Congratulations to the club for receiving an Award of Recognition for the club’s support of the RYDA programme. To date 75,000 young people have graduated from the program with a further 12,000 scheduled for next year. Fantastic contributions from all.
We had an action-packed meeting last Thursday with our AGM going smoothly, in what I believe was record time, the award of the Peter McKenzie Scholarship to Glendowie student Ryan McKay and an inspirational presentation from Tania Thomas. Thank-you Tania for sharing your insights on how we can better integrate into our communities.
The week ended with a few of us doing a recruitment drive at the Stonefields Community Market on
Sunday. Thanks to John, Robyn and Muriel for taking the time out.
Last week's meeting was attended by 29 members plus 5 guests. Following Club Notices the AGM was held, prior to the guest speaker presentation.
Club Notices:
The last meeting for the year will be a Breakfast Meeting on December 10th. We have an excellent speaker scheduled., (see details below), and looking forward to a good attendance.
The date for this year's Food Collection, on behalf of the Glen Innes Foodbank will be held on Saturday December 12th at New World, Lunn Ave. As per Penny's email last week, you can register now on-line. Any problems registering please contact Penny Mc.
The first meeting back in 2021 is Thursday February 11 - Breakfast Meeting with Guest Speaker being Troy Churton, and the subject being, "Potential 'fish hooks' of Retirement Villages.
The club has received a letter from RYDA thanking the Rotary Club of St. Johns for their support of RYDA over many years. It is appropriate to mention that Nigel Robinson was our "Champion" when it came to anything RYDA and he was appropriately remembered as PP Allan read the letter out to the meeting.
Peter McKenzie Scholarship:
We were delighted to welcome this year's winner of the Peter McKenzie Scholarship which is presented annually to the top performing Accounting Student from Glendowie College. This years winner, was Ryan McKay who was accompanied by his Mum & Dad. His teacher from school, Noelene Doherty, was also present and when she introduced Ryan she highlighted his significant attributes and she couldn't think of a more worthy recipient of this year's scholarship. The picture above shows Ryan thanking St. Johns Rotary, with a proud Teacher Ms. Doherty, looking on. Also pictured are Ryan's Mum & Dad, both potential members who have the opportunity of following in the footsteps of Ryan's Grandfather who, we were advised, was a long-time Rotarian! Go get them John!
AGM:
The AGM commenced at 7.40am and closed at 7.51am. Minutes will be shared in due course. Picture shows President Hugh struggling to keep presentation moving as IPP Robyn is focused on cracking the record for the shortest AGM.
Guest Speaker, Tania Thomas:
Following the AGM Tania was introduced to the meeting. Tania is the CEO, Mana Whakahaere, of Te Roopu Taurima and she is also the Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Otahuhu. Tania spoke to us about her current work for Te Roopua Taurima, and shared ways our Club could seek to engage with Pasifika and Maori in our local community.
Te Roopu Taurima are a Kaupapa Maori service that supports people of all ethnicities with intellectual impairments around New Zealand. They provide residential and vocational support to clients, known as Tangata, as well as out of family respite care, caregiver support, high and complex needs support, and choices in community living.
The second part of her presentation was an excellent summary of Maori Heritage, their role in the community and how we can, and should, engage with Maori to build relationships and subsequently successfully work together.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 26th - Breakfast Meeting. Venue - Remuera Golf Club. Time 7.00 am for 7.15 am.
Guest Speaker Dennis Millard "Trees for Survival". Dennis has been with Trees for Survival as their National Manager for 6 months now, and has a presentation to share about Trees for Survival and the work they are doing. Dennis is a members of the Rotary Club of Auckland East and is a Past Assistant Governor.
THURSDAY December 3rd - Dinner Meeting. Venue - Remuera Golf Club. Time 6.00pm for 6.30pm.
Guest Speaker Holly Sutich. Holly is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO of Phoric
Phoric is the brainchild of Bradley Hagan and Holly Sutich. The duo witnessed first-hand thousands of University students consuming countless, artificial energy drinks, so they made it their mission to create a natural, clean alternative. The pair were the Overall Supreme Winner and Winner of the Social Enterprise category at the AUT X-Challenge, landing a $35,000 investment to develop their idea.
Promoted as a natural energy drink for the new generation, Phoric is now widely available in many supermarkets and convenience stores. Holly will talk about her journey since leaving school, going to university and starting Phoric.
THURSDAY December 10th - Breakfast Meeting. Venue - Remuera Golf Club. Time 7.00am for 7.15am.
Guest Speaker Brown Buttabean AKA David Letele.
He is known in the Auckland community as the Brown Buttabean, a fitness motivator and life coach for many Pacific people struggling with their weight and fitness. Samoan, David is also a boxer who changed his life by shedding 100 kilos.
He has been motivating hundreds of others to follow his lead and as a result is changing people's lives via health and fitness boot camps known as Buttabean Motivation.
Mr Letele says he just wants to reverse the alarming statistics among Pacific people suffering from high blood pressure and facing a higher risk of stroke, diabetes and heart disease. He has thousands of followers on social media and he is motivated to give people a second chance to get healthier and live longer. His organisation is currently working with our member Chris Herlihy (Headmaster of Glen Taylor School), on a two-day programme to be offered to other local primary schools.
Come and join us for our final meeting of the year to hear this great speaker and find out how we can help support our local primary schools with another great initiative.
In lieu of a $10 Secret Santa, we challenge all members to bring along a Christmas donation of non-perishable foodbank items, which will be given to our speaker to use in his foodbank service (another initiative offered through his BBM Program).
Just a friendly reminder that it is handy to receive your Apologies (with a brief reason) if you are not able to make a meeting. This gives Club Services and Membership Team valuable intel for follow-up on wellbeing, catering (do we need more eggs...), and speaker planning.
Please remember, if you receive an RSVP email from us (particularly for our popular evening meetings), this means to please respond Yes or No. As a non-response doesn't necessarily mean 'No', we then need to follow-up (sometimes 2 or 3 times) as we are not sure of your intentions. The follow-up creates quite a bit of extra work!
Meeting Duties
If you are assigned a Meeting Duty and are not sure what the Duty entails - please click onto this helpful Duties Info Sheet link. If you are unable to do the assigned Duty, as a responsible member of the Club you are expected to negotiate with another member to cover for you. Simply ignoring the 'assigned' duty is rather mean spirited and not 'fair to all concerned'. Most Duties are really easy, and there is always someone around to assist you.
This past week Michele was once again handing out Dictionaries. This time to Glen Taylor school students, assisted by Chris Herlihy. St. Pius and Glenbrae will receive theirs next week, wrapping up the project for another year.
The Story below featured in last weeks Bulletin and the Editor would like to clarify that the funds to cover this sponsorship came from the "Brian Gibbs Memorial Trust".
The Board is delighted to announce the Club has agreed to assist with $1,000 sponsorship toward fees for a young teacher to attend an Outward Bound course in January 2021.
Vincent O'Çonnor is a 23 year old graduate from the University of Otago and currently a first-year teacher at Sacred Heart College, where he teaches Religious Education and English. Vincent lives at home with his parents and three of five older brothers, and is a keen hockey player outside of work.
He approached RC St Johns requesting some assistance to pay for the fees needed to attend the Outward Bound “Classic” course to be held in January 2021. This is something Vincent has wanted to experience for several years, as he has heard from close friends and family how this course helps one to grow and mature physically, mentally, and spiritually. The course he is enrolled for is the Classic 21-day experience for ages 18-26 year.
Vincent is looking forward to reporting back to us next year on his experience - so look out for him to feature early next year on the speaking schedule.
A few of the Club's trusted Directors managed to wave the RC of St Johns flag on Sunday, at the first Stonefields Family Market Day. This market was promoted as an 'unmissable community event for the whole family' and was proudly supported by the Stonefields Residents Association.
Youth Director Muriel alerted us to the opportunity and as you can see from the photograph, obviously didn't mind waiting for her turn to have a chat with Santa! Muriel reports she also found time to have a good chat to the chairman of the Stonefields Residents Association, who is now coming to our meeting on Thursday.
President Hugh (behind the camera), IPP Robyn and Membership Director John L also put in an appearance and can be seen here brainstorming marketing ideas for next year's Market Day opportunity. These three were also lucky enough to have a long chat with a 'prospect' from the local Indian Motorcycle Club.
A five year old girl was usually driven to school in the morning by her grandad, but one day he had a bad cold so her grandmother took her.
That night the little girl told her parents that the ride to school with Gran was very different. What made it different asked the parents.
Well, she replied, Gran and I didn't see a single tosser, blind bastard, foreign prick or wanker on the whole journey.
Web Site of the Week: (Something else to keep you amused) Technology today keeps significantly increasing.
Listen to what’s going on in the rest of the world.....
The green dots on this Google Earth represent a radio station somewhere in the world.
Click on any one of the dots and you will immediately listen to that station with surprisingly good sound. There are hundreds of thousands of them. Or search by city or by station name. Enjoy.
Peter McKenzie Scholarship:
Also pictured are Ryan's Mum & Dad, both potential members who have the opportunity of following in the footsteps of Ryan's Grandfather who, we were advised, was a long-time Rotarian! Go get them John!
AGM:
Guest Speaker, Tania Thomas: 
Who said there were no women in Rotary - what a great line-up.
Keep an eye on those potential new members John!
Whats IPP Robyn under the table for? Could it be an answer to a question asked by the guest speaker?? You will need to ask the IPP.
Penny shares a joke with guest speaker Tania.
Isabella enjoying another fun meeting at St. Johns.
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 26th - Breakfast Meeting. Venue - Remuera Golf Club. Time 7.00 am for 7.15 am.
The Story below featured in last weeks Bulletin and the Editor would like to clarify that the funds to cover this sponsorship came from the "Brian Gibbs Memorial Trust".
A few of the Club's trusted Directors managed to wave the RC of St Johns flag on Sunday, at the first Stonefields Family Market Day. This market was promoted as an 'unmissable community event for the whole family' and was proudly supported by the Stonefields Residents Association.
President Hugh (behind the camera), IPP Robyn and Membership Director John L also put in an appearance and can be seen here brainstorming marketing ideas for next year's Market Day opportunity. These three were also lucky enough to have a long chat with a 'prospect' from the local Indian Motorcycle Club.