President Warren welcomed all to the first meeting of the year
Notices
Dave W is on LOA until March. However, looking forward to visitors. Give him a ring first
Rhonda : Planning for the Great K Valley cycle race is ramping up. Lots of help needed for the day 8 March
Bob: Bobs world famous BBQ is on again Sunday 1 March. Lock into your calendars. Not to be missed.
Wayne: District Conference is on 22-24 May. This time in Rotorua.
Glenys: Vinna’s leg has healed and she has gone back to her village in Vanuatu. She will be returning to NZ in April for her last operation to get her plate out. A fantastic and life changing result for her. Also, an orchard in Hawkes Bay is sponsoring the Village and providing seasonal work for the men with money going back to the village.
Speakers
We were privileged to have Puran Bagh Singh who is the President of the NZ Sikh community in Tauranga and Jasleet Kaur, his daughter, who talked to us about the NZ Sikh community and religion.
What a start to the year !!!!. Jasleet is a kiwi girl, born and raised in
Tauranga. Well not so much a girl. Jasleet aged 19 is studying at Otago University and is a confident, eloquent young woman and if this is a view of our future we are in good hands. (Pauline Cowens did claim credit as she is an ex TGA Head Girl)
Faced with interesting challenges and questions like:
- What's under your turban ? Alas, just hair.
- Where did you come from - Tauranga
- Where did you really come from – Tauranga !
Some facts about being a Sikh:
The religion started 500 years ago and is the 5th largest religion in the world.
Sikh means a student of life.
Bay of Plenty has the biggest population of Sikhs in NZ with over 20,000. Many involved in the Kiwi Fruit Industry.
There are three temples in Tauranga and Te Puke.
You can also judge a good speaker by the questions asked. There were numerous questions and all answered confidently and well by Jasleet.
Sergeant : Stephen Dorrington initially usurped by Ken
White who claimed the winning raffle ticked but couldn’t produce his ticket.
Bob Sutton brought the box as he turned up to last week’s meeting at the Raft Café at 8 am vs 7 am.
There was a wee post mortem of the Christmas meeting where by he congratulated some innovation in presents, the variability of keys in the last days of Christmas.
Back in the 1990s there were some predictions about 2020
Life expediency will be 100 - almost
There will be an anti gravity car – not there yet
Everyone will have health monitoring bracelets – almost with Fit bits
Books will be dead – Nope and just as well
People will work 26 hours per week and mostly from home. Alas not achieved
And in 1997 the Independent newspaper in England predicted Boris Johnson would be Prime minister and lead England out of the EU - who would have thought it?
And finally......