We had a very successful beginning to our virtual meetings on Zoom,brought about because of Covid19 and I want to thank all members who were able to join in on Tuesday 28 April. I hope you will be able to come together for our ensuing meetings this month on Zoom until we know when we will be able to resume our normal face to face dinner meetings at Marsden School.
We were delighted on Tuesday last to welcome District Governor Elect Gillian Jones, Rotary Club of Wellington, and Richard Stephen, District IT and ClubRunner Manager, Rotary Club of Hutt River Valley, who joined us for this meeting which was also a special occasion for the Club and for me as President also to induct two new members, Andrea Skews and Jay Jaiganesh. This was a very unique occasion of doing this on Zoom and not in the normal ceremonial way we have been accustomed to at a Club dinner meeting.
Past President Allan Frazer led off proceedings with an opening thought on Leadership and he quoted some notable world figures including General Montgomery –with “ the capcity and the will to rally men and women to a commonon purpose and the character which inspires confidence. And Rosalynn Carter, wife of President Jimmy Carter with “ A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be”
Allan had three phrases for us to remember – rally men and women to a common purpose; be non partisan; and reliance on science.
Introducing DGE Gillian Jones
DGE Gillian in her address to us drew on the leadership quotes given by Allan and reminded us that despite the difficulties everyone is going through we should not waste a good crisis. She referred to the Rotary International theme of connecting the world and for next year of Rotary opens opportunities that are there for us to reach out and make changes. She said there are huge opportunities for Rotary to be more attractive to different demographics.
She spoke about projects close to home for Rotary’s centennial year – Rotary Giving Every Child a Future, the planned vaccination programme for the Pacific in 2021, global funding support for this and encouraging clubs through each member to be donating to this project and the hope that $45 per member can be gathered before the end of the Rotary year in June. Gillian also referred to the new Children’s Hospital being built in the capital and Rotary’s commitment to that. That project has a significant Rotary funding investment.
Induction Of Two New Members
We followed with the induction of Andrea Skews and Jay Jaiganesh. Their membership of the club was greeted with acclamation following their investiture.
Rotary IT And ClubRunner
Richard Stephen enlightened us on the considerable steps taken to improve our technology and storage of Rotary information through ClubRunner and through our mobile devices to have information on Rotary at our fingers tips. ClubRunner provides a complete platform to help clubs to operate and to communicate. He said that in the current climate of covid19 Rotary members had resorted in droves across the country to meeting electonically and in particular on Zoom meetings and that these are a very successful way of getting together.
Richard said there is growing confidence in clubs througout New Zealand to build their knowledge on IT in Rotary to enable opportunities that DGE Gillian outlined to take us forward in the 21st century. He offered to further provide information to the Club to assist all Karori Cub members access this information on phones and other mobile devices to help the growth of our club.
The Zoom format has enabled us to successfully bring in speakers to join us and we will be continuing to do this through this uncertain time until we can get back to some normality in our lives.
We will keep in close touch, take care, and we look forward to meeting again soon to keep up our commitment in Rotary.
