Visitors: Deyna Capper, Fiona Sullivan, Vanessa Coster
President Chris.
Welcomed guests and speaker, Matt Cowley.
Birthdays & Anniversaries – Warren Banks has been has been a member of Rotary for 20 years.
Meeting venue change 30 July
The 30 July meeting will be at Legacy 383 Pyes Pa Rd. Duties remain the same.
Induction of new member
Dave McDonald, previously an Auckland Rotarian of some 25 years, was inducted by President Chris, who talked about Rotary ideals, then Rhonda welcomed Dave on behalf of Rotary International. He will be on the New Generations Committee. Finally Pat ceremonially tore Dave’s visitor sticker off his lapel, thereby completing the official procedures.
TECT Meeting
Bill advised a special TECT meeting will be held at the new Papamoa Lifeguard Base Thursday 29 July at 1 pm. Great opportunity to find out what is happening at TECT in light of the potential sale of Trustpower. Also an opportunity to see the new Lifeguard Base.
Life A Plenty
Mary advised that Life A Plenty are establishing an office and are looking for office equipment and computers. See Mary if you can assist.
Alzheimers
Kathy informed us that the Alzheimers organisation in Tauranga are seeking a couple of trustees with governance experience and financial knowledge. Contact Kathy if you may be interested.
Tanzania Art
Leonie is seeking help with staffing the exhibition which will be held 27 August to 30 September in conjunction with The Incubator.
Guest speaker: Matt Cowley “Business Today in Tauranga”
Bill Holland introduced Matt as the CEO (Chief ExecutiveOfficer) of the Chamber of Commerce.
Matt was raised in Taranaki in a deer farming family. He studied Resource and Environmental Planning at Massey University, although according to him never used it, despite working for the Bay Of Plenty Regional Council. A self confessed Domestic Migrant, Matt moved to Whakatane, then Tauranga. He was very involved in aspects of the Rena maritime disaster.
Matt ran for and was elected to Tauranga City Council for a term. He was one of the younger members and was determined to bring a different voice to Council and its decision making.
Following his term on Council he worked to turn around a biosecurity company, and then was appointed Tauranga Chamber of Commerce CEO. He has been addressing various issues such as the value proposition of the Chamber, retaining membership and using technology as an asset.
Matt usefully drew a distinction between P1 (Priority One) and the Chamber. P1 is the Economic Development Agency whilst the Chamber supports current businesses. Naturally the two organisations work together. He mentioned that they receive 3.8% of their revenue from Tauranga City Council, with the rest from Government contracts and membership.
The main concern for businesses was staffing. New labour laws were being mooted. Many business people were currently both exhausted and short staffed. There’d be no overseas holiday this year. (Editor’s note: well at least that’s a saving to the Environment)
With regard to Council, business owners were originally sceptical of the 20 to 40% rates increase this year alone, but the real issue is still managing staff. Matt is hopeful that increased rates will be used in some way to solve issues such as housing affordability. He’ll give Council 14 months to actually deliver.
Regarding an election Matt is concerned that when the Commissioners leave there will be a vacuum that could have adverse consequences. The Chamber is keen on a hybrid model of say 4 appointed and 4 elected members.
Michele asked about mitigation of climate change and a move to a circular economy. Matt indicated those were areas of concern to be worked upon.
Greg (with a twinkle in his eye) asked if the Chamber would seek the appointment of Commissioners to replace Government as it failed to invest in the road and rail transport network for which Government was responsible, particularly leading to the Port. This followed the Government changing its mind by cancelling the Omokora Te Puna State Highway upgrade and now not wanting to pay its share of the Totara St upgrade.
Sergeant Session: Nathan Capper
Nathan said that he had read the mythical Sergeant Manual but didn’t find it particularly helpful. He then enlightened us with interesting facts such as this is the 204th day of the year and that we’re currently travelling at 2.6 million kms per hour.
Nathan is currently working on MBA papers at a considerable cost and urged us not to be Darth Vader style leaders, but to lead better. To illustrate the point he played an intriguing video with characters that strangely reminded us of ourselves in certain circumstances. We learnt very much about Death Star, catering, Lego and trays plus a character called Geoff Vader as opposed to Darth. The video also set a record for the most times a certain pithy Anglo Saxon word of Germanic origin has been used at a Sunrise Rotary Breakfast Meeting, albeit not from the Sergeant per se.
Parting Thought from Mary O’Sullivan
“Challenges are what makes life interesting and overcoming them are what makes life meaningful.”
Duties for the next two weeks
