Week One

Tawa Changeover with new President
Laura and Bill

It is surprising to think that it is now a week since District Changeover.  We have been preparing for our first week of visits, which begin in Wanganui.  Over the last 2 weeks we have also had the opportunity to attend a number of Club Changeovers.  These have reminded us of the tremendous work that Rotary does in the community.  It was pleasing to see a number of Paul Harris Awards being given out to club members and people in the community.

Graeme, Chris and Mr fox

It was great to return to my hometown, Petone, for the Rotary Club of Petone’s changeover.  We had the privilege of sitting beside my old primary school headmaster, Brian Fox, and swap a few yarns.  It was also great to catch up with an old class mate.

Porirua Sundown Changeover with
new President Gordon and Kath

It was special event for Porirua Sundown when their Changeover coincided with their 50 year anniversary.  They had a great turnout with past members and representatives from the other clubs in the cluster.  A great night was enjoyed by all.

The week ended on Sunday enjoying the Rotary club of Marton’s Changeover with a Greek Olympic theme.  We then headed to Wanganui to start our year of visits.

District Changeover

Sunday 1 July dawned fine and calm after a very wet winter week.  This was a fitting start to our year and District Changeover.  A huge amount of effort and planning had been put into the event by our Changeover committee led by Bob Austin from the Rotary Club of Plimmerton.  Attended by 270 Rotarians, friends and family we were hosted in the new Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua.  This proved to be a fitting and appropriate venue for this event.

Mayor of Porirua, Nick Leggett was invited to open the proceedings.  Lunch followed and an opportunity to mix and mingle.  After lunch then DG Bob gave an account of his year and awarded trophies and certificates.  This was followed by the formal changeover ceremony where the chain of office was passed across to the new DG Graeme.  DGN, Deb, became DGE and DGNN, Anthony became DGN – we do complicate things as Master of Ceremony Philip said bring a touch of humour to proceedings.

A great performance by the 40 strong Kapahaka performers from the Kura Maori O Porirua School who are the regional Kapahaka champions. It was a stirring performance thoroughly enjoyed by all present.

DG Graeme then gave his inaugural speech to those present.  He introduced the new RI theme for the year – Peace Through Service.  Using an orange as an analogy he went on to describe that we needed to get back to basics and that Rotary was at an crossroads.  He described how he wanted to take a new route and challenged us to ‘Push Boundaries’ and ‘Make Change Real’.

It was a great day and the beginning of a wonderful year ahead when we will promote change in Rotary.  We look forward to visiting clubs, sharing our Rotary journey together, and having a lot of fun along the way.

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