Conference was a great experience

A number of members attended the district conference at Waitangi in the sunny Bay of Islands.  They were Gary and Hannah, Peter and Angela, Alex and Wendy, Colin and Beryl, President Bruce and Dawn, President Elect Miles plus it was tremendous to have Honourary member John Anderson and Pat join us.  We stayed at Alex's Autolodge Hotel in Paihia (many thanks).  The conference was a mix of Rotary business, inspirational speakers, informal periods, social and networking time. 

The best speakers were Michale McQueen on how to connect with Gen Y, John Anderson (not our John) who was the founder of Contiki and gave a hugely amusing yet immensely inspiring speech and Linda Hallinan of NZ Home and Garden who had everyone in fits of laughter as she talk of her gardening experiences from A to Z.  During the Friday business session there was a presentation by Rotary Oceanic Medical Aid for Children (ROMAC) and Varayame was used as the case study - Roger (of ROMAC) looked after Varayame and even took him to Cape Rianga on Saturday afternoon (Varayame is in NZ to have a check up on how well his prosthetics are going). Socially the highlight was the Saturday evening Mardi Gras.

As always it was a tremendous event that we would recommend to all members but especially to newer Rotarians and is great fun and a way to meet so many great people from all the clubs in the district.  Next year's conference will be held in Rotorua on ANZAC weekend and will be even better as it is a combined conference with another district. In fact Rotorua is a "must be there" event so all can plan now to join the club group already planning to be there.

Varayame and his mother in front of Beryl's RDU stand



Following the opening the cocktails went down well!



Beryl with Hugh and Cathy from French Polynesia and Jack and Adrienne Davies at the Gala night



Varyame and mother were taken by Roger (ROMAC) on a tour of  upper Northland - shown here at Cape Rianga

Club supports StepUp and Mobility Dogs

During the vocational visit to Stonefields New World, Colin received a call from one of the StepUp participants (his son Scott who was sponsored on the course by his work) asking if the club would support a fundraising effort for Mobility Dogs.   A brief chat with Sergeant Nigel and the club Treasurer and President ensued and an agreement made to support with $200 out of the Sunshine Fund. 

This team is seen collecting the donation from Colin's home after the NW visit and they then turned this "base" donation into $4,000 during the day which made them the top fundraising team from StepUp.  They used such tactics as calling people and asking if they would now "match $ for $" the donation already received.  The team comprises five member plus one Mobility Dog handler - two members remained behind to act as a "call centre"-type operation while the other three used considerable imagination to find and obtain donations.

StepUp is a five day leadership course for 25-45 y.o. within district 9920 which provides leadership exercises through which participants will be able to:

• Identify the natural leadership style they tend to adopt in most situations.
• Discover alternative approaches they need to develop if they want to be more effective.
• Explore and test themselves alongside like-minded colleagues.

On one day (in this case, the Thursday) the particuipants are divided into teams and have 8 hours to devise a fundraising plan and implement it and the team able to raise the most for Mobility Dogs is the top team.

This is another example of family taking part in Rotary programmes and the Sunshine Fund being out to good use.

For more information about StepUp go to http://www.stepup.rotarysouthpacific.org/

Supporting Group Study Exchange to Alaska - a maternal medicine focussed group

Group Study Exchange is a vocationally based exchange of young professionals between two countries.  This year the exchange is between  District 9920, New Zealand and District 5010 Alaska USA and Yukon Canada .  The team is made up of maternal and child health professionals. A member of our club, Paul, is on the organising committee.


The team from Alaska talked to the club last week and a summary of their talk is in the bulletin click here


To see what the outbound team is doing in Alaska go to: http://hauoranz.wordpress.com/ 


The RC St Johns has sponsored one of the outbound team members - Laura Barkwill (Clinical Psychologist)  who will visit the club after her return.


For more information about GSE and the team click here

GSE is the only Rotary programme that Rotarians or their families cannot apply for - in all other cases involvement by Rotary families is encouraged.  The team is lead by a Rotarian.

Do you want a great breakfast on ANZAC Day?

Glendowie College Hosts

25 April 2012

Glendowie College Assembly Hall

Crossfield Rd, Glendowie, Auckland

7am - 9.30am

Tickets $10 / person

(includes fi=ull breakfast, ANZAC Tribute_

Purchase from Glendowie College Accounts Office

or email

djames@glendowie-college.school.nz

or phone Bernadette 021 427 912

Active in the community

Recently a number of members looked after a display at the St Heliers Festival to both raise awareness of the club and to highlight the ShelterBox and Emergency Response Kit projects of Rotary. Shown here are Miles, Alex, Paul and Neil but many more members took their turn by rotation.

Interesting people

President Bruce welcomes new member Sophie to the club.  She joins almost a year after a chance meeting with Beryl.  This brings the new members joining the club so far since 1 July 2011 to 10 good people keen to serve their community.

Newish member Chris used his personal profile to outline some of his facinating work history as a consulting engineer across a number of very large civil engineering projects.

And also new to the club, Slavica recounted her journey from family life in Yugoslavia to a new life in New Zealand with her NZer husband in 1982.

They proved yet again that new member profiles are among the most interesting talks we can have ... and we have some really great speakers!

To the top of Rangi with a whole lot of fun kids

Who says Rotarians cannot have a heap of fun

Thanks to David Stone's persistence and organisation 37 children in years 7& 8 at Glen Taylor (plus 5 Rotarians and 2 teachers) had a very enjoyable trip to Rangitoto Island. There was great excitement as we boarded the bus and the noise levels were very high as we headed along the waterfront to the ferry building through rush hour traffic, maybe the bus lanes are a great idea after all!!! The reality of these children's lives was bought to us when one of the children said ‘I now know where Kelly Tarltons is’ as we drove past it. Onto the ferry and trying to control the kids excitement as they explored the boat. Once on Rangitoto we split into our 7 groups and headed up towards the summit, or 5 of the 7 groups did. Simon’s group along with teacher Megan’s group decided it would be easier to stay on the flat as they headed off towards Islington Bay.

Uphill ... uphill ... uphill

After an hour walk and a bit of complaining the 5 remaining groups reached the summit of Rangitoto, including a couple of educational detours lead by Gary Key. It was time for lunch and it was good to see the oranges from Graham’s New World being eaten as otherwise there were a lot of chip packets. If going uphill was a bit slow the kids were pretty keen to race down until one boy fell and grazed his knee. A bit of blood and the fact that Alex McKenzie was at the front soon slowed them down though. After exploring the swimming and rock pools at the bottom it was back onto the ferry and being blasted by the wind on the top deck as we headed back to Auckland.

Hitching a ... ferry ... ride

It was a much quieter bus trip back to school with a few of the kids falling asleep. Despite all the physical exercise all the kids had a great day with some very nice farewells as they headed back into school. They had been studying volcanoes so hopefully there was some educational value in the trip as well. Thank you to David for organising this event and to Alex Gatt, Gary Key, Simon Jones (aka Shackleton), Andy McCarrison and Alex McKenzie accompanying the children.