PORIRUA EXPO

On Sunday 11 September a Business expo was held at the Te Rauparahau Arena in Porirua showcasing Porirua business and clubs.  The Rotary clubs of Porirua Sundown and Plimmerton combined to host a booth showcasing Rotary activities in the area.  Much interest was shown in the work of Rotary and some potental future members made contact.  It was a successful day and we can see this become an annual event in Porirua.

Rotary Leadership Institute Training 3rd September

A Rotary Leadership Institute training day was held in Wellington on 3rd September.  This was for participants taking Module 2.  Twelve of the original 18 participants who had undertaken Module 1 turned up for this course.  Organised by Jan McCann, Helen Hancox and Martin Garcia, it was a very successful day with much learning, discussion and fellowship.  Topics covered during the day included:

• Leadership Planning and Goal Setting
• Rotary Foundation
• Communication Skills
• Membership Recruitment
• Vocational Service/Ethics
• Analysing Your Rotary Club

Judging by the feedback this was a very successful day enjoyed by the participants and facilitators alike.

Session on rotary Foundation led by PDG Howard Tong

Participants in the course

DGE Activities August 2011

Since our last update Christine and I attended the DGE RI International Director’s Briefing Weekend in Parramatta, Sydney on 5-7 August.  This weekend brings together the 22 DGEs from Australia and 6 from New Zealand.  It is the opportunity for networking, meeting the staff at RDU and RI South Pacific and Philippines Office.  It was also the opportunity to hear about many of initiatives and programmes being run with support from Rotary across Australia and New Zealand.  These included programmes such as Cure Kids, StarJam, Interplast, Shelter Box, Disaster Aid Australia, project Cleft and ROMAC – just the tip of the iceberg.  What it brought home to Christine and I was the vast number of humanitarian projects being supported and run by Rotary.  The challenge for us in our DG year will be in deciding which of these very worthwhile projects we should support. 

It was also an opportunity to hear of Rotary initiatives and future directions from RI Director Stuart Heal and his successor John Boag.  Stuart is also the head of the RI Strategic Planning Group and is proposing a number of significant changes in Rotary.  It is clear that positive change is in the wind and we need to start embracing that change – more on this in a future report.  These changes will give us the opportunity to see how we can revitalise clubs and make them more relevant and appealing to younger members.

Of particular benefit was the opportunity to meet with other DGE’s and exchange ideas.  The NZ and Pacific Island DGEs were able to get together and start planning our time at International Assembly and the entertainment presentation we will need to give in January next year.  Already we are forming a tight bond, no more evident than on Saturday night when we supported the All Blacks to an excellent victory in front of our Australian fellow DGE’s.

I also attended a training session on Rotary Club Visioning with other members of our District.  Club Visioning is a programme run by District for clubs to facilitate them to consider their future direction and vision.  About a quarter of the clubs in our District have now run this programme with some very positive and startling seeing them being re-vitalised.

PDG Howard Tong is now heading up the District PR committee and I will be working with him and other committee members to look at how we can better publicise Rotary activities across our District.  Another interesting initiative we are involved in across District is working with a small group carrying out training of Rotary clubs on the use of Social Media such as Facebook.  A pilot programme has been run with the Rotary Club of Eastern Hutt and over the next few months it is hoped to roll this programme out with other clubs.

We are currently appointing Assistant Governors and developing our District Training Programme.  More on this next month.

Graeme Blick