President's Message

It is good to be back, although I just wish I could have brought back some of the warm, sunny weather from the Gold Coast. I have to say all this rain and not so warm temperatures is a bit depressing.

My thanks to Malcolm and other board members who took over during my absence and to Alison and those who supported her to pull the Annual report together.
With the AGM now out of the way we can look forward to our final event of the year, our Christmas Party. From all accounts it is going to be a great night again put together by our Social Committee. This is an evening for members and their partners to come together for fellowship and fun in a relaxed environment for our final meeting of the year.
My thanks to everyone who braved the weather and attended the AGM, it was a good turnout and while I believe the format worked well with the AGM( plus the Community Trust AGM) before dinner followed by 1 minute speakers, raffles ,a fun sergeants session, when Sergeant Bill made the most of it being the last formal meeting of this year, and it was noted he used the “whatever “ fine technique introduced by Colin Monk !!, I do believe the process leading up to the AGM is flawed and puts too much stress on all those involved in the report at a busy time on our club calendar. This year was no exception and special thanks to Sally Fletcher who pulled it all together for us and got the final report out to members! I have reflected on this and believe I have a viable solution which I will work through with President Elect Malcolm and Secretary Alison to put a better process in place for next year.
You will have read the message from Rob informing us of the Mitre 10 decision to name our Rotary club as the recipients of the proceeds of their auction on Thursday night. An extremely generous gesture and much appreciated by us. We do enjoy a very positive relationship with Mitre 10 through the Fun/Walk. /Run which they give very strong support. Judy Pascoe has been our major influencer in developing this relationship over a number of years. Malcolm, Judy and I will be at the evening on Thursday and will be present at the Auction.
Hopefully we will see better weather for the weekend and we can begin to enjoy some outdoor activities and some sunshine.
Kia tupato,kia noho haumaru  
Take care, stay safe
Madeleine East MNZM.  President.