Another well attended Zoom meeting, thank you all so much for linking in, we are becoming quite good at using technology to stay in touch, still improving on the mute button!!! Must remember to turn it back on when speaking to the group.
What a great effort with our recent Polio Eradication donations. Club members were extremely generous raising $1121 and this was matched by the Trust making the club donation total $2242. As RI has an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to match on a 2:1 basis our efforts will provide $6726 toward the End Polio Now Appeal.
Thank you to Rob Mouncey who managed this process for us. A job well done Rob, and it did provide an opportunity for us to be part of Rotary International even in lockdown.
Our guest speaker for the evening was Alex Monk our RYLA participant this year. The club appreciates Alex’s flexibility in the changes we had to make for him to make this presentation, and it was a bonus that his Mum and Dad, Blair Monk, himself a past RYLARIAN, sponsored by our club, was able to be there for the presentation.
Alex is a Software engineer and he clearly found the RYLA experience both challenging and rewarding. For Alex it was about being able to take leadership to the next level and about building his own confidence as a leader.
When given the opportunity to take a leadership role for one of the activities he found himself to be more a benevolent leader, leading from the front, listening to the team and trying to accommodate the teams’ thoughts along the way. He soon recognised that “keeping everyone happy” doesn’t always get you there quickly, especially when speed is the goal. During another activity, with another RYLARIAN as leader, Alex experienced a more motivational leadership style keeping the team together, and then there was the Army version of leadership. For Alex, all this provided wonderful learning opportunities, and he has been able to take much from it to shape his own leadership style and build his own confidence, gaining insight into how to lead from the front, and when to lead from behind and above all that trust is a huge part of leadership. All of which he is already using in real life.
As a club we are delighted to have supported Alex, an aspiring young leader, to have the opportunity of a life changing experience providing him with such positive memories and outcomes that will be carried for a lifetime.
Geoff Thompson updated the meeting on Bookarama. The committee has decided to stay on track with our current updated timeline, but it will be reviewed after next Monday’s Covid Update and a decision made on whether or not Bookarama can still go ahead in some form. Fingers crossed that it can go ahead even if it has to be modified in some way to meet the criteria of the day. I know the committee is working very hard to make that happen.
I am working closely with John Savory as we review and update our Programme, but basically my thinking is to make as much of it happen as we can, albeit electronically. With that in mind our next meeting will be The Police Award and that will proceed either in person or via Zoom. We will keep you posted.
In the meantime, if not already, please get vaccinated and encourage family and friends to do the same. It is the quickest way for us to get back to regular meetings and haircuts!!!!
Kia tupoto, kia noho haumaru
Take care, stay safe.
Madeleine East MNZM
President.
