RCPN Bulletin February 2nd 2025 (Feb 02, 2025)

Club News

February 2nd 2025

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Goal Setters Breakfast 5th March

The finalists for the goal setters scholarships have been confirmed and now it is time to purchase your tickets. See below for details.

This week's speaker

Greg Mitchell-Kouttab

Pathway to Peace

Greg was a Rotary Foundation World Peace Fellow in 2003 - 2004 sponsored by Port Nicholson Rotary Club. He has subsequently worked in many roles including being Deputy Ambassador at the New Zealand Embassy in Cairo during his time with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He is currently working in the National Security Policy Directorate, part of the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet. His Linked-in profile states that he is a 'policy and strategy professional in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, responsible for cross agency coordination of some of New Zealand's most complex issues".

The Club will also be welcoming our DG Jocelyn Hogg, who is visiting us for this meeting.

Desk- Everard Aspell

Greeter-Jeff Lee

Kaikohau-Heather Lucas

Opening Thought-Richard Brodie

Introduction -Geoff Smith

Thanking- Tony Robinson

Sharing- Steve Lawton

Closing thought-Darryl Ross

Club report -Julian Bateson

President Jo’s report

Happy New Year everyone.

I am writing this from Nelson, where I am spending 10 days supporting my daughter in law and two preschoolers while my son does does an 1100km bike ride brevet starting and ending in Tekapo. I was very sorry to not be at our first meeting for the year, Tony tells me it went well.

Tomorrow Peter and the intrepid perambulators take on Nydia Bay again. The weather here today (Thursday) is not flash I hope it clears up for them.

Finally, I am looking forward to a great five months of this Rotary year.

See you next week when we will hear from Nick about his time in DC.

The future looks good

Meetings, speakers and events we have to look forward to includes

5 February -Greg Mitchell-Kouttab Pathway to peace
12 February - Nick Duncan Observations of time in Washington DC-
19th February Frederic Bemak and Rita Chi-Ying Chung Mental Health Humanitarian Work in Challenging Times
26 February- Nicola Willis Business Breakfast
5 March -Goal setters Ki te Ao Marama Awards
12 March - 2 speakers from PFW Update on RCPN trapping and video surveillanc
19 March -Youth Speakers
26 March Ryan Donovan VSA and RYLA
Jumbo tennis - March

Wonderful Response from our members

A call from Fraser to David Barnes – in holiday in Sri Lanka – to see if Port Nicholson Rotary could at short notice administer the parking at the market today 26^th January.“Of course we can” said David, and called up his happy band of parking enthusiasts!.....from Sri Lanka! The day was warm, a little wet for a short time but we collected $404.45. With grateful thanks to Brent, Yon Yi, Joy, Mike, Tony, Lindsay, Howard, Anne, and Paula.

Superb speaker to start the new year

Susie Robertson, Chief Executive of Kaibosh Food Rescue started our speaker programme for 2025 with an excellent presentation on the work that Kaibosh does in both rescuing food, and supplying it to agencies that help those in need. Judging by the number of questions the audience had, it is an area of interest for many of our members. Please read below the excellent report by Brenda.

Kaibosh food rescuers

Posted on Jan 31, 2025

In the Wellington region, Kaibosh has 35 staff (12.1 FTEs) and 220 volunteers over its 3 branches. To demonstrate the scale of the operation, last year volunteers donated 7000+ hours, doing food pickups, sorting and repackaging it prior to its distribution to partner agencies for allocation to those in need. Food is checked for food safety and quality and what doesn’t meet quality standards is turned into soups or preserved by their kitchen kai providers. There is very little waste.