The Sergent (Who corrected my spelling of his title, you have to be read to be wrong! I digress but both the American club runner and the American apple spell checkers spell it as 'sargent') opened the meeting by telling members that the eggs were ready!
Apologies:
Avis and Wendy plus a member, who shall be nameless, who has the dreaded lurgy.
Club announcements:
Colleen reminded members to pay up for the Presidential Change over function on Wednesday June 29th. $50 pp to be paid into
12 3109 0110290 02
giving you name and identifying the payments for the changeover. (Actually, YHC hasn't paid yet so A into G young man!)
Three minute Speaker:
Marian Iaon, Honoury Consul in Auckland for Romania, told us of a young man who wanted to escape from communist Romania in 1989. He attempted three time buy jumping into the kilometer wide Danube and floated down to Bulgaria. After two attempts he finally made it, only to hear that the Berlin Wall had fallen and communist dominated Romania was now a free country. he is a nurse in the Waikato. An inspiring story.
The Speakers:
PDGs Horrocks and Waugh told us of the progress that has been made on the regionalisation of our part of the Rotary world.
They started with the worrying news that membership in our area, Zone 8, which covers New Zealand, Australia and the west and South Pacific, has dropped by 25% in the last decade. This was sufficient spur to changes. Additionally the Rotary movement is not widely known in the community as it hides its light under a bushel, so over one hundred Rotarians have been involved in creating a new thrust and structure.
The Rotary movement should be diverse, equitable and inclusive, with better connections to wider society plus, for members, the ability to contribute to the community and fun.
It was claimed, probably rightly, that people join Rotary to change their own lives, and remain in Rotary because of fellowship and a general feeling that they are contributing to the good of the community.
Various changes are proposed with the next key date being in September when the 1,000 clubs in the 21 districts in Zone 8 will be asked to approve the ongoing changes, moving to a three year trial period. From the presentation our club should vote to support the ongoing changes.
It's clear a lot of effort and thought has gone into this process so we should be grateful for the work that Craig, and especially our Ingrid, have put in.
