Sargent David opened the meeting by annoucing the arrival of the eggs. Despite this call people just stood around chatting! An outsider would think that members came to meetings just to enjoy the company of their friends rather than have breakfast!
There were 18 members present plus two guests.
No apologies were read out so I will apologise on Ingrid's behalf as she's normally with us!
Notices:
Don C announced that RYLA this year would be held between 24th June and 1st july. The club is hoping to have between 10 and 16 attendees and would sponsor one at a cost of $1,100 plus GST
Peter D, our programme man (programme person, co-ordinator?) One doesn't know these days what title to use that doesn't upset some trendy left, woke thing. Any way Peter asks if members have particular preferences for who they would like to speak to the club or subjects that they would like covered. Contact Peter on peter.don@xtra.co.nz
or 02102462129. He claims that he needs the help!
Sargent's session A member had had a letter published by the NZ Herald, "As so many people fail driving tests we should make them easier. That's what the Department of Education would do." (As an aside a number of members are being published in the Herald - trying to overcome its reporters' biases!)
Both Stephen and Wendy 'bought the bag' making contributions to the Sunshine Fund.
Three minute speaker:
Don C told us of the Dolomites, a mountain range in north eastern Italy. It sounds from his description that the appropriate authorities have got to together with local entrepreneurs to create a splendid place for both winter skiers and summers hikers. Perhaps the appropriate authorities in the central north island could learn something!
The speaker:
Our member Malcolm, Geotechnical and Environmental Principle at Babbage Consultants told us all about slips and landslides.
People, he claimed, bought views, ideally of the sea and didn't worry overmuch about the stability of the land underneath or even above them.
As a consequence some properties have succumbed to gravity either by sliding down cliffs or cliffs have slipped down upon them. He had numerous pictures of Murawai clearly showing that it was (and probably still is) a disaster waiting to happen.
New Zealand has a lot of unstable cliffs composed of sedimentary rock which can easily fail in heavy rain. Often the risks are hidden by older trees which can be blown over, thus destabilising the cliff face. And when they do slip they kill; landslides weigh two tonnes per cubic metre.
What we learnt from the well prepared and presented speech when buy a house look around it, and actually read any reports on the section!
