Week 8 – Back out on the Road

This past week has been spent visiting the clubs of Pahiatua, Dannevirke and Foxton.

Prior to heading north to Pahiatua last Sunday I attended the first District Learning and Development Committee meeting here in Wellington.  The Committee, headed by PDG Dexter Bambery, is responsible for District training, the Club Visioning Programme, and Rotary Leadership Institute in our District.  We had a lot of good discussion on how we might support and strengthen clubs across the District, a key message I have been taking out to clubs, in line with the Rotary Interanational Strategic Plan..  We have decided that this year we will focus on the Club Visioning Programme and how we might provide follow up support to clubs that have been through this programme.  If you need any further information on this programme please contact PDG David Watt.  

Pahiatua President Richard Ellis

Early Monday morning we attended the Rotary Club of Pahiatua’s breakfast meeting which had a theme of hats.  This club has moved from an evening to a breakfast meeting with great success.  With this change and by talking with the community they have been able to attract 12 new members to the club in recent weeks.  My congratulations to the club for having the courage to Push Boundaries and Make Change Real.  We are looking forward to attending the clubs Peace Festival that is being held on 23^rd of October.  After this is was a trip down to the Rotary Club of Carterton for a social visit to their club as guest speaker where we gave a talk on experiences in Antarctica.  As we travelled through Masterton we were reminded of a great marketing campaign for Rotary when we spied the Rotary flag flying on a flag pole as you enter the northern end of Masterton.  These flag poles have been sponsored by Rotary.

PDG Alastair and AG Nicky Orsborn, Graeme and Christine,
President of Dannevirke Club Rob and Phillipa Van Abs

Tuesday saw us at the Dannevirke Club and learning about some of their interesting upcoming projects including their Spring Festival, the spud in a bucket competition, and motor bike ride.  We then visited Foxton club on Wednesday and heard about their many and varied activities in the community.  We were interested to hear of their final meeting of the month where they invite friends and guests along to the club for a fun night and have agreed to attend one of these meetings and talk about travels in Antarctica.

Rotary Flag in Masterton

On Thursday we met at the Wellington North Club to discuss with members of the Porirua Sundown Club and visiting past Wellington North Rotarian Peter Kyle and DGE for District 7620 in Washington the proposed Rheumatic Fever project in the Porirua basin.  This project seeks to obtain a Global Grant to provide educational material to increase awareness of Rheumatic Fever and reduce the incidence of it in the Porirua Basin.  It is hoped that District 7620 will become a partner in this project.

On Friday Christine and the outgoing VTT Team were able to meet the Rt Hon. Hekia Parata at Parliament  – see previous article.  They flew out earlier today and we wish them well on their travels.

Today we were able to have the first catch up of our AGs and have a discussion of how the year is going.  My thanks to the huge amount of work they put in and for all their efforts in working with clubs.

The coming week will be a quieter week with visits to only two clubs in the Hutt Valley.

All the best for the coming week.

Chris and Graeme