President Phil opened the meeting at 7.34 am
Notices:
These all seems to be cancelations, deferrals, etc. We have to assume that very little is going to take place this side of the festive season.
However, Ingrid reported that the Interact Club is still very committed and engaged and looks forward to being involved in a project with the club.
A three person team, lead by Henry has been consulting with members on the club's future and will report back in due course.
The speaker:
Deb Ward, Fund Raising and Relations Manager of the Auckland City Mission told us of the mission's activities and the construction of its new building.
Like all Auckland, the Mission has been affected by the government's restrictions on movement. And this is a time when demand for its services, especially food parcels has increased from about 450 parcels a month in 2019 to 1600 a few weeks ago.
The Mission's main objective is to support the homeless and people suffering food insecurity.
The Mission has a medical facility which has given 818 inoculations which, bearing in mind its clientele, is a great achievement.
The Mission has nearly completed the construction of Homeground, its new centre on Hobson St. This new building will have 80 apartments for people who would otherwise be homeless. They expect that these tenanted apartments will have a 30% turnover of residents a year and have been built in such a fashion that they are very robust.
In passing it was claimed that the building will be Australasia's largest cross laminated timber construction. (Which means lots more wood, and lots less concrete, great in these global warming times!)
In summary, clearly the Mission is doing a great job, not only in downtown Auckland but also in the 'burbs' in supporting some Auckland's less fortunate.
President Phil closed the meeting,after some excellent questions, at 8.30 precisely.
Next week's meeting: David Hogan our incoming president will give us the printable version of his life!
