Rotary D0030 Assistant Governors and Chairs Reports 2020-21

Ken Smith

Report awaited

Evan Cowan

Report awaited

AG – David Hulme

Matamata – major project has been number plate surrounds which you know plenty about already! And a very successful Used Farm Machinery Sale which not only raised significant funds but increased the profile of the club in the rural community. Cambridge – have an E Waste recycling scheme going, have set up an Adventure Club with their members (hiking, biking etc), have had a club trip up North to Matakana, held their very successful Greg Murphy Charity Dinner for Pet Refuge among numerous other projects.

Putaruru – held their most successful book fair in recent years, are fundraising to provide a BBQ, table and shelter in a local childrens’ playground area, have inducted corporate member and are gearing up for a major fundraiser (Putaruru’s Got Talent on June 26).

Tokoroa – No report received

Richard Hunt

Report awaited

AG Pauline Evans

What a roller coaster of a year we have had.  I am tremendously grateful to all the Presidents who stepped up and lead their clubs through a bizarre and sometimes stressful time, whilst many of them were still balancing work commitments and family responsibilities. Covid had curtailed many activities and fundraising projects, requiring many clubs to rethink their strategies.  Zoom proved to be an excellent tool, ensuring more members, their families and friends were reached through zoom meetings and sessions with excellent guest speakers. All President Elects attended zoom training for SPPEDS, even with a few teething issues, a lot of value was gained from this training. Membership appears to be steady; most clubs have maintained their membership with only a few clubs increasing member numbers.  An excellent initiative was started at Rotorua Sunrise, a prospective new member agrees to an interim 3-month trial period, to ensure the club is a good fit for them and similarly the club can get to know them better. If at the end of this trial period everyone agrees then the member is inducted.  By getting to know the culture of the club, its current members and club projects. There are two corporate members, one is the Multicultural Society and they joined Rotorua North Club and Plunket who joined Rotorua Club.  This type of membership has many benefits, and ensures a wider spread of contacts for projects with many hands making light work, and more variety within the clubs with different members and the life experiences they offer.  As a direct result of the involvement with Plunket Rotorua Club held a sewing day, transforming many donated blankets into very attractive winter weight cot blankets that have been donated to Plunket to give to deserving families. This was a combined Rotorua club project and the appeal of this day was huge, with many Rotarians, their partners and friends, men and women, coming along to help. It is likely that this will become an annual event. Rotorua West held their annual golf tournament; it was so popular that it was oversubscribed such was the demand from golfers to be part of this event. The event has run for seven years and this year almost $20,000 was raised, not a bad day’s effort, proceeds go to St John Rotorua.  West also held another of their garage sales, raising just over $9,000, it really does emphasis that the public recognises Rotary, are happy to support our charity and there really is treasure in trash.  Proceeds from the sale will be tagged to youth programmes, eg RYPEN. North club reopened their popular Saturday market with a VIP namely DG Grant Spackman. This market has gone from strength to strength being the main fundraiser for North. RYPEN was run in a slightly different way this year, Rotorua Sunrise lead the clubs in organising a separate trust to run the programmes, provide the accommodation and take care of all aspects, with Rotary providing the food and the Rotarians to run the kitchen.  A friendly and enjoyable camp was had by all. RYPEN Rotorua is a joint club programme and is in the calendar for 2022. Rotorua Clubs are all in agreement that combined club events, projects and fundraisers are the way to go. Our greatest asset is our members and with clubs working together we increase our profile and our reach. Programmes and events run included Drivers Direction and the Expo for over 800 students, collecting for Hospice with the Trees for Remembrance appeal, gardening projects, sewing day, movie evening raising funds for Polio plus, a swimarathon, also raising funds for Polio plus, dictionaries in schools, Weetbix Triathlon, Rotorua marathon, RYPEN, to name a few. Passport club are continuing with their chosen projects having gifted one Go Bay Go cart, with another being funded soon, and their project to send school items and equipment in a container is nearing completion and almost ready to ship to Fiji. Rotorua clubs have been very active whether it was to fund Go Baby Go karts, tree planting, RYLA, movie evenings, Targa rally marshalling, TKT Oral language programme, National Science and Technology forum student support, fruit picking, for donating within our community, blue walk, Circus Quirkus, school speech competition, or any of the many other ways our Rotarians step up and make a difference. I thank all the Presidents, President Elects, Rotarians and families, you make me look good and I enjoy being involved with all the clubs to strengthen our focus and profile for Rotary. I would like to close by thanking DG Grant Spackman for his easy approachable manner, I have found him very communicative and a great advocate for Rotary. 

AG - Ron Fyfe

Busy and successful year for all 5 clubs in Area 6. Each had their main fund raising events which ranged from Tauranga Te Papa’s Great Duck Race, Tauranga Sunrise Treasured Art Sale, Tauranga Rotary’s Book Sale, Katikati continue to raise significant funds from their battery collection, Otumoetai held an Island Luau Night. Of course each club has a number of ongoing commitments raising money for a number of favourite charities. We had a number of significant events during the year including Katikati celebrating 50 years and Te Papa celebrating 40 year, both events attended by Past RI President Bill Boyd as well as DG Grant Spackman. I am also pleased to report that all clubs have run a number of social events over the year as well as our Joint Presidents’ meetings being well attended with a lot of enthusiasm for the clubs to work together.

Maketu has had a year of two halves.  Juliette resigned at Christmas and Colleen Olesen took over the role of President. To quote her “When I became the stand-in President my main goal was to bring the club back together. I think I have achieved this with the induction of 4 new members. We have lost 5 members over the year which is rather disappointing.”  I believe she has done a great job of bringing the heart back into the club. They have chosen to change their meetings to the First and Third Wednesdays only, with a social evening on the fifth Wednesday. My visits to the club have been welcoming and I have enjoyed those evenings. Project-wise Maketu have volunteered at the Daily Café on a pizza night when free meals are provided to anyone wanting one. The labour and food are all donated – in this case, Rotarians donated the labour. Maketu have also donated Osbourne dictionaries to four Primary schools and have sponsored a RYLA attendee and donated $500 sponsorship for members of their Fire Brigade to do the Sky Tower stair climb. A $4,000 donation was made to Kiwican to support the program in Maketu Primary.

The Mount has a small group of dedicated Rotarians, many of whom are aging. Their main fund-raising event is their involvement with Circus Quirkus, which has been ongoing for several years. Hosted by Rotarians around the country, together with the Kids Foundation, Circus Quirkus distributes complimentary tickets to disadvantaged and disabled children and their families. The Circus Quirkus organisation taps into local businesses for donated funds and tickets are thus provided to the recipients. Rotary Clubs provide the administrative support of banking the local funds and provide car-parking and ushers at the actual performance. As a result the Mount is able to financially support the local college with 2 scholarships each of $1,000 for 2 years plus two candidates this year to the Auckland Summer Science School. The club also supports the local Hospice manning a stand at fund-raising days and the Christmas Wishing Tree; providing Christmas presents for all the children in the local hospital and sponsoring a horse at our local RDA for $2,500pa. 

Papamoa started the Rotary year by welcoming the Te Puke members into the merged club. Premises became a hot topic as we were no longer able to use the previous facilities at Robert Harris and so moved into the Mako Room at the local Library in September, and engaged a local caterer to provide weekly meals. Papamoa also had a President resign at Christmas and we allowed the club to decide how we moved forward, with Bonnie Rogers being elected to ably take up the role for six months. Our major fundraiser, the Annual Bluehaven Charity Golf Tournament, took place in April raising $24,000 which was distributed as $5,000 each to The Papamoa Surf Club for training, to the Graham Dingle Foundation for Kiwican in Papamoa Primary Schools, and to the local RYDA (Rotary Young Drivers Awareness) courses. The remaining funds will be used for Youth work in our community. Additionally, we applied for and received a District Grant towards funding Osborne Dictionaries in our 12 primary schools. Smaller fundraisers were two movie nights, one whose funds went to Polio and the other towards our Youth work, plus a fun “Pub Quiz” night. We have been 10-pin bowling, attended a couple of vocational visits and been involved with Papamoa Primary school “Trees for Survival” program, including assisting with maintaining the plants and planting out on the Papamoa Hills. Community work included marshalling the Papamoa Santa Parade, collecting food for the Papamoa foodbank and collecting at a stand for the Waipuna Hospice Awareness Week. We received one of only 5 presidential citations this year for the 2019-20 year under President Christa George. Over the last six months, The Mount and Papamoa Clubs explored the possibility of a merger, but this was abandoned with the following message going out to all members of both clubs:- After working together over several meetings, the Papamoa and Mount Maunganui Merger Group feel that although the two Clubs' ideals of Rotary are very similar, both Clubs are strong on retaining their own identity. It is, therefore, resolved that now is not the right time to merge.  The discussion process has very been beneficial:  the Merger Group believes each club understands the other better, and there has been much learnt from the due diligence that has been undertaken. One of the elements I have been pleased to facilitate this year has been the introduction of regular joint meetings of our 3 clubs. As each club usually has approximately 15 attendees, the ability to score a “good” speaker is slim. Bringing the 3 clubs together we are able to secure a much higher profile speaker with around 50+ members and guests attending. These meeting have been run 4 times in the last year with a plan to hold 6 joint  meetings in the upcoming year. I would like to thank Grant Spackman, for his support over the year. We have had some delicate issues to deal with and I appreciate the backing that he has given me. As a group we also immensely enjoyed the Conference and wish Grant and Wendy every success in the future.

AG Scottie McLeod

Further afield Whakatane has been busy with a golf tournament, renovating and painting the Riding for Disabled Headquarters. A very active club of 42 members, their projects this year have included; raising funds to build a couple of class rooms at a school in Teveuni in Fiji, a work in progress. Fencing for a local playground. Construction of stoat traps in collaboration with Kiwi Trust. Dictionaries in Schools project with books to Matata School. A car rally. A Remembrance seat and plaque for Wally Sutherland QSM (Wally died March 2021 and was a well-known and respected community man.)   Held a golf tournament, raised over $14,000.00. Painted the Riding for Disabled building, Held a review of the Strategic Plan for all committees. Supported an Interact Club at Trident High School. Held an Orientation evening for new members. Provided financial support for the miniature railway. Held working bees on the Rotary Harbour walk/cycleway at Port Ohope, planting native shrubs. Hosted an International Exchange student from Brazil, set up rural gardens at Taneatua, organised the Christmas Parade and provide club members with new shirts.   Had Guess who is coming to dinner social nights.  All in all, the Club is in good heart and are inducting new members regularly.

Whakatane Sunrise Club is closing as the have about nine members and are finding it hard to get a place to host their breakfast meetings, get guest speakers and little interest in people to take leadership roles. It has always been difficult to get the Club to participate in District activities. We have looked a number of solutions. DG Grant has had discussions with the Club on how to progress.

Opotiki have 12 members, a bit of attrition over the last year, unfortunately. One of these is currently inactive.  Have a regular visitor from Stratford Rotary who attends many meetings, high hopes they will join. Activities Opotiki have completed during the year; Collected for Purple Pinky day at New World supermarket with proceeds to End Polio.

Attended as Marshall at the Motu Challenge, raising funds for club activities. October – April held monthly stall at Lions market to fund raise for club activities. I am Woman film screening at the DeLux Cinema Opotiki. Attended Opotiki High School Prize for Cultural Achievement. Held a Prostate Cancer Morning tea to raise funds for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. Made a donation to the Opotiki Museum to assist digitalising and screening treasures from the museum archive so that visitors have easier access to the treasures through an automatic system. Kits for Kindy, club members donated games, puzzles, pens, paper and stationery to donate to local families who are at risk, especially those with young children 65th Jubilee celebration, speaker Gordon Lukies, previous member from earlier days, he is currently a member of Matamata Rotary

Current project, each member to bring a can of food to each meeting to be donated to at risk families. This is an ongoing project that will hopefully assist those in need, particularly those with young families. 

Kawerau Club had its 65^th birthday at its changeover last Wednesday night. A big crowd including DG Grant. They have about 18 members. Inducted 5 new members last year.  They taught 27 Tarawera High School students to get their drivers licences during the year. The same school they have an Interact club.  Had a garage sale and purchased car seat for toddlers.

There was an excellent turnout from Area 8 to the recent District Conference in Hastings.

AG Gary Hemmings

Report awaited

A very active club with good participation from members, meetings are generally good with plenty of humorous banter which is usually a good sign.  They are very active in the community and involved in a large number of events and projects.  There have been concerns over the increasing age of members and in an endeavour to find out what other clubs in the District are doing they sent out a questionnaire. 

Still struggling along with 10 members, hanging out for their hundredth birthday.  David has done a good job holding them together and they are happy to participate in helping to fund local people and projects. I visit regularly and am made to feel welcome. 

I get on well there and they have some pretty robust meetings.  We all know they raise a lot of money for hospice, Sports Park etc but they are finding it a bit tough this year and they are expecting their profit from the Cocktail event to be down.  52 members now and they have lost a few which haven’t been replaced.  I have discussed having a ‘new membership’ evening but they don’t see the need at the moment. 

Membership has dropped to 32 which is a concern and President Trish and I organised for the new membership meeting to be held.  This was held a couple of months ago. The club is very active in the local community with 5 or 6 members being to the fore as is often found.  An excellent response from members for assisting with the District Conference which was a great success and John Pollock did a great job.

A vibrant club with quite a number of new members in a younger age bracket having joined in the last 3 years bringing the average age down. 25% ladies but trying to get them into management roles is quite difficult at the moment.  They are capable but all are busy at work!! The firewood project has started early this year and will continue through the winter with the big fundraising event being held on 12 th June. The Quiz Night will be bigger than before so should see the almost empty coffers swelled.  The club is very active in the community like Havelock North and Waipukurau but still struggles to get media space to tell the public.  The Virtual Visitor Pilot scheme with Hawkes Bay District Health Board is going very well and expanding rapidly throughout rest homes in Napier and Hastings.  Brian McLay and I have been very busy setting up the new Rotaract club along with Taradale RC and Gary Hemmings which we hope to charter this month.

AG Ray Kitchen

Report awaited

AG Ian Dykes

Some good success in running combined meetings with clubs in the area. Turangi launched their cookbook. Lake Taupo celebrated 100 years and they ran their ever popular Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge.

Lyn Fraser-Jones

In the last rotary year June 2020/June 2021 at this stage 1720 dictionaries have been distributed to 22 clubs in District 9930. I would like to acknowledge Des Jack (Hamilton East Rotary Club) for his help in picking up orders of 1200 dictionary’s (each order weighing close to a ton!) in February 2020 and again in December 2020. Des picked these up at his own expense from the Auckland depot and delivered to my house at Paengaroa.

The committee for the 2020 2021 Rotary year consisted of the following: Sheena Spittles – Chair; David Hume- Media Support and Resources; Colin Oleson- Rotary Oceania Zone Operations (ROZOPS) Director; Max Patmoy   - District Newsletter, Website Co-ordinator and Content Editor; Ralph Slooten - Webmaster; Gavin Petrie    - Communications Director; Deidre Jones - Bulletin Reviewer. Each of the Committee members have fulfilled their responsibilities admirably throughout the year and have been of tremendous support to me personally.  The committee met quarterly to discuss matters and receive feedback from Sheena from the Oceania Zone Meetings, and newsletters were sent out to clubs following these. All newsletters were sent to AGs, Presidents and Public Image co-ordinators.  In each there was a request for clubs to communicate with us when they had problems or queries, and to advise us of up-coming events so that we could advertise these on the District Webpage and Facebook pages.  Unfortunately there was no response to these requests from clubs, with any information being gleaned from Club Bulletins and followed up with a personal request for information.  At the start of the year we also requested AG support to have more information sent in – each AG being designated a month to focus on and supply information – this too was unsuccessful, with no responses.

During the year we have promoted the RI monthly themes with graphics for clubs to use, purchased and promoted the ‘Rotary Today’ booklets, (which some clubs have taken advantage of), promoted the ‘People of Action’ and “I am Rotary” campaigns, promoted correct branding, and reinstated the Bulletin Award. “Volunteer Week’ at the end of June is an ideal opportunity for clubs to promote their ‘Volunteer Heroes’ in their communities and on Social Media – it remains to be seen whether this is taken up by clubs. We presented a ‘Public Image’ seminar at the District Training Day and, following requests from some clubs, the Powerpoint used has been put on the Oceania Webpage’s Resource Page.  There was also a static display at District Conference, with material for people to take back to their clubs.

The ‘District Communication Award’ has been promoted with copies of the Checklist attached to the newsletters, and the Bulletin Award has been promoted as well. These awards will be resented at District Changeover.

Nick Dangerfield (Chair), Hywell Bowen, Jacqui Matthews, Ken Smith, Doug Lang. The training team organises 4 major training events. These are, Asst Gov’s and district chairs training,(August) PETS1 (November)and participation in South Pacific Presidents Elect Development Seminar (March) which this year was held virtually due to a covid lockdown in Auckland and a district club leadership seminar/assembly  which was held in Taupo. We had very successful sessions with the Asst Gov’s and district chairs as well as the District President Elect training that was held in November at Taupo. The multidistrict program Presidents Elect program scheduled for March in Christchurch was shifted to a Zoom conference due to a Covid lockdown in Auckland. Training virtually is a challenge, but it was an opportunity for district in coming presidents to meet their peers from around the country and share ideas and build relationships or renew old ones. The National Training team did an amazing job to translate a face-to-face program to one that could be delivered virtually in just a few days. My thanks go to PDG Ingrid Waugh (9920) for her leadership in making this possible.  My thanks also go to Ken Smith who help me deliver our District’s contribution. The District Club Leadership Seminar/ Assembly was held at Taupo on Saturday 8 May. Over 130 people attended with representation from most clubs. The sessions cover roles   for incoming club including Treasurers, Community Service, Secretaries, Administration, Foundation, Youth, Public Image and Membership as well as sessions on Rotary Information and Learning and Practical IT support.  I am extremely grateful to the all facilitators who help make this happen along with Bev Tagg (Tauranga Club) whose leadership was invaluable. I would also like to thank my training team, Hywell Bowen, Doug Lang, Ken Smith (who joined the team this year) and Jacqui Mathews and the support provided to the team by incoming governor Ross Pinkham.

Committee: Ken Smith (Chair),  Gretchen Earle (Foundation Administrator), Michelle Tanner (Polio Now, Scholarships) Patrick Cummings (Major Donors), Max Patmoy (Major Donors), Alan Hitchcock ( Grants Chair), Jacqui Matthews, John McNickle, Chris Webb, John Reid (Secretary),Rob Rowson (Steward), Ray Kitchen, Linda Bonne, Aaron Kearney

Committee report awaited. Project reports as follows:

Michelle Tanner. Rotary Give Every Child A Future (RGECAF) is Rotary Zone 8’s only Rotary 100 (R100) project that encompasses the whole zone. It is led by the four founding clubs, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington and Auckland. In partnership with UNICEF the US$3.9 million project will vaccinate 100,000 children in nine Pacific Island countries, over three years, against three vaccine preventable diseases. Michelle Tanner (Rotary Matamata) is the only Rotary member of the projects Supervisory Committee from outside of the R100 four founding clubs. She joined the project in 2018 after contacting the Project Chair and because of her extensive professional experience in child health and immunisations, was invited on to the projects organising committee. She chairs the project’s Marketing and Social Mobilisation sub-committees, manages the RGECAF website and Facebook page and produces the projects quarterly newsletter. Michelle’s has been coping with family problems this year which has restricted her ability to conduct as many club visits as she would have liked but these are now recommencing in earnest with multiple talks booked over coming months. Michelle has presented at 2020-21 District Conferences for districts 9930, 9940 and 9920. RGECAF funding includes 25 global grant applications over three years. District 9930 was the first in Zone 8 to commit to supporting the project every year for three years and, to date, US$30,000 has been allocated to country-specific global grants. While this has been slow, more clubs have been donating to RGECAF. Of note, Alan White (RC Greenmeadows), a new Rotarian, cycled the length of New Zealand and raised, more than NZ$17,000 for RGECAF. This was ‘topped up’ by his club to NZ$20,000 and presented at the 2021 District Conference.  

Michelle Tanner. Promotion of PolioPlus has been hampered this year not just by COVID restrictions but by the limitations of our District Polio Chair due to unforeseen family issues. However, the project continues to be promoted strongly by the District Governor, district leaders, and at District trainings. While PolioPlus is dear-to-the-heart of many of our clubs, polio eradication is important to, and supported by, their communities. District 9930 remains committed to the programme supporting it with US$15,000 DDF this year. It should be noted that the District 9930 holds very little DDF ‘in reserve’ so this is a significant percentage of our current balance.

Linda Bonne

Report awaited

Elizabeth Wright

Report awaited

Elizabeth Dunn (Chair), Tony Richardson, Ken Smith, Corolyn Stephenson, Greig Mercer. The breakdown of claims was similar to previous years, with the greatest proportion being for school uniforms.  The balance is accounted for by educational camps, with minor amounts being claimed for stationery, glasses, epipens and other clothing. As predicted, the level of claims this year was significantly greater than the previous year, as the effects of COVID-19 trickled through. Following from the analysis done last year, which showed that applications to the fund are closely correlated with the level of engagement by clubs with the committee, concrete steps were taken to expand the membership of the committee, with the eventual aim of creating “hubs” capable of generating local interest across the District. The first such hub, in Hawkes Bay, has operated throughout the year with no problems, and attempts will be made to establish a second such hub in the next Rotary year. There is a need for the various hubs to work from the same (current) statement of financial position, and to this end the decision has been taken to move the master spreadsheet to the cloud, where all hubs can view it in real time. 2020-2021 has been a busy, productive year with several really grateful letters from some recipients acknowledging the work done by the committee. 

Sue Janes

Report awaited

Ken Collier

Jennifer Hamilton, Seddon Polglase

Report awaited

Colin Olesen

PDG Colin Olesen replaced PDG Fergus Cumming as the District 9930 Director on ROZops Ltd in January 2020 for a three and a half year term.

Colin has since been allocated the Finance Director’s role within the Board.

Covid has significantly impacted the development of sponsorship funding for the Company’s operations.

The functions of the Company are not well known within the general Rotary membership, but there is an abundance of detail and information on the Company’s website for those that wish to know.

The Company employs an Operations Manager which is a very specialised occupation.

The New Zealand and Pacific Island Districts are well served by the services of ROZops Ltd

Lynne Joseph

Despite COVID-19 disrupting normal operations and plans we had for 2020/2021, the year overall had it’s share of successes.

I accompanied Stuart Batty on several road trips around D9930 to promote the work and projects of RNZWCS and received a warm welcome  and often renewed commitment to supporting Emergency Response Kits to be deployed around the Pacific.

D9930 clubs have donated $19,000 to ERKs - down on previous years, probably yet another Covid casualty.

Rotorua Passport is the only North Island club making a project of purchasing and filling a shipping container with requested items and goods to be distributed in Fiji.My enduring regret in this role is the difficulty there is in getting individual clubs to report regularly (or ever) there activities and projects that contribute to international communities and projects that RNZWCS should be aware of and in many cases would be able to assist particularly with the secure transfer of funds, and contacts with local clubs or Rotarians in those places.

Glenys Parton

Report awaited

Rowan Anderson, Brien Higgins

District 9930 held four, very successful weekend camps for year 10 students. These students are chosen by their year 10 Deans as needing motivation to make the right choices, challenging them physically and socially. The difference this weekend makes in these young lives is truly rewarding. For the sponsorship by the clubs of approximately $200 per student it a small price to pay. Here are two letters from students re their experience. Waikato camp ---Thank you for organising this camp for us. We all had such a great time and appreciate all the effort the staff put in for us. I learnt so much about myself, how to make friends, and work as a team. Best weekend ever!!!!!  A mother-- wrote—My daughter had a wonderful time and only positive things to say about her experience and making new friendships. Thank you, Rotary for funding a camp like this and hope it will continue for many years to come. Hawkes Bay comments from students----I was very nervous at the start and not sure that I wanted to be there. I had such a good time that at the end, I didn’t want to leave. Thank you for all the work Rotary put into cooking us delicious food and taking care of us. My favourite part was all the activities combined that helped me work on my fear of heights. The encouragement I received from, staff, Rotary members and peers was really nice. I would 100 per cent recommend that anyone considering this camp, take the opportunity to have these amazing experiences. Thank you, Rotary.I learnt that I can push myself out of my comfort zone, even when I thought I couldn’t.

A huge thanks must go to the organisers of the 4 camps that are run in the District each year. Heilke Oppers from Rotorua Sunrise held their camp at Lake Okataina. Carol Charman from Hawkes Bay, Green Meadows Club held their camp at the Guthrie Smith Outdoor. David Robinson from Bay of Plenty, Tauranga Sunrise held their camp at Ngamuahini in the Kaimais. Rowan Anderson and Brian Higgins, Waikato, Frankton/Te Rapa Club held their camp at Lakewood Lodge, Rangiriri. Between the 4 camps we made a difference in the lives of over 140 year 10 students. If your club, or area is not included please get in touch with Rowan or Brien, your EYPEN co- Chairs.

Kevin Forgesen (Chair), Dianne Forgesen, Roger Miller, Vivian Edgar, Helen Tattersall, Paul Higson, Mary Bailey, Rachel Dackerley, Vanessa Dodunski, Pip Feast, Corolyn Stephenson.

By 20 October 2020 all of our Outbound students had returned from overseas. Repatriating all of our students became more difficult as time progressed and once Australia’s borders had closed. By July 2020 there were very few flights into New Zealand. 

Although we selected 6 students for our 2021-2022 Outbound programme, in July we made the decision to postpone our programme in light of COVID-19.

We held an Outbound Debrief day in February 2021 in Rotorua. Despite some exchanges being cut short, we had a great turn out. It was beneficial to be able to debrief in person and discuss the students and their families challenges and experiences.

All of our Northern Hemisphere students had returned home safely by July 2020, with one completing the duration of his exchange. Our 3 South American students completed their exchanges as planned. Unfortunately we had to cancel two events where the students would normally have met. However, the students undertook a South Island tour with a professional tour company and met again in September for a weekend at Te Kuiti/Waitomo. The task of getting these students on flights home and able to board can be credited to our legendary Travel Co-ordinator Roger Miller. The students were very grateful to have spent 2020 in New Zealand.

We have begun to receive enquiries from our Northern Hemisphere exchange partners regarding commencing exchanges.

We held our AGM in early August 2020 where there was a good attendance. Roger Miller announced that he will be retiring from the RYE committee. Roger has been committed to our programme for many decades and his efforts repatriating our students over the pandemic were greatly appreciated.

Paul Higson is due to succeed as Chairman in July 2021. We are very lucky to have Paul and the programme will be in capable hands.

Our next AGM will be held in Taupo on 31 July 2021.

Following on from a serious incident that took place in District 9940, each District’s Youth Protection policies have been scrutinised. The review is being led by 9920 District Governor Craig Horrock’s who has issued new policies recommended to be used nationally.

These policies are collaborative and a work in progress. As they are now, the new policy is onerous on host families, host clubs and committee. We have met via Zoom to discuss same and there are future discussion planned. District 9930 RIYE already has sound policies on Youth Protection however this has made us take a closer look at our policies. With the RIYE programme on hold until at least June 2022, there is time to look at what we currently have.

Further discussions throughout 2021-2022 will be held to determine when we can fully support RIYE commencement. If the programme starts in June 2022, the committee would need to look at advertising and then interviewing Outbound students in March/April 2022. These students would then depart in January 2023.

 

Stephen Dorrington

Report awaited

Geoff Mathis

Kondiki Milk Project ( Tanzania)

This project continues to add benefit to the lives of the farming families and greater community of Mwika on the foot hills of Kilimanjaro. Many partners have helped to make the NZD1.3m dollar a sustainable Rotary program. Covid 19 has hit hard – sales of butter, cream and to a lesser degree yoghurts, to hotels and the safari business of Moshi and Arusha died overnight – we do not know the severity of the virus throughout the country hence the tourist market fell away drastically. The Kondiki factory is now processing virtually all their milk into cultured liquid pottles and selling at reasonable margins to their farmers. The flag has been raised that they would love to build a second factory closer to Moshi (1.5m people) – whether there is appetite within Rotary and partners for another project I do not know but  Kondiki milk is going from strength to strength. Another great International Rotary project.

Bill Robinson (Co Chair), Carmen Goodwin (Co Chair), Lynette Dolman, Deb Robinson (Secretary), Libby Gairdner, Miranda Thomson, Martin Nelson, Shelley Good, Tomairangi Chaffey-Aupouri

RYLA2021 was held in late April at Epworth Camp on the shores of Lake Karapiro. It was a very successful course this year with 41 awardees (15 who were enrolled in the cancelled 2020 course), 27 ladies and 14 men. These 41 were sponsored by 30 clubs which was an improvement on later years. This was helped by a number of clubs just having to endorse the awardee rather than paying as we had 3 corporates sending candidates and paying for them. There was a great programme which was organised by co-chair Carmen Goodwin.

The Hawkes Bay Rotaract Club came about with Brian McLay’s enthusiasm and leadership while he is a Tutor at EIT. The Club has a President and 13 members who I understand will be signed off by the Presidents (Stortford Lodge, Taradale and Napier) Grant Spackman as DG, to be formally chartered by the end of June. This should help the Brand within the HB and encourage member growth and  young adult projects. I have been trying to get  Rotaract started within Waikato University but like the EIT model someone from the inside would help, various contact from some of the students have not resulted with any further interest meeting or even a  fireside chat. Moving forward I believe growth will come from Interactors who leave school and stay within a community rather than moving onto higher education, then form a Rotaract perhaps as part of a Rotary Club (Passport Club). This would give better long-term traction rather membership having highs and low as a result of the university term.

 

 

Darren Anderson

We received seven applications this year from Otumoetai, Frankton/TeRapa, Hamilton East, Taupo, Papamoa, Cambridge, Matamata Clubs. The applications are from four girls and three boys for our two spaces. I am working with Krishan from Outward Bound in Wellington to finalize our choice due the nature of the requirements of one of the applicants.

The three clubs which nominated a boy have all been advised. Bruce Farthering from Otumoetai Club will be passing on the good news to Maui Hunt this evening.

I am anticipating being able to advise the remaining four clubs who nominated a female candidate tomorrow. One of the very nice things occurred this year is that is that when I when back over the people who had emailed me in Jan/Feb I found that the Person from Gisborne who I had referred to her local club had already booked to attend and was being fully funded by Gisborne Rotary. That felt great. Hi Darren, Yes I contacted our Gisborne Rotary club and Isaiah is booked on the July MBS programme and has wonderful financial assistance from Rotary, which enables him to go. He is really excited. I think it will be so good for him and his development, so I am very grateful to Rotary for this assistance which has made it possible for him. Thank you so much, Jenny Moran That’s Rotary Gold that is.

Mike Smith (Chair), Pat Taylor, Janine Branson, Johnny Dryden, Clare Mead. In the year of Covid it was really pleasing to see how innovative our clubs were, and some still are, in the manner they continued to keep all members engaged. Some held  weekly Zoom meetings with guest speakers, many continued to deliver weekly bulletins, some did baking and delivered to members letterboxes, the list goes on. Some clubs have continued to be Hybrid with a mix of face to face meetings and Zoom meetings. It is a challenge BUT we need clubs to think outside the square, change meeting schedules, formats, timings, venues, wondering where our next new member is coming from. ALL Rotarians have a responsibility to ask contacts to come along to Rotary , see what we do, what we are about, make a difference in our community, we the majority do  not even think of this !!

Thames, Ahuriri, Waikato Sunrise are actively in the process of getting close to set up Satellitte clubs, great news. New Generation clubs are another future type of clubs we  need to look at. Rotaract clubs are being progressed in Hawke’s Bay and the Waikato, again positive. Te Puke merged with Papamoa and Mt Maunganui are in discussion to merge also.

A number of clubs are down to small numbers of members, both Hastings and Napier are suffering and hanging in as both reach 100 years anniversary in 4 years time.

RETENTION, this is the challenge we face, last year as an example Rotary International saw 100,000 new members inducted and 100,000 leave . The statistics tell us that 63%m of new members leave Rotary within 2 years of joining, WHY?  This is a massive challenge that needs facing. Do we not get them involved. Do we not give them a mentor, do we not have the right projects that interest them, the list goes on. I wish my successor Jonny Dryden all the best, a special thanks to District Governor Grant Spackman for his leadership during this past year. My thanks also for the committee.

Fergus Cumming

In D9930, Probus is spread through 4 principal geographic areas comprising: Bay of Plenty - Rotorua; 16 clubs. Hawkes Bay; 4 clubs. Coromandel - Thames Valley; 4 clubs. Waikato; 4 Clubs. A current total of 28 Clubs in D9930. I believe PROBUS is in good heart throughout our District with active Clubs generally growing their Membership, particularly in Eastern Bay of Plenty area. However, during the past 2 years, the combined impact of aging population and Covid has seen a reluctance of people willing to take on any role that may have a perceived degree of responsibility. This is even though the simple creed of PROBUS is Fun, Fellowship and Friendship.

Unfortunately, these factors have been the reasons behind the collapse of 2 PROBUS Clubs in the Papamoa area. The good news is that some of those now club less members are joining other nearby Probus Clubs. A further major factor in Australia and New Zealand is the explosive growth in Retirement or Care Villages. These Institutions tend to provide totally for their occupants. Some providers are reputedly discouraging their occupants from participating in non - village community activities and organisations such as Probus and similar societies. It is encouraging that PROBUS South Pacific is engaging with Retirement Villages Associations in Australasia. However, this will be a long-term action.

The Rotary District Probus Chairman is an important liaison role between Rotary and Probus Clubs within any District to ensure the stability and growth of the Probus community. Functions of the RDPC’s role are to investigate the need for new Probus Clubs, to encourage nearby Rotary Clubs to sponsor the formation of new Probus Clubs and to ensure the health, future, and wellbeing of existing Probus Clubs. The successful launch of the Probus Club of Paeroa, the relaunch of Probus Rototuna north of Hamilton and the possible re-joining of a former Probus group in the Coromandel have been highlights over the past 3 years. Other opportunities to rebuild PROBUS in D9930 exist in the Gisborne – Wairoa area, the King Country and East and South Waikato.  I believe the PROBUS community in our District can & will grow. I have had the pleasure of working with the PSPL CEO and all her staff, as well as Members of the Board of PSPL and it has been my privilege to undertake the role of RDPC for D9930 since 2017. I thank the D9930 Board for the opportunity to serve the district in that role.