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

DGE April Update

Now that the Directory is well in hand, this past month has turned to preparing for our District Changeover.  Plans are now being finalised for this event and invites have gone out to all Rotarians in our District.  Our thanks to all of those involved in planning and preparing for this event.

Plimmerton at District conference

April also saw the District Conference being held in Wanganui.  This was a very successful event with a great range of speakers.  We prepared a short presentation to advertise our joint District conference in Rotorua and this was delivered in Wanganui.  To date we have received a lot of positive support for this event.  The conference committees in both our Districts are working hard on finalising speakers and preparing for this event that is now just a year away.

Dinner on the Waimaire Steamboat
following the DAC meetings    

At District conference we attended the District Advisory Committee meeting (made up of PDGs, DGN, DGE and DG.  This was followed by a District Board meeting.  A lot of thought is going on into the future of Rotary in our Region and I am sure we will see some significant and positive changes in the future.

Christine and I are now spending a couple of weeks in the UK and Rome on business and catching up with family.

Graeme and Chris

DGE March Update

A short report this month!  Following SP PETS on 3-5 March our main focus has been on planning for the year ahead. 

A large task has been bringing together all of the material for the District Directory which now well in hand.  This year we plan to put the main directory out in digital format that people can down and print from the District web site if they wish.  Rotarians will however be supplied with a simplified four page directory listing the 2012/13 calendar and brief details of AGs, Presidents, and District Chairs.

Further planning has gone into preparing for District Changeover, which is now less than 2 months away, and joint District Conference on ANZAC weekend 2013.  Plans are coming together well and we are looking forward to some great events.

All of our dates are set for our club visits with the final visit being to the Rotary Club of Plimmerton on November 15 when we hope for a big party.

Our focus for this month is District Conference, and attendance at the District Advisory Board and District Board meetings.  Planning is also well underway for District Assembly next month on 20 May.

Towards the end of the month Chris and I head away for several weeks in the UK and Europe, our last break before the year begins in earnest.

Graeme and Chris

DGE February Update

February has been a month focused on training.  On the 12th we held District Chair training at Judy Bain’s property at Waitarere Beach.  On a perfect Sunday we held an interesting day discussing the roles and responsibilities of the District Chairs.  I have attempted to restructure District committees so that they are more aligned with RI.  After a nice walk along the beach at lunchtime the afternoon was spent discussing some of the issues facing district.

Over the weekend of 3-5th SP PETS was held in Auckland with 5 of the 6 New Zealand districts sending their PEs .  The weather played havoc with some of the Wellington and Taranaki participants arriving late or not being able to attend.  It was an inspirational weekend with some great speakers, notably New Zealand RI Director Stuart Heal talking about change in Rotary, RI Director Tom Thorfinnson talking about Rock Star moments in Rotary and Howard Tong talking about Rotary PR.  A highlight was the Saturday night dinner at which Sir Anand Satyanand was awarded the RI Rotary Award of Honour by Past RI President Bill Boyd. There were also a number of District specific breakout sessions discussing the roles and responsibilities of Presidents and specific issues such as struggling clubs.  It has been great getting to know the AGs and PEs and we are now beginning to form a close-knit team.

Other activities this month have been setting the District budget for 2012/13 which will remain the same as this year except for a $2/member increase to cover PR.  At $56/member our District fees are among the lowest of the New Zealand districts. 

Work has also begun compiling the District Directory, a large job and I am grateful to the work Adrienne Murray is doing on this.  Work has also started preparing for District Assembly in May.  Bob Austin and his team are continuing to work hard on Changeover in July and our joint District conference next year, our thanks to the team for their hard work.

The coming month will see us continuing to focus on the District directory and preparing for District Conference in Wanganui.

Graeme and Chris

DGE Activities January 2012

Luckily we had a very quiet family Christmas in New Plymouth,  New Year is now a distant memory as we were off to Florida  on 4^th January for our homestay option being the initial part of International Assembly.  Considering we arrived in the middle of their winter the temperatures were actually higher than we get in our summer – most days in the mid 20’s.  The hospitality was unbelievable, with several clubs coordinating a welcome – a boat trip around the lovely lakes of Winterpark (yes alligators live there too) and  a ‘typical’ American BBQ on the shores.  This amazing hospitality continued for the whole week.  Must admit we had some very early starts to attend breakfast Rotary meetings 70 miles away from our hosts !!   The Rotary meetings themselves were very friendly and fun giving us lots of ideas to float for our coming year.   Other highlights whilst we were in Florida were visits to the Kennedy Space Centre, EPCOT Centre, and the Tiffany Exhibition at a Winterpark Gallery.  It was an opportunity to meet and make friends with people from a diverse group of countries including Finland, Serbia, UK, Europe and Australia. 

Kennedy Space Centre

Hosts in Florid

Time to head to San Diego, whilst a little cooler very comfortable for the Kiwi contingent.  Orientation and finding our way around the hotel was the first priority – it was on the very large scale!  Our time was organised from breakfast starting at around 7.30 am and first sessions commencing around 8.30am.  Whilst the Kiwis arrive very well prepared for this event there was still heaps to learn and lots of discussion and networking over coffees, lunches and dinners.  Having dinner with the rest of the table unable to speak English is certainly a challenge.  Hearing speeches from Kalyan Banerjee and Sakuji Tanaka with the ultimate surprise coming from the CEO of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committing another 50M to the Polio eradication programme.  Traditionally part of the social  “commitment” from the Kiwis is the Haka on International Night.    After much practice, face painting and copious quantities of Dutch courage our performance got a standing ovation from the 1500 strong, the men taking off their shirts during the performance got a huge roar from the crowd.  Taking from this week – getting a huge insight into the bigger picture of Rotary, also the admission that Rotary will have to make changes real and listening to John Hewko, the newly appointed General Secretary I’m sure they are heading in the right direction – watch this space.  Definitely moves are afoot – to encourage and attract younger members, more women and more cultural diversity.

Haka group

DGEs with RI PE Tanaka

Back in New Zealand it is time for us to start planning for District Chair training, SP PETS, and working on getting the District directory together.  

DGE Activities December 2011

Christmas was a chance for Chris and I to relax with family and friends before the hard work begins in 2012.  By the time you read this Christmas will be over and we will be in the States at International Assembly and our year as DG will be fast becoming a reality.  The big challenge for us over Christmas was to work out what to pack to take away given baggage weight limits and the large amount of NZ memorabilia and gifts we needed to take. 

December was a month of planning our District Committee structures and appointing Committee Chairs and Committee Members.  You do not realize just how many District Committees there are until you start ringing around to confirm existing chairs or appoint new chairs.  I have decided to make a change in Committee structure to more closely reflect RI committee structures and themes.  The support from across District has been tremendous and we now have in place all of the main chairs. Following on from this will be then need to start putting together the District Directory as soon as we return from the States – not a trivial task.  In early February we will be holding District Chair training and then it will be getting ready for Multi-District PETS. The District Changeover and Conference committee are continuing to work away and great progress is being made – our thanks for all the hard work.

So a short report from us this month but plenty of work has been going on behind the scenes.  We will look forward to reporting back following our 3 weeks in the States and time at International Assembly.

We hope you all had a great Christmas and Happy New Year.