We had much lower numbers at our meeting due to illness, travel and work commitments.
With Bookarama behind us we can now focus on upcoming events including our next Club meeting which will feature the Police Awards. An evening we always look forward to and one we can share with family and friends if you would like to bring them along.
Our November 10th meeting will be a real celebration of achievement featuring students from Howick College. At this meeting the Environment Scholarship will be presented along with our updated Apprentice Award and the Brian Hanlon Speech Competition. This really is a meeting not to be missed, bring partners and friends to help us celebrate our strong connection to Howick College and these amazing students.
Bookarama was a huge success and David Fels acknowledged this at our meeting. He thanked the committee for their organisation with specific reference to Malcolm, Glenice, Carole and Associate member Dave Moody. This year is expected to be our best year to date. Well done to everyone concerned it is a lot of work but with help from members and our large group of volunteers including the Coast Guard we got there.
Our main speaker for the evening was Govind Pani. Govind is a past President of Pakuranga Rotary Club and no stranger to many of us. Currently he is the Rotary Community Leader (RCL) facilitating changes within our group of clubs being made under the restructuring or regionalisation Project.
Over recent decades Rotary Club membership has steadily declined and this RI Project has been established to explore ways of turning this around.
The basic premise however from RI is that clubs must be at the centre of any change. Clubs will retain their own identities although our district will face significant change as Jennie Herring shared with us with her presentation.
The role of the RCL is to help us work together where appropriate. It is envisaged that a broader spectrum of collaboration and cooperation will build a wider profile for Rotary as a whole with membership growth a central part of this. The success of the Project will essentially be measured by membership growth I am not sure how that will work within the context of our District or individual clubs? What will success look like?
It is important that we continue to be informed and Mike Abercrombie as PE and myself will continue to attend Project meetings and where appropriate Govind will be available to support us.
Thanks to our Sergeant Ian Fox who managed our meeting well, navigating some tricky situations with calm and dignity as well as filling the gap when a technical glitch was being sorted with a VERY tricky quiz resulting in some VERY low scores. A man of many parts.
Again, my sincere thanks to everyone involved with Bookarama, it is a huge task, and it takes a great deal of time and energy to pull it all together, but the end result, which will benefit our community is so many positive ways makes it all worthwhile.
Kia kaha, kia haumaru noho
Madeleine East
President.
