I hope you had an enjoyable Easter with family and friends. It is hard to remember when we had Easter so early in the year, but those days to relax a bit were most welcome.
This coming week is an important time in the Rotary calendar. The Rotary Club of Whanganui will be celebrating its centenary on Saturday 13 April. Our warmest congratulations. The Whanganui Club is the seventh oldest in New Zealand after Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Hamilton and Invercargill. A proud record of achievement with many outstanding community leaders who have passed through the Whanganui luncheon club in that time.
Closer to home, we welcome next Tuesday Simon Flockton, Principal of Karori West Normal School to speak to our Club. Simon has only been at the school a short time, but already he is proving a popular and strong leader. We look forward to working with Simon around school and community needs. Please bring a guest along next week to hear him.
We have more in our programme ahead. I want to thank Allan Frazer who together with other members have allocated our outstanding funds in the current Rotary year to community projects. This is helping many groups that we have built up association with over the years and will continue to do so. Being able to provide assistance to various organisations who provide a wide benefit is the focus of our attention.
In the coming Rotary year there will be more opportunity to reach out with a new round of project funding.
Finally, I want to commend the opportunities we have to meet with other clubs, to enjoy fellowship, to exchange ideas and join together on Rotary projects. See details in this bulletin for the Rotary Club of Wellington North’s dinner meeting on Thursday 18 April in Khandallah, with guest speaker, Pakize Sari, a fellow Rotarian and General Manager of Te Hopai.
With an unavoidable postponement of our planned guest speaker, the Club still had an enjoyable pre Easter meeting with a fun quiz. Twenty true/false questions tested members knowledge of key people, places and events, organised by Past President David Watt. Scores of 16 out of 20 were good results. Easter eggs provided a fitting conclusion to this plan B for the evening.
President-elect Phil Oliver also thanked members for their input to the strategy discussion on the future direction for the Club, thoughts taken back to the board to shape and to re-present at a further Club Forum for endorsement on 14 May. It will be important for all members to attend on that occasion.
Our Karori Book Fair is back on the calendar for another year in July at the Karori Baptist Church. Please diary Friday and Saturday 12-13 July to lend a helping hand at this key fund raiser for the club.
We will again be working with the Karori Lions Club on this community fund raising project. And there are lots of new books to add to the stock we will be putting out to the public over those two days, starting at noon on the Friday and going through to Saturday afternoon.
The Rotary Club of Wellington North meets at the Khandallah Presbyterian Church on Thursday 18 April at 6pm for 6.30pm start. They extend an invitation to all fellow Rotarians to join them for a meal and to hear guest speaker Pakize Sari, General Manager of Te Hopai Home and Hospital. Pakize, a Karori resident, is a Past President of the Rotary Club of Wellington South.
The Club is offering a pizza meal with salad and a drink all for $15.
Members from the Rotary Club of Karori have previously joined Wellington North Rotary for meetings in Khandallah to enjoy their new dinner arrangements and hear their guest speakers.
Guest speaker: Simon Flockton, Principal Of Karori West Normal School.
Friday 12 April - Saturday 13 April, Whanganui
Celebration of the centenary of the Rotary Club Of Whanganui.
Go to the D9940 web site for details.
Tuesday 23 April, at Marsden Guest Speaker: Andy Foster, NZ First List MP and former Mayor Of Wellington.
Tuesday 14 May, at Marsden A further club forum update to report back on future plans for the club.
Saturday 18 May Collection for the Mary Potter Hospice Appeal.
Saturday 25 - Wednesday 29 May, Singapore
Rotary International Convention.
Tuesday 28 May, at Marsden Roger Blakeley, PE Rotary Club of Wellington and Jo Douglas PE Rotary Club of Port Nicholson will discuss environmental and carbon zero initiative.
Friday 12 - Saturday 13 July, at Baptist Church Karori Book fair Jointly with the Karori Lions.
