A Happy New Year everyone and welcome to the second half of our Rotary year. Hoping you have all enjoyed a good festive break, or are still enjoying some holiday time with family and friends.
We have plenty of challenges and events ahead of us over the next few months. Sadly, the trend continues with a number of clubs in our District closing down through low numbers or being unable to attract growth.
District Rotary has reported on these happenings, one club being Fitzroy in New Plymouth, which I had a great fondness for with several friends in that Club, formed back in 1960. Other clubs which have recently folded are Stratford established in 1943, plus its satellite Club and Paraparaumu, (1953), before Christmas. There are other clubs closer to home, holding on with low numbers like ourselves.
But there are pathways ahead, which I want to bring to the Club early in 2022 to see if we can achieve growth and continued support for all that we do in Rotary. I will be taking to the board in February, a discussion around future directions for the Rotary Club of Karori. We will in turn engage with all our members for their views on some options that we have. We intend to do this at our Club Forum at the beginning of March.
Meantime, we will have plenty of dialogue with others around various new initiatives being taken in District Rotary. There is no question that evening and luncheon clubs have struggled for membership growth in recent years and it is these clubs facing questions around their future Rotary membership.
We are looking forward to kicking off 2022 with a social event with our friends in Tawa Rotary out at Tawa. We are hoping to resurrect our business breakfast programme in the first week of February with internationally renown plastic surgeon Dr Swee Tan back to give us for an update in his field of medicine.
The next two months will also be busy with meetings and speakers at Marsden School and taking part in the Karori Karnival in February, where we will have a Rotary promotion stand and will seek further funding support for the new Wellington Children’s Hospital.
Michele and I have enjoyed the festive period with our Wellington family and friends. We missed out on seeing our Auckland families at Christmas and the New Year but we will catch up with them all in a couple of months. It has been a time for some painting work around home, and dare I say a lot of Rotary work discussing future plans at District level and with President Elect Jay, setting up details to discuss with the board and members around our future operations.
May 2022 will be an important month for the Rotary Club of Karori. We will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Rotary Club of Karori in 1982. We want to do that knowing we are once more achieving growth and can share the successes of our past with members who helped build a strong name for the Karori Club at District, national and international levels in Rotary over the past four decades.
Warm regards
President David.