This evening, we inducted our 71st member to our Club Dr Kodi Kodikara, a retired gynaecologist.
A lively sergeants session led by Simon Jones at the evening meeting that kept us all smiling and laughing on the recent plight of the Auckland cricketers and their ball tampering saga.
Our speaker for the evening was Sue Gardiner from the Save our Art Gallery Campaign. Sue highlighted to us the plight of the Auckland Art Gallery funding that has been cut by over 50% in the last few years. As one of the directors of the Chartwell Trust, Sue is passionate about art and creativity that art promotes as a mental gym to one’s well being.
The District Conference 9920 is being held this weekend from 6 to 8 April in Denarau, Fiji. Our Club is represented by Colin & Beryl Robinson and president nominee Robyn Ingram and Tony.
We have a few events lined up in April – RYDA, social tenpin bowling and Anzac Day breakfast - do make time to attend club events and functions.
It was with upmost passion that Sue eloquently and movingly talked about the drive to’ Save Our Gallery’ - Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki.
In late 2011 the Gallery was reopened after a major upgrade and is open every day except Christmas Day. The Gallery has been particularly honoured by Philanthropists Julian and Jose Robinson who have bequeathed $15m in their will and also with the long term loan of Claude Monet paintings from a family in Auckland.
The Gallery has over the years faced enormous funding cuts - in 2012 the operating budget was $12m per annum and in the space of 6 years reduced to $6.9m in 2018. ‘Save our Gallery’ was galvanized by a group of independent artists and enthusiasts in late 2017 to orchestrate a campaign launched in response to Auckland Art Gallery’s funding crisis – sparked change.
To understand the background to the funding cuts back in 2011 Auckland transitioned into a Super City and with this new structure the Gallery came under the Regional Facilities. Sure the Gallery is a facility similar to sports stadium and events centres but the Art Gallery was different as it looks after an array of arts and provides educational programmes. In 2012 the Council took away the ability to host events or lease space based on their revenue generating model so the Gallery has been unable to retain their income of approximately $500k per year.
RYPEN 2018 was held this year at Sir Peter Blake Marine Education Centre (MERC) Long Bay. It was held from 23 to 25 March 2018.
We had 68 students from Year 11 to Year 12 attended the Camp. There were 28 male students and 40 female students from 24 schools from as far as Onewhero High School through to Waiheke High School. The students were sponsored by 18 clubs in our District and there 6 members from our Club spent the weekend with the students.
We were lucky to have members from Rotaract Club Auckland be part of the weekend team leaders and RYLA 2015 awardee, Les Richards was also part of the team leaders for the weekend. The weather on Friday evening and Saturday weren’t in our favour and the water activities chosen for the day, had to be cancelled and the students had landbased activities instead. Part of the program for the weekend, included keynote speakers and we were fortunate to have Simon O’Connor, Lee Warn and Nick Tuatasi share their stories and provoke some thoughtful questions to the students. Isabella's homemade cookies were a hit with the students for supper and was enjoyed by us all.
Big thank you to the following members of Rotary Club of St Johns, Rotary Club of Papakura, Rotary Club of Downtown Auckland and Rotaract Auckland for making RYPEN 2018 a wonderful experience for the students:-Mark Hillman, Kevin Kevany, Peter Walsh, Iain Smith, Trish Gerrard, Hilary Prior, Isabella Tedcastle, Aubrey Richardson-Jones, Robyn Ingram, Michelle Forman, Megan Gallagher, Blair Peach, Ozgun Sumbuloglu, Les Richards, Mehak Janjua, Mariam Malak and George Wilson and members from Rotary Club of Papakura and District Youth Chair, Peter Ross.
Win an e-bike with the MS Auckland raffle! Tickets are on sale until the 2nd of May and only 2,000 tickets will be sold. Great odds!
Thanks to the kind support from friends at Electric Bikes NZ Ltd. and Smartmotion, MS Auckland has an e-bike valued at $2,799 to raffle off!
Tickets are just $5 and come in books of 5 – so you can buy a book for $25 and have 5 chances of winning this fantastic bike! Sales close on the 2nd of May and the prize will be drawn on the 9th of May.
Tickets can be purchased from Donald Bowie (phone: 0274 752 473) or from the MS office at 5 The Strand, Takapuna. Contact Kirsty at events@msakl.org.nz or on 09 845 5921 for more information on the raffle.
All proceeds from the raffle will be going directly to the support services offered by MS Auckland for people living with MS.
Our Club is extremely keen to receive nominations for this remarkable programme which enriches the participants in profound ways and is recognised as a premium award by prospective employers.
If a nomination is successful, our Club pays the fee
Rotary family members and friends are welcome to apply
2018 Dates: Saturday 30 June – Saturday 7 July
Age range: 20–28 years
RYLA is an experiential live-in programme designed to help young people develop their team work and communication skills and fulfill their potential as leaders. (Applicants must be of reasonable fitness.)
If you know of anyone in this age group who could be a potential nominee/candidate, please direct them to complete the online Registration form (adding St John’s as the sponsoring club) via this link: http://www.ryla.co.nz/pdf-registration-form/
If you would like to know more about the programme and nomination process, please contact Tom Street for additional information. Email: poms@ihug.co.nz
Did you join Rotary to do good things in the community?
You can help or join in all projects (whatever the committee), just contact the committee director and/or project team leader. In most cases, you can include family and friends.
To understand the background to the funding cuts back in 2011 Auckland transitioned into a Super City and with this new structure the Gallery came under the Regional Facilities. Sure the Gallery is a facility similar to sports stadium and events centres but the Art Gallery was different as it looks after an array of arts and provides educational programmes. In 2012 the Council took away the ability to host events or lease space based on their revenue generating model so the Gallery has been unable to retain their income of approximately $500k per year. 
RYPEN 2018 was held this year at Sir Peter Blake Marine Education Centre (MERC) Long Bay. It was held from 23 to 25 March 2018.
people living with MS.
