Last Thursday's Zoom meeting was well attended by 28 people including former members from USA (Wesley), Wellington (HM Ainie), Nelson/Marlborough (HM Alex McK, HM Mary Anne and HM Andy, in the background) plus our guest speaker, Patricia McKenzie.
Patricia is an expat from the USA who works as the South Island Partnership Manager for World Vision. She joined Rotaract in 2012 and was President of her club in Raleigh North Carolina. Her first significant exposure to Rotary was through her participation in the 2014 RYLA International Conference. In 2015 she attended the Rotary International Convention in Brazil and at this time in her life she visited Haiti and volunteered in the Dominican Republic teaching English and she came to the realisation that all kids are the same no matter rich or poor - they have the same dreams and aspirations and it turned her life's goals away from the fashion industry, to one of service.
Patricia is now a member of Rotary in Christchurch and she has contributed strongly to both the development of her club and Rotaract. Patricia is an Expatriate American, now living in Christchurch and she is the South Island World Vision Partnership Manager and, as they say, the rest is History.
We learned some new "Zoom" tricks. As you can see in the picture, some members had worked out how to change their background to something more interesting such as a Rotary logo, Pacific beach scene and the golf course. Maybe more of us try this next week just for the fun of it.
We also found out that the free Zoom is only for 40 minutes. President Robyn will get a version for unlimited time for our next meeting.
