Visitors: Tenby Powell (Guest Speaker), Sharon Hunter, Joe McGregor, Pete Campbell, Roy Dykes, Ellen & Jill.
Welcome – Lynda - A busy schedule today so no time for chit chat over your breaky. (And a warm welcome as well.)
Treasurer: Ray Scott has announced he hanging up his ledger, and will shortly prepare his final Trial Balance. Sadly, he will also be leaving the club. All the best Ray! Jim has kindly offered to take up the Treasurer’s position.
The Great Debate – this is a Tauranga Te Papa fund raiser -5 pm 13th May. There are apparently already 300 attending so get your name down with Mary if you are keen.
Member Welfare – Mary reports that Ian Burns is in hospital after bowel surgery. Hopefully a speedy recovery.
Exhibition opens Thursday 18th May – 10am – 6pm, auction by ticket entry: Friday 19th May – 6pm – 9pm. Treasured Art is also in need of helpers, so contact Dave if you can help. No pressure at all, but he’s got a list with everyone’s names on it.
Guest Speakers: Tenby Powell - The Humanitarian Face of
War. Fresh from the foreign fields of Europe, Tenby tells us he has given this morning’s address 18 times recently, and enjoys the Rotary interaction & banter. Kharkiv Rotary Club, is apparently the most well organised, and able to operate in a warzone – much like some of our meetings some wag suggested.
Principal messages about the conflict: Russia will lose. Ukraine will win. Escalation could happen fast. Some people can’t (or won’t) leave and are dying as a result.
Conclusion: We must enable Ukraine to win this war.
Kharkiv is 40kms form the Russian border, and is/was a beautiful city with 4 universities. The population has diminished from 1.5M to less than 300K since the conflict. KiwiKare has been established as a small and nimble enterprise to provide aid and evacuation options for the locals.
Tenby will be heading back to Europe in 3 weeks, just in time for the counter offensive he tells us. We wish him well in his fight against the mad despot.
Raffle: Orange 9 – unclaimed by the looks – Jackpotting to next week maybe!
Sergeant Session: Neil Matson read, with some emotion,
the citation by which his father won his military medal. A brave and able soldier indeed.
Parting Thought:
“Life’s a bit like mountaineering. Never look down.” Edmund Hillary
