The COOL Project (Clean Our Own Litter)

The South Wairarapa Rotary Club is organising a nationwide cleanup of our rural roads prior to the Rugby World Cup.

Keep NZ Beautiful are partnering the project and COOL is targeted to take place in National Clean-up week from 21st August to 28th August. The picking-up of the litter will be done by farmers with frontages to our rural roads. 70,000 litter packs are being distributed through PGG Wrightson, Farmlands, CRT, and RD1 outlets. 7 pallets of these bags are being dropped off various places throughout NZ. Rotary Clubs will distribute these to the outlets. District Councils have been requested to make their refuse tips and transfer stations available free-of-charge during clean-up week. We would like Rotary clubs, Rotaract Clubs and Interact clubs to collect the bags at the end of the week and dispose of them at the refuse tips. In some cases Councils may do this as part of their rural collection.

Councils are responding to our proposal very positively. The project team sincerely hopes our Rotary clubs will also.

I will be sending out more information shortly... I know time is short but this project will have significant benefit and exposure for Rotary. A major advertising campaign on TV, local radio stations and in farming publications is being arranged.

Howard Tong has also posted on this project.

Roadshow 2011: Week 3

A quiet week this week, we didn't venture too far afield, and didn't we choose the right week to stay home with snow on the ground over much of the country. We even had a dusting on the outskirts of Wanganui.
With Wanganui as our hub we restricted our visits to Marton and Levin. It was a week to put in a few hours at my other job at Opus and to demonstrate to the boss that I am still on top of things.

A very attentive audience a Marton

At Marton Rotary Club Margaret met someone she was a bridesmaid for and went Maxwell School with, Richard Stevens, we met another Margaret Smith (father named Bob) and I met a Rotarian of 56 years, Fred Rubery.

Fred Rubery, a Marton Rotarian with 56 years service

This club also boasts three members on District committees, Andy Watson, Vocational Study Exchange Convenor, Lyndon Tamblyn, Shelterbox Response Team, and Barbara Pratt, International Service, sorry International Relations Committee. It is great to see the involvement of Heartland Club members on District Committees.

Past DG Allan Birrell, Levin President Pam Good ( with bling to match mine) , Margaret and me, AG Christine Osborne

At the Levin Club, home club of Past DG Allan Birrell ,the sergeant took great pains to remind me that Allan's conference had been held in Wanganui and that it was such a huge success that he doubted I would be able to emulate it. The challenge is accepted Geoffrey. My thanks to AGs Stuart Campbell and Christine Osborne for accompanying me .

Celebrating 68 years of Rotary Service - Woodville Club Closes its doors

On Saturday evening Margaret and I attended the closing celebrations of the Woodville Rotary Club. Presided over by, at times, an emotional President for 2010-2011, Glanville Johansen, it was indeed a worthy celebration of the club's rich 68 year history of club service. The meeting was attended by Mayor Roly Ellis, past Mayor Maureen Reynolds, now President of the Dannevirke Club, Immediate Past District Governor Howard Tong and Jenny, Past District Governor Alastair Orsborn and wife Nicky, Assistant Governor Marilyn and Hunt and Partner Paul Foster and a number of Past Presidents of the club. A short presentation was made by Outward Bound participant Sara Challies whom the club had recently sponsored. A number of speakers highlighted the remarkable achievements of the club over its 68 years, all caught on camera by Tararua Television and will be available on DVD. Changing times have finally caught up with Woodville Rotary Club.

Contributions were made by a number of the audience

A special Certificate of Achievement was presented to President Glan and the club by IPDG Howard Tong.

The Club's chattels and memorabilia were presented to the Museum for safe-keeping

Wairarapa

Here is a tapestry of our recent activities in the Wairarapa. Margaret and I are falling in love with this region and its friendly populace.

Before leaving for home we lunched with Past District Governor Alastair Orsborn and wife Nicky - what a fun couple they are - and on the way back called in on the NZ Business Week trade fair and presentation of results at Palmerston Boys High School. This is another stellar programme of Rotary, initiated by District 9940 and draws participants from all over the country including, this year, 9 from Canterbury. It is a true partnership between Rotary, Massey University, Vision Manawatu, Palmerston North Boys High School and the business community of Palmerston North which gets right in behind the programme and provide amazing support. Congratulations to everyone involved.

Masterton South Rotary Club-19/7/11

Kids Own Playground - an American design built by the Masterton South Rotary Club

South Wairarapa Rotary Club-20/7/11

Presenting a 25 year service certificate to Noel Smallwood

South Wairarapa Rotary Club-20/7/11

Nelson College Oldboys. Rex Tatton, proudly wearing his NCOB tie told me I was his 57th District Governor

A visit to the Mens Shed at Henley Park courtesy of Donna Laing and the Masterton Rotary Club.

Inside the Men's Shed.

We took a walk around Henley Lake - Yeah right. Well this is Tui country.

Roadshow Week 2

We left Wanganui on Monday in plenty of time on a beautiful winter's day for a leisurely drive to Carterton. Within minutes we were returning home to pick up forgotten items. Suddenly time was very short, Margaret lamenting the lack of passing lanes all the way through to Masterton.

AG Marilyn Hunt has done a magnificent job in organising this trip. Our first hosts were Mike Palmers and his team at Carterton Rotary Club. The team had very thoughtfully arranged a visit to the new Carterton Community Centre, currently under construction, knowing that OPUS were involved in the design of this innovative building, the first civil building to be built in the town for a 100 years. The design utilises laminated veneer lumber shear walls, which are post-tensioned to the ground using high tensile steel rods that are designed to withstand earthquake loads. The system is designed to rock back and forth in an earthquake absorbing earthquake energy as they move, and is the second such design built in New Zealand, the other being in my old home town of Nelson.

The frontage to the new Carterton Community/Events centre still under construction

We were shown around by Carterton CEO Colin Wright who later attended the Rotary meeting along with Mayor Ron Marks. I took the opportunity to invite myself to the opening of this facility in late September/early October.

CEO, Carterton DC Colin Wright, yours truly, Councillor and President of Carterton Rotary Club Mike Palmers.

 At the meeting I also caught up with an old colleague of mine in the MWD Ken Edwards. Many, many thanks to Carterton Rotary for a wonderful day.

Margaret and Past President of Carterton Rotary Club Nicky Orsborn. Margaret is receiving so many gifts of this nature we need to hire a trailer to bring them home.

PS Margaret found the leather shop in Carterton. Oh my God!!

Roadshow 2011-Week 1

My round of club visits has commenced. Tradition has it that the first club I must travel to is that of the Immediate Past District Governor and so I booked myself out of work on Tuesday afternoon for the rest of the week and Margaret and I headed off to Wellington where the sun was shining and the wind was barely discernable. Quite the reverse in hometown Wanganui I'm told.

We dined with IPDG Howard and Jenny on Tuesday evening and attended their breakfast meeting next morning where President Jane Mitchell presided over her first meeting. It was great to have Past DG David Watt there as well, doing a make-up.

We are indebted to MooreLaw and Dot McKinnon who offered their Apartment on Queen's Wharf as a base for the week, and also Assistant Governors Martin Garcia and Colleen Singleton who made sure we were where we were supposed to be at the right time.

On Wednesday evening we were met at the door of the Amora Hotel by President Trevor Slater and I was delighted to be invited to present a cheque of $4000 on behalf of the Rotary Club of Harbour City to a representative of Youthline.

Tom from Youthline with a cheque for $4000 presented by yours truly on behalf of the Rotary Club of Harbour City

This has great significance for me, of course, given my interest in Suicide Prevention and our World President Kalyan Banerjee's focus on Strengthening Families.

On to Wellington North on Thursday for their luncheon meeting. Lynnette Manttan entertained Margaret while her husband and President Maurice introduced me to the Board of Directors and told of their plans for the New Year.

Margaret and Lynette Manttan ( wife of President Maurice) at Wellington North

In the evening we were hosted for dinner by PDG Tony Fryer and Sheryl, where Margaret and Tony swapped recipes, followed by a meeting of The Rotary Foundation Committee.

And so to Friday to another luncheon meeting at the Courtney Place Rotary Club and more wonderful hospitality. Thanks President Stephen Dacombe-Bird and members of that club.

We were warned about expanding waistlines and it is now blatently obvious that we need to monitor ours very closely over the next four months.

We have been received very graciously by four clubs - 55 to go.

Vocational Scholar to Holland ( just about to depart) Catherine Harwood and chair of the Scholarships committee Margaret Emerre, at Wellington North. Catherine’s speaking schedule has outstripped mine – she has spoken at over 30 Rotary events over recent months.

              

Port Nicholson

My first meeting with a club Board of Directors.

Note the gender imbalance!

The woman in blue is Assistant Governor Colleen Singleton.

The woman in the orange cardie is President Jane Mitchell.

A vibrant club with a high proportion of women. Is that telling us something?

To be fair there were 3 males members of the Board who tendered apologies.

A Beginning

Tempus Fugit. The motto of my Alma Mater. Time flies. How time flies.
It seems a very short time ago ( it was actually 7th March 2009) that the then District Governor Tony Fryer beckoned Margaret and I to one side at Conference and whispered, "Come here you two, I've got job for you". He wasn't kidding.
It seemed such a long way off at the time but now we are already week into our year. Tempus is fugiting.
District Changeover was a very special day for us and we sincerely thank the 215 attendees and the people who made it run so smoothly.
Changeover is also very special for all clubs as they celebrate the successes of the past year and the goals for the New Year Are unveiled. I wish the newly inducted Presidents and their clubs every success and we , the District Team , will be there to offer support where needed to ensure we all have a successful year. TEAM-Together Everyone Achieves More.
Margaret and I have attended some club changeovers which we have really enjoyed but , while the will is there, it was not possible for us to accept all of the invitations we received. We appreciated the thought and declined with much regret.
We are also looking forward to visiting all clubs. Club visits commence on July 13th.

The great contribution made by the spouses of our District Governors was recognised at District Changeover with the awarding of Paul Harris Fellowships. Assembled in the photograph are a vast majority of our past District Governors and partners.