Our first trial breakfast meeting at Marsden on 10 May was an enjoyable occasion with strong support from friends in other Rotary Clubs and a number of other guests and prospective members also attending. The heavy rain on our early arrival and the necessity to park outside the grounds of Marsden School put a burden on us all trying to get under cover in the Function Centre as quickly as possible.

What an asset Zealandia has in their new CE, Dr Danielle Shanahan, our guest speaker on the 10th.  She is a smart operator, with tons of drive and vision to help take Zealandia to another level.  She has come to this job with a lot of passion for the environment, with experience in natural conservation management both here and in Australia and learning much as an understudy to former CE Paul Atkins who we got to know well in recent years.

At our meeting next Tuesday, President-elect Jay Jaiganesh will outline her plans and ideas for the Club for the new Rotary year from 1 July.
 
Meantime, the Club is getting ready to celebrate its 40th in mid- June and Mark Wood is coordinating our preparations for this event including a digital publication looking back over 40 years of Club achievement, with publicity through print and other media. Mark is doing a great job. In readiness for this special occasion please respond to me to confirm your attendance along with your spouse/partner so that we can get a good idea on attendance numbers by 3 June. We are very fortunate getting past member and a former prominent District Court Judge, Bill Unwin, to come over from Nelson as our guest speaker for the luncheon. Bill is a noted orator and he will certainly entertain us at the celebration luncheon with many past members responding already to say they look forward to being there to catch up with Bill. It is pleasing that we will have a group of charter members at this event, along with other earlier members in our Rotary Club who we have been able to contact.

Also in June will be District Changeover on the 25th at Otaki. See details in the bulletin for registration. It is a very full programme with former Governor General and fellow Rotarian, Sir Jerry Mateparae, as keynote speaker.

We welcome back those members of the club who have recovered from covid and others on the recovery path from this continuing pandemic and from other ailments doing the rounds. We look forward to being back at full strength soon in time for a full on Rotary month in June.

Warm regards
President David