Meeting started promptly at 7.00am by President–elect Chris Dever, standing in for Rhonda, and grace was said by Sergeant Brett Hobson.

 

President–elect Chris Dever then acknowledged Wayne and Chris for their 48^th wedding anniversary before moving on to:

 

 

‘This is Us’ He Waka eke Noa Exhibition Opening and roster - All members (Covid permitting) are invited to attend the exhibition opening at 5.00pm on Thursday August 27, at the Incubator. There is also a daily need for volunteers to be present during the Exhibition to talk to the public and ensure they complete the story hoe provided to them. This volunteer time is an essential part of our ownership of the exhibition and promoting our club, networking with visitors and giving them the background to this project.

 

There is an on-line calendar to visit and complete the times that you are available, when you arrive instructions are provided, and stints are two and a half hours long.

 

If you want to shortcut from here to add your name the link to the sign-up calendar is  https://teamup.com/ks14mze6mhwyex6jke   or you can wait for the email coming out later today

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner – Michele updated us that we need to check timing of dinners as some may have altered slightly, that this event takes place over this weekend and next and that invitations will be sent by email, with the instruction not to open the attachment until 5.00pm Saturday.  

 

Chris moved the meeting into club assembly time and the following reports were received:

 

Everything is on track, finances are in good stead.

 

Warwick is our ‘go to ‘person for anything to do with Club Runner, passwords, logins etc. He asked that we all update our Club Runner profiles with our birthdates so that we can be acknowledged (honesty as to year? Apply the Rotary 4 way test – ed.) Ron Fyfe pointed out that District statistics do use our actual ages.

 

Neville reported that all is good with the trust and the plans for future use of money.

 

Club services goal for the year is to spread the load and get everyone involved and participating. In terms of duties people can ‘opt out’ of sergeant but nothing else. Committee is planning a social event in the summer season. Speaker roster is looking good, with the ‘My year as President’ feature continuing and people asked to contact Wayne with potential speakers, each committee to do the same. Ron Fyfe suggested using Zoom to increase the scope of speakers we can access. Wayne also asked for any feedback and ideas on modifying what we currently do as routine.

 

Membership is going well, with three new members recently inducted and a membership drive planned for later in the year. Wayne commented that he is privileged to lead a very strong committee that covers a wide range of things for the club organisation.

 

 

Covid has impacted some events for this committee, with student exchanges in limbo, both international and Australia exchanges. RYLA was cancelled for this year, as was RYPEN, which will return in 2021, but Outward Bound is up and running again and we can send candidates to that.

 

Driver Awareness event went well and will run again in March next year. The committee is also looking for new projects to support youth and will be discussing that at their next meeting.

 

Three projects currently on the go, ‘Threads Across the Pacific’ being the first and set to resume as soon as the borders reopen. Also, arising from the recent hurricane damage wiping out school libraries, we have a project to send books to Vanuatu to replace these libraries. There was some discussion on the logistics of this project, which again is border access dependent.  

 

Lastly shelter boxes continue to be a focus for fundraising, which is being contributed to by   events such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and an upcoming quiz evening on October 14. Covid levels will affect numbers, and therefore profit for the quiz, so hoping to be at level1 or below. Lynda commended her committee for their wide involvement.

 

Rosalie, through Sunlive, has given great publicity to the $25,000 Covid related needs fund that this committee is administering and there have been twelve inquiries so far and five completed applications to the fund. Pleas encourage people to apply, on the website, through Facebook, or directly to Pat.

 

Planning for the Treasured Art project, scheduled for May 2021 at the Art Gallery, is going well and sponsorship will be the major drive in the next steps to setting up. There is a meeting on September 8 with the Art Gallery. Viv Dykes is heading up the Fine Homes Tour organisation, with November 2021 being the event time.     

 

Pat has arranged for Simone Anderson from the Incubator to speak with the club soon, (and it will be good to acknowledge their co-sponsorship of ‘He Waka eke Noa’ – ed.)

 

A social event is being explored to be held at the Art Gallery and Ross Brown is gathering things together for the Art auction on October 9. Other things in planning progress are a Rotary Calendar, a mystery tour and a possible quiz evening. Pat also claimed to have the best committee in the club, even though there is not a competition running for that title (at present).

 

Ron Fyfe raised a question about district grants and Pat replied that this year there is one grant only for a Covid related initiative. For us this is a project, through Age Concern, linking rest home residents with children, through schools, in an IT expertise  (from the children) for life stories (from the residents) swap.  

 

Les firstly acknowledged that he also has a great committee before speaking to several events that are coming up, the K Valley Cycle ride, which Rhonda would appreciate marketing help with, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and This is Us. Les mentioned that the He Waka eke Noa opening will include Jan Tinetti and Mayor Tenby Powell as guests and reiterated the invitation to all of us to attend.

 

Later in the year there will be a car rally, a Robbie Burns night on January 23 and the Treasured Art date is May 8. As with the other directors, Les also thanks his committee and acknowledged their hard work.

 

Question about number of Outward Bound places? There are usually two available per year.

 

Chris moved us out of Club Assembly at 7.42am

 

 Sergeant Session – Brett Hobson

Brett pulled some comments of ‘What’s App’ this week, Rosalie’ publicity efforts (with a thank you to her for great coverage), Ken and Steve’ first aide attempts and then moved on to lament the age of PC. This was because the sergeant and Dad jokes he wanted to tell were definitely un-PC!    

 

In the last part of his session Brett suggested applying the Rotary Four-Way test to the current crop of politicians and also that answering both the referendum questions in the positive, yes to marijuana legalisation (MPs ‘chill out’) and choice for end-of-life might be helpful. He also exhorted us to stand for parliament to improve the quality on offer.

 

Mary O’Sullivan updated us that Steve has had his first pain free day since 1985, thanks to his shoulder surgery and Graham Cornes and Andrew Knowles both have major surgery coming up.

 

Wayne reported that Dave Woodhouse has had a huge turnaround in health and is feeling much better. Barry Vercoe is still on his journey with operations etc. but making progress.

 

Chris reminded us to complete the exhibition roster, to check emails for the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner arrangements and to look for the changes times for the latter.

Only one sure cure for grey hair and a Frenchman invented it – it’s called the guillotine!

And finally: I wonder what my parents did to fight boredom before the internet. I asked my 17 brothers and sisters and they didn't know either

This week’s genuine insurance claim: I was thrown from the car as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.