Members, greetings
Thanks to all who attended the club forum on 9 July. It was very pleasing to get such positive feedback.
Club Membership
Much of the discussion revolved around a three pronged approach to increasing our membership.
1 Make contact with the members who have been on long term leave of absence. A special vote of thanks to Brian Souter who will make the initial approach.
2 We will comb through our business breakfast attendees to try and identify Rotary prospects. This is still a work in progress.
3 We will each identify 2 email addresses of businesses/people that mmight be persuaded to join our club. These addresses will form the basis of a trial email campaign. Let me be the first to say that the personal approach is preferred for new members. However with so many members living outside Karori I feel we have to try something a bit different.
Where do you get the email addresses from? Neighbourly seems a good place to start but a Google search of 'businesses in Karori' should yield results. Once you have a couple of addresses please go to RotaryKarori.club log in to gain access to the member area. Click on Contacts in the top row of tabs, then Manage Contacts in the second row. When the page loads you'll see Member prospects on the left hand side. Enter the details for the prospect. Let me know if you need a hand.
Matt Wheeler
The Rotary Club of Karori is delighted that Dr Matt Wheeler, a doctor specialising in haematology (clinical and laboratory and tutoring) at Wellington Regional Hospital has succeeded in being awarded a Rotary International Global Scholarship worth up to US $35,000. This will enable Matt take up a prestigious clinical research fellowship at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario for a year from later this month.
This is the pre-eminent centre of excellence for thrombosis (blood clots) research and clinical practice in the world.
Past Presidents David Watt and Jim Johnston moved his application through to the Rotary District Scholarship programme and were delighted to learn from District Chair Marion Cowden, and new DG John Mohi, that Dr Wheeler’s application had been successful.
This is fantastic news for all who have been involved in Rotary in assisting Matt in his application. We look forward to meeting Matt on his return from Canada in a year’s time.
Upcoming Events
Chinese Teachers, early August
As part of the Rotary Club of Hutt Valley’s ongoing Teacher Exchange Programme with schools from Miyun District (near Beijing) in China and Lower Hutt, four teachers from China will be arriving in Lower Hutt on Saturday, 3 August for two weeks until Saturday 17 August. The teachers will be spending their time at various schools in the Hutt Valley where they will be involved in day-to-day school activities. During the middle weekend, our Club has organised a number of tourist activities.
While in Lower Hutt, our plan is to host the teachers with Rotarian families which will give them some experience in the New Zealand way of living. We are, therefore, seeking Rotarians who would be prepared to host the incoming Chinese teachers for one week, either from 3 August to 10 August or from 10 August to 17 August. In the past, although this is not essential, we have hosted the teachers in pairs which has worked very well as some of the teachers English can be quite limited.
Should you have an interest in this hosting opportunity, can you please contact Barry Girvan (Rotary Club of Hutt Valley) on 0274 478 262. Prior to the teachers arriving, we will obviously meet with the host families to provide full details of their programme while in New Zealand.
Book Fair, Friday 23 August, Saturday 24 August
This is our first major fund raising event for the year. Further details will follow but please keep some time free on these dates.