President Govind acknowledged the valued work that the following members have provided to Rotary in general over a long period of time.

Words cannot adequately cover the contributions they and their families have made to the Rotary organisation and our Club in particular.

Bill Boyd, Bob Ritchie, Bill Duncan, Joan Swift, Duncan Loney, President Govind. 

 

 

 

At the most recent club meeting members welcomed our own member and local MP, Simeon Brown. 

 

Not surprisingly in the lead up to an election, Simeon laid out the National parties views and policies on taxation, government spending, cost of living, crime, co-governance and health and education. 

 

 

Our German Exchange student Helene Damaschke introduced herself to the club last Monday with an excellent command of English and a video presentation of her school and family. She comes from a town of 73,000 inhabitants called Brandenburg an der Havel located west of Berlin. The town has many old gothic buildings

including a 15^th century old town hall and within easy reach are 3000 lakes and 6700 kilometres of waterways.

 

Her school, Brandenburg Evangelical Cathedral High School has a musical and linguistic profile which reflects Helene’s interests in trumpet, dance and Chinese language studies.

 

 

 

Her parents Sandra (an HR Manager) and Christian (an editor) have in addition a 12 year old son and the family skis regularly in the Czech Republic and vacations with family on car-free Hiddensee Island. Hiddensee is about the area of Kawau Island situated in the Baltic Sea.

 

Helene presented to Pres Govind a banner from her sponsoring Brandenburg Rotary Club. Welcome Helene! Any club members planning expeditions or events where they may accommodate Helene and enable her to experience more of New Zealand should not hesitate to contact her.

 

 

 

President Govind was also given a banner from the Rotary Club of Bolonga by Raoul Damiano and Leonardo Legnani, 2 visiting Italian Students and classmates who are spending a few weeks at Pakuranga College.

 

Our Pakuranga College Interactors really excelled themselves this year having raised over $5000 in the 40 Hour Challenge appeal for World Vision.  This effort was given very significant recognition on 8 August at a special meeting of the club. A Youth Ambassador from World Vision, Hemi Pinfold-Whanga presented no less than four awards to the club leaders in recognition, not only of the amount raised but also for their outstanding leadership and innovation in promoting the fund-raiser.
 

 

Peter Woodcock was delighted to be able to be present on the occasion at which about 20 Interactors were present, together with Mrs. Siljeur who looks after the club on our behalf. Peter gave a brief history of the school club, having been its founder in 1990 and praised all members for their commitment to making the Interact motto 'Serious Fun' a reality.

 

 
In the photo are:  Back row -Mrs. Siljeur; Jordan Schuster - Executive member, Pahul Parmar and Lin Swe Hliang (joint Presidents), Hemi and Peter. 

Front row - Executive members Lucy Huang; Margot Schmidt; Stepheny Peng.
 

 

At the most recent meeting those present got to see a short video clip of the Anniversary Sculpture in action. When I have shown that clip to people a common response is wow!

 

Add in the fact that it stands at over 5 meters tall and will be clearly visible from the Glen Innes side of the Tamaki so its not surprising that the committee and the Council representative are confident it will be a much admired and enjoyed addition to the Rotary Walkway. 

 

 

Below is the link to our Facebook page. Click on the link below [or copy and paste it into your browser] to see a video of the sculpture working along with some great music that has been added by Graham. 

 

 

In a recent Bulletin the issue of falling membership in Rotary clubs across New Zealand was outlined. 

President Govind is keen that we look to address membership in our club and a group has been set up to study the issue and suggest possible responses.

 

The first step in that process will be to survey members about their reasons for joining Rotary and their experiences as a Rotarian. 

That survey will be sent out to all members within the next month and we are very keen to get a 100% response.