Vocational Training Team (VTT) Exchange with Canada

One of the important programmes I would like to see re-established in our District is the GSE programme, which has not occurred for the past 2 years due to funding changes for these teams under the Future Vision Pilot Programme.

In 2012/13 we plan a GSE/VTT exchange with District 5370 covering the Alberta B.C, Northwest Territories, and Saskatchewan areas of Canada.  We are sending a vocational team that will focus on youth education to District 5370 in September while District 5370 will be sending a traditional GSE team to New Zealand in April 2013.

In June final selections were held for Team Leader and Team Members. Both selections were keenly sought after with a high calibre of candidates.    Jan Lockett-Kay from the Rotary Club of Pukekura Breakfast in New Plymouth has been selected as Team Leader.  Jan is Head of the Faculty Humanities at the Western Institute of Technology in Taranaki and she will make an excellent team leader with her interests in education. 

One of the team exercises - the spiders web

Four Team Members have been selected.  Amanda Burgess who is a senior Policy Analyst with NZQA has a strong professional interest in education, specifically in areas around qualifications, policy development and standards based assessment.  Amanda Williams is a primary school teacher at Windley School in Porirua East who is passionate about raising the literacy achievements in schools.  Aroha Darroch from St Pius School in Titahi Bay is also a primary school teacher in a small school and has an interest in politics in education.  The fourth member Lani Evans is involved in many service projects and is currently Regeneration Trust Co-convenor.  Lani plans to gain experiences that she can bring back to the Trust.

The final team sec election day with GSE chair
Andy Watson, Janand DGE Graeme.

Over the next few months the team will be preparing for their month long exchange in Canada where they will be hosted by local Rotary clubs and will have the opportunity to visit organisations specialising in their chosen professions.

We would like to wish the team well and look forward to hearing of their experiences when they return to New Zealand.

DGE May Update

May has come and gone and now we are into the final run to Changeover on 1 July when our year will begin in earnest.

Chris and I enjoyed a couple of weeks break in the UK and Rome where we caught up with our daughter Stephanie.  I had some business in the UK and a conference in Rome while Chris and Steph did the sights of Venice, Florence and Rome.

Upon returning to New Zealand our first priority was District Assembly, which was held in Palmerston North on the 20^th.  There was a good turnout with over 300 Rotarians attending.  District Assembly was run a bit different this year with a project fair and a PEs stream where we focused on ‘Making Change Real’.  We have received lots of positive feedback from the event and I hope these will be a feature of future District Assemblies.  My thanks to Dexter Bambery,  the District Training team, and everyone else who helped make this a very successful event.

Maxine Walker who facilitated
a session with the PEs on
change in Rotary.    

The next major event is Changeover and Bob Austin and his team have been putting the final touches to this event, which is being held on 1 July at Te Rauparaha Arean in Porirua.  Again, my thanks to the team for the huge effort that is being put into making this a successful event and hope to see you there.

The other major focus this month has been preparing the Directory for 2012/13 and again just collecting all of the information has been a big task in its self.  My thanks to Adrienne Murray who has been working hard on this task.

Earlier in the month we were privileged to be asked to attend the Changeover of the Awapuni Rotary in Palmerston North.  Their Changeover had been held early because their president, Dr  Anand Srivastava had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  Sadly, Dr Anand passed away only 2 weeks after the Changeover.  He was a very special man and will be sadly missed by all those who knew him.  Awapuni is only a small club but both Chris and I were impressed with the huge spirit  and innovation in this club and also the huge amount of work they do in the community. 

In the coming month we will be preparing for Changeover, completing the directory, and hosting the DGEs  in Wellington when they will be here for a RNZWCS meeting.

And then the year begins!

Graeme and Chris