Firstly, thank you to our Grand Master Howard, for presiding over the breakfast meeting last Wednesday- as one member mentioned ‘it was a class act’! No one can deny the dynamo Howard is and the spark he ignites in us!
President Elect Marc gave his member presentation as a lead up to him taking office in July. I am told ‘he amused us with his animated history, giving us a greater appreciation of his past and current role at the Royal Society’.
On Saturday I attended the opening session of Interactors Day, which was held at the Royal Society- thank you to Marc for making the facility available and supporting the event. The Interact Club of Wellington (12-18 yrs), made up of students from Wellington Girls and Wellington College, was initiated by Port Nicholson Rotary, as sponsor, and is now stewarded by Gillian, Darryl and Paula who have a passion for youth and expend a lot of time and effort behind the scenes which largely goes unnoticed by most of us.
President Mike addressing the Interact Day
My message to them in my welcome speech was simple, they are the future leaders of Rotary and careers they pursue and encouraged them to use the event to learn from each other, develop skills and above all have fun whilst doing that. Many thanks to Tori from Port Nicholson and Tessa from Rotaract who also attended and spoke about their Rotary experiences and undoubtedly as inspiration for the youngsters.
On the matter of youth, I recently received a report from Inglewood Rotary Club on the RYPEN (Rotary Youth Programme of Enrichment) course for students 15-17 held in Inglewood in March and attended by fifty students from 27 colleges around the lower half of the North Island. We sponsored two of them, Unique Edmonds (St Mary’s) and Liam Maitland (St Pat’s) who spoke to us last Wednesday on how worthwhile RYPEN was to them. A copy of that report is attached elsewhere in the bulletin.
The board held its meeting on 17 May. It reviewed the strategic objectives and goals I set for the year and concluded that we have completed much of what we set out to do. I will summarise the results and overall performance of my year at the 30 June breakfast meeting. It is also intended that we formally hand over the donations from funds raised at the charity auction to the Malaghan Institute and the Children’s Hospital at that meeting.
A group of 17 members and partners enjoyed a great night out at our social dinner on Thursday at One Red Dog. Lots of time to chat and enjoy each other’s company and a bit of joviality with Julian attending for the first time adding his inimitable sense of humour and Paula arriving late after going to the wrong One Red Dog! Great to have had honorary member Bob Moffat and Elaine attend as well.
Karori Rotary is hosting a Quiz night to raise funds for the Children’s Hospital at the One Fat Bird Restaurant in Karori on Sunday 20 June at 7pm- $25pp for a team of six. This is part of District 9940’s commitment to raise $400k by March 2022 (Port Nic’s donations to date, including funds from the charity auction go towards this cause). If members & partners are interested in forming a team and having a fun night, please let me know by 11 June.
I am looking forward to seeing you all again on Wednesday after two weeks of absence.