nominating young people who are future leaders between ages 20-26.

RYPEN – weekend camp 15-17 March still need volunteers to help in the kitchen and facilitate with some activities. If you can give 2 hours or the whole day it is really worth while . Contact Dave.

Rhonda

The Great K Valley Cycle Adventure !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Why in bold ? why exclamation marks !!!!!!!!!!!

It’s on this Sunday from 10 am to 3 pm. 120 people are expected. There are 2 courses being 10 km and 25 km. A treasure hunt on wheels . Lets get behind this great activity and fund raiser. There are enough volunteers so dust off the lycra put on the bike helmet and come for a ride in K Valley. (Sorry - its happened - ED)

Paul Harris Fellowship award

The highest award a Rotarian can receive and awarded to Kathy Webb.

President Pat highlighted Kathy’s networking skills, and ability to pull together projects and events – most recently the most successful Treasured Art auction ever. Some of the many things Kathy has been involved with

• Executive officer Provider forum BOP Area Health Board

• Administer Alzheimer’s Society Tauranga

• Team Leader Community Development Western BOP

• Trustee Foundation for Youth Development 5 years

• Business mentor with Business Mentors NZ for 9 years.

• Rotary member since 2011

• Chair Neighbourhood Support WBOP last 6 years

• Board of Trustees Alzheimer’s TGA past 5 years

• Facilitator Social Link TGA last 4 years

And many more.

A very special woman and worthy recipient.

Tauranga Food Bank

Guest speaker Larry Bilodeau, Board chair of TaurangaFood Bank.

Some fun facts

They get referrals from 76 different agencies

Food parcels are made up based on need and individual circumstances

Employ 2 part time and have 7-8 volunteers per day.

Give out 20 parcels per day 6,000 pa and feed 17,000 per year.

Surprising the majority of families are working people who need a helping hand.

The goal is to help get people back on their feet.

The majority of donations go into buying food.

Sergeant session

There was a Sergeant called Max

Who is paid by the rate payer tax.

Works day and night

To shine a bright light

On a Council that many think are lax.

A wonderful rendition of limericks about several members.

PREZ SEZ

Although only a short month, February has proven to be yet another busy one. A great start to the year with the highlight for me being a memorable afternoon at Bob and Jen’s BBQ.

SPEAKERS AND MEETINGS

David Foris, a member of Katikati Club, gave us a quite enthralling presentation on his work in the back country in Mexico and his development of the first ever dictionary for a local tribal group.

This was followed by a surprisingly well attended Club Assembly where Directors had the opportunity to bring the club up to date on what has being going on in their committees and what is planned for the rest of the Rotary year.

At the 11^th hour Julie Sargisson took ill and was unable to give her presentation. In her stead we comfortably managed to fill the space with announcements from a dozen club members, including Ian Burns who gave a very timely update on the activities of the K Valley Trust. A great meeting with huge involvement from members, showing the club to be in great heart.

Keith Williams who is also a Rotarian, then gave a highly entertaining presentation on the trials and mishaps he faced in sailing around the world. Like so many of our speakers he could have spoken twice as long such was the interest.

We had a visit from 2009/10 International Exchange Student, Sarah Zentner who briefed the club on the impact her year in NZ had on her. A great example of how Rotary can help change lives.

Over the month we have had some terrific Sergeants with Pauline Cowens, Antoon Moonen, Dave Woodhouse and Ken White extracting hundreds of dollars from us in their own unique style. Heaps of laughs and not a little education too.

RECOGNITION

Kathy Webb and I made a rather belated presentation of a Rotary plaque to Craigs Investment Partners for their outstanding long term support of Treasured Art. Past club member Jon Murie accepted the plaque and was thrilled to display it at their reception desk.

MEMBERSHIP

Sadly, though not unexpectedly, Larissa Downey announced her intention to resign as she finds the challenges of being a young mum and work commitments meant that she could not devote the time she wished to Rotary. Larissa has been an outstanding member of the Club for four years, being heavily involved in many of our projects, particularly Treasured Art. She will be very much missed, however she did say that this is not the last we have heard of her and that when her personal circumstances permit she will be back.

We have one prospective member in the pipeline but still need more to ensure that we remain a vibrant positive club so if you have friends or workmates who you feel might make good Rotarians, please invite them along to a meeting. The Club is in great heart with top notch speakers and lots of interesting things happening that will appeal to many community minded people.

SOCIAL EVENTS

Friday Fives was a great success with 21 of us present to wind down after a busy week. We were joined by Sarah Zentner who also came along to the BBQ so she really got her fix of Rotary over the weekend.

On Sunday 24^th Feb over forty of us took our lives in our hands and headed out to the wilds of the Lower Kaimais to enjoy Bob’s World Famous BBQ. The weather gods were smiling on us as the weather was perfect and we were all able to see for ourselves Bob and Jen’s magnificent property. Heaps of food, great conversation and scintillating company made this an occasion to remember. Thank you so much Bob and Jen. Hopefully once again this will become an annual fixture on the Club’s social calendar.

OTHER EVENTS

We had our final rubbish monitoring duty at the Bay Oval on Feb 9^th to finish off this rather gruelling fundraiser with 54 people volunteering well over 500 hours. A simply amazing effort, that I doubt any other club could emulate raising $2800 for local charities and earning the sincere thanks of the Bay Oval Trust. A lot of lessons were learned and convenor Barbara Whitton is compiling a report for the Trust. Well done Barbara and all the volunteers for this outstanding effort.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Thanks to the efforts of Lisa Phillips and Pauline Cowens the club took part in a comprehensive survey, the results of which will be sent to you after this month’s board meeting. Suffice to say the survey was extremely positive with several constructive criticisms which will be taken on board. The results produced will be an invaluable tool for Warren Scobie as he plans his year.

Thank you so much Lisa and Pauline.

Through contacts with Katikati Club we were able to obtain 12 laptops for Graeme Dingle Foundation.

Assistant Governor Ron Fyfe and I both graduated from RLI this month. The sessions were particularly interesting as we focussed on visioning and how the Rotary Club of the future will look. If you get a chance to go along I recommend you take up the opportunity to understand Rotary at a deeper level and probably more importantly meet some amazing Rotarians from all over the District.

Warren Scobie has attended President Elect Training and has been stimulated by the experience. He is raring to go and he and I are meeting regularly to plan his year as President which is looking to be a really exciting one.

The Great K Valley Cycle Adventure planning is well under way. This event will be held this coming weekend and is great fun while at the same time raising considerable funds for youth related projects.

Jane Nees is well under way with a Rotary Oceania initiative to recognise the impact women have had on Rotary as we come up to the 30^th anniversary of women in Rotary. We have remarkable women members and thanks to Jane their stories will be put on the Oceania website over a period of time.

PUBLICITY AND PR

Wayne is doing a fantastic job on our Facebook page with several articles every week. If you haven’t done so please visit the site and share it with your friends. If you have photos of club activities please forward them to Wayne to be put on Facebook.

Antoon has placed a half page article on the K Valley event in the upcoming edition of Bay Waka. Make sure you get a copy. Thank you Antoon. Also thank you to Rosalie Liddle Crawford for the fantastic article in the Weekend Sun.

We need now to convert these stories to hard copy so that we can appear more regularly in the local media, District newsletter and possibly even Rotary Down Under. Warren Scobie will be talking to a couple of members to see how we can get our many amazing stories out there.

BOARD MATTERS

We heard a presentation from Sally Morrison and Mary O’Sullivan regarding an exciting new event they would like to Club to support celebrating 30 years of women in Rotary. The Board was very impressed and is just awaiting some budgets to be drawn up. If given the go ahead this event will take place in early September so watch this space.

We reviewed the Club survey which will now be sent to all Club members. A very positive outcome with some excellent suggestions on how we can do things better.

We approved $2000 for ROMAC.

AREA 6 Presidents Meeting

District is looking at a major District project for next Rotary year helping out poorly resources hospitals in Fiji with lifesaving equipment. There will be more on this closer to the time but suffice to say all clubs will be encouraged to participate.

The other Presidents are keen to inaugurate a sporting challenge between the clubs and we are also looking at a petanque tournament for the clubs in Area 6 and Area 7 later in April.

During the month Dave Robinson, Ron Fyfe, Warren Scobie and I visited Katikati Rotary. What a great bunch they and they really punch above their weight. We are hoping they will pay a return visit later in the year.

THE FUTURE

*Wayne Shadbolt and the Club Service committee are planning a charity quiz night for 30 April.

*On Mar 3 Warren Scobie and his events team will be running the second edition of the K Valley Cycle Adventure. This is a fantastic day out and we hope to see the majority of the club take part in some way. Last year with relatively short notice we had around 100 participants and it is hoped to increases that to 200 this time around and raise several thousand dollars for youth related projects.

*District Conference is being held in Hamilton on 15 to 17 March. So far Wayne, Warren Scobie, Ron Fyfe, Glenis and I are going so come and join us for what promises to be an entertaining and informative weekend.

*Dave Robinson and his team were unable to change the date of the RYPEN weekend so it will unfortunately clash with Conference. This is a wonderful weekend of fun activities and the program genuinely impacts on the lives of the young people attending. Please give some thought to helping out, even if only for a few hours. It is a great experience.

*On April 14 and again on the nights of 23 and 24 April we will be hosting students from Hong Kong which through the generosity of Simon and Michele Beaton will see our coffers boosted by over $6000 for youth related projects. Volunteer hosts only need to provide meals and a bed for the night with the kids immersed in activities during the day.

Many of our members have taken part in similar home hosting initiatives and all say it is a richly rewarding experience. We are struggling to fill host duties for the latter visit so if you have not done so already please put your name down.

* The Graeme Dingle Foundation will once again be promoting Drop Your Boss in the form of a parachute jump with sponsorship raised going to one of the GDF programmes. This is likely to be in April before the weather turns against us. Several of us have taken the plunge which I can honestly say is a thrill of a lifetime so give some thought to participating, raising funds for a great cause and having fun whilst doing so.

*Early in July Dave Woodhouse has planned another of his famous Whisky Tasting evenings with proceeds to go to Outward Bound and other youth related activities.

*And if that is not enough we have the Club Changeover celebration to be held at a venue yet to be decided upon on 5 July. This evening event will replace our normal breakfast. Put this in your calendar now.

Cheers

Pat

Committee update