It was a very successful conference with a broad array of excellent speakers. The theme for the Saturday session was ‘Responding to Our Changing Community’. We heard from speakers who spoke about the changes and challenges we are faced with and the measures that need to be taken to achieve humanitarian, social, economic and environmental change.
The theme on Sunday was ‘Changing the World’ and we heard from speakers talk about eradicating polio; what we have learned about Covid-19, the measures taken in New Zealand and what it means for the future and ‘Give Every Child a Future’, a centennial project being run by Rotary Australia/New Zealand/Pacific to protect 100,000 children from rotavirus, pneumococcal disease and cervical cancer, across nine Pacific Island countries
Our ever effervescent and energetic member, Bill Day gave an excellent presentation on the progress of the Children’s Hospital and the $400,000 target District 9940 has committed to raising by April 2022. Port Nicholson Rotary will play its part in this effort.
One of the key messages from the conference was what we collectively have to do for the future of Rotary, namely:
- being relevant.
- effective communication about Rotary and what it stands for
- adapt to the changing landscape and expectations of the changing environment
- move away from being obsessed with process to the detriment of outcomes
- complacency and apathy has no place
The obligation falls on all of us at Port Nicholson Rotary to move with the times and continue to retain ourselves as a vibrant, energetic and forward thinking organisation. The greatest gift we can give is the productive and effective use of time and focus on service as the centre of our orbit.
The conference was also a forum to acknowledge the contribution of individual Rotary clubs in the District. We were humbled to receive an acknowledgment from DG Gillian Jones for Port Nicholson Rotary’s contribution to date of over US$100,000 to the Rotary Foundation.
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