Co-Presidents St. Johns Rotary, Penny McGarry (Ph: 021 702 310), and Lesley Harris (Ph: 027 4935 498)
" Are smart phones making us dumb?"
In the annual debate with Auckland East our team argued for the affirmative. David, Lynette, with team leader Angus, offered convincing arguments, but in the true Rotary Rivalry, Auckland East arguments prevailed and the 'toilet' trophy was awarded to Auckland East for the next 12 months!
19 St Johns members enjoyed the occasion, yummy dinner, outstanding dessert, and of course the added fellowship with our very welcoming hosts.
Thank you Auckland East for a lovely 'Rotary' night.
Dinner Meeting, Monday May 9th - Debate with Auckland East:
Present: 19 members from St. Johns attended the meeting and valiantly supported our debating team - Lynette, Angus and David H. Unfortunately, based on well embedded historical practice, no matter how well our team performed, St. Johns were never going to win the debate, leaving that honour to go to our Hosts on the night.
All that is left to be said is; watch out next year Auckland East - it will be our turn!!
Club Notices and summary of upcoming activity:
Two new member Inductions May 19th meeting
Salvation Army food packing May 18th - contact Murray Hutchinson if you can assist
Change-over June 18th - More details to follow
District Conference Jun 24 - 26 in Wellington - if you require more details please contact Co-Presidents
Directors Reports:
No Directors Reports this week due to Auckland East Club Visit.
PP Hugh and wife Jackie were able to take time off in mid April to visit family in South Africa. At a time when travel is so complicated by Covid, Hugh will report on how their trip went.
THURSDAY MAY 26th - BREAKFAST MEETING -CLUB ASSEMBLY Hosted by CO-Presidents Elect, Graham Fabian & Gary Key. Please also see story below, "St. Johns Club song".
THURSDAY JUNE 2nd - DINNER MEETING - GUEST SPEAKER: DR. HANS-DIETER BADER.
Subject - Exploring the 'Shadow City': new archaeological discoveries made during the work Kainga Ora have undertaken recently and how this adds to our understanding of the history of the wider area.
Dr. Bader works as a consultant throughout New Zealand, together with Dr Janice Adamson through Archaeology Solutions Ltd. He is mainly a field archaeologist doing the regulatory work, exploration, excavation and GIS and feature / find analysis. Understanding the ancient landscape, how people reacted and lived within, changed their environment, or got changed by their environment are his main interests. Using remote sensing methods and bringing all data together in a GIS is essential for landscape archaeology.
He comes from Southwest Germany and since childhood has been interested in archaeology and history of the area he grew up in. Becoming an archaeologist progressed naturally from this early interest. The interest in using modern survey technology stemmed from a few years serving in the German army between high school and university. His first professional excavation was in 1984 and he has been working in Aotearoa since 1994.
Being an evening meeting we do need to provide numbers to the kitchen in advance so please RSVP at your earliest convenience to; lesleypenny.rotary@gmail.com
SATURDAY JUNE 18th - CHANGE-OVER. Venue: Remuera Golf Club with theme, "Wear A Touch Of Green". A touch of green to celebrate the 7th Pillar of Service - "The Environment". RSVP's are essential. Please RSVP at your earliest convenience to our current Co-Presidents atlesleypenny.rotary@gmail.com
NOTE: The normal Thursday meeting on June 16th is cancelled.
Recently Co-Presidents Elect, Gary & Graham announced their Leadership team for the new Rotary year. This week the suggested committees were for the year were released, although these allocations can be flexible if any members have a strong desire to join another committee. If this is the case please contact either the Director or Co-Presidents Elect;
CLUB SERVICE: DIRECTORS Lesley and Penny
Committee members in no particular order; Murray, Graham, Peter W, Colin & Beryl Robinson, Steele, David H, Gary and Patrick.
YOUTH/COMMUNITY: DIRECTORS Kevin and Liz
Committee members in no particular order: Miles, Aubrey, Mark, Hugh, John L, Simon, Claire, John C, Andy F, Gavin, Muriel, Tom, Chris H, David J, Penny L, Robyn and Michelle M.
ENVIRONMENT and SCIENCE: DIRECTOR Peter Buchanan
Committee members in no particular order: Cheri, Ruth, Brian F, Alex, Lynette, Isabella, Angus, Michelle F, Tricia and Christie,
As reported earlier, all clubs in District 9920 have been invited to present a "skit", or song, at the upcoming District Conference to be held in Wellington next month. The best performance will receive a prize of $1,000! Your Board has opted to sing our way to the winners circle by having all members, or as many as possible", sing the song below, to the tune of the original Chesdale TV advertisement - remember?
The filming of our entry will be undertaken at the Club Assembly which will be held at our Breakfast Meeting on May 26th...please please please do all possible to attend the meeting and make this a winning entry.
The lyric's have been updated and shown below - now you can print these out and practice at home, in the shower, in bed, at the top of Mt Taylor, or wherever you want to!
Verse 1
"We are the folks from St Johns Club
We're just on 12 years old
And this year's project is calendars
We have nearly got them sold
Trips to Rangitoto, Yachting, Art and Tamaki Trust
And boy our breakfasts are a must
St Johns Club, it's mostly Rotary, but not totally…….
Verse 2
We are the folks from St Johns Club
Now nearly 33 years old
Youth is our passion –
inspiring these kids for gold
Through camps, and have a go sailing,
Dictionaries, and resources to help with their schooling,
St Johns Club, it's mostly Rotary, but not totally.
Verse 3
Slowed but not stopped by Covid,
we fed our minds through Zooms
and plotted projects a plenty –
foodbank packing and collections -enough to fill some rooms
And now its time to reconnect, because out club is friendly
Breakfast again, Some dinners too with food and fun aplenty
St Johns Club, it's mostly Rotary, but not totally…….
Verse 4
We are the folks from St Johns Club
Talented as you see!
We’re almost irreverent that’s our charm as
all we members can be!
New DG Allan is from our Club and we will back him fully
with his lovely wife Sue we are in for a good year truely
St Johns Club, it's mostly Rotary, but not totally……
HAG Sailing 2022 commenced on Monday May 9th, but unfortunately, (you guessed it), Covid once again raised its ugly head and a new plan needed to be designed forthwith. With the professionalism shown by Yachting New Zealand, and others involved, a new plan was introduced with minimal disruption.
Unfortunately the Auckland weather then got involved by providing beautiful days, but with no wind and once again new planning was required.
So week one is behind us and we look forward to the remaining sessions going ahead with wind and no Covid issues.
Please click "Read More" for a copy of the first weeks activity.
The GI Food Bank in association with the GI Citizens Advice Bureau have requested our help as detailed in the letter below from Kate Anderson, CABAC General Manager;
"Kia ora,
The Glen Innes Food Bank operates in partnership with the Glen Innes Citizens Advice Bureau. We are experiencing a shortage of volunteers due to the impact of the Covid Pandemic and this has impacted on the Food Bank operations.
We are seeking new volunteers to pack food parcels for a regular roster of up to one hour per day, 9.30am to 10.30am Monday to Friday. People could volunteer to do just one day per week, or more than one day, or to be a ‘floater’ and be available when others aren’t due to illness or other commitments.
The food parcels are packed at the Food Bank shed which is located next to the Glen Innes CAB at 96 Line Rd, Glen Innes. Volunteers will need to provide character references and pass a Criminal Record Check. Full training will be given. We are hoping these new volunteers can start next week – on Monday 16 May.
The Glen Innes Food Bank is operated by a team of volunteers – who mostly also volunteer at the CAB. The Food Bank distributes almost 2,000 parcels a year – and you may be packing up to 20 parcels each day.
Please contact Renata Costa: admin.cabac@cab.org.nz<mailto:admin.cabac@cab.org.nz> if you are interested. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to phone or email me.
Thank you for your ongoing support of the Glen Innes Food Bank.
The MOEducation recently published this story about Glen Taylor School and principal Chris Herlihy. A very good read and great to see Chris promoting St. Johns Rotary by wearing his St. Johns Polo - well done on all counts Chris.
Your club recently made a donation to "Trees That Count" in Memory of Jan Hogg. We have now received confirmation of the donation as per the advice below;
Good news: your native trees will soon be planted!
Thanks again for your recent donation to Trees That Count!
We’re excited to let you know that the native tree(s) you donated have now been matched to a planting project.
Your native tree(s) will be planted by Trees for Survival. To find out more about this planting project, you can check out Trees for Survival’s Tree Profile.
Thanks for being a part of the movement to see millions more native trees planted throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. We really appreciate your support.
District 9920 RYPEN Coordinator is St. Johns HM Ainie Kwok who has advised that the Covid Traffic Light Orange will now enable more students to attend the Camp. There will be a limit of 60 students at the Camp.
District are already receiving online entries from schools & clubs and the RYPEN Leadership Team are very excited to have begun planning for the upcoming Camp which will be held at Kokako Lodge from Friday July 22nd to July 24th.
Member Chris Herlihy advises that after many delays, he is now glad to report that the Manaiakalani Basketball Camp will be going ahead this week. It will be held on Wednesday and Thursday 18/19 May at YMCA Lagoon Stadium in Panmure.
This is a programme that St. Johns Rotary has supported for many years. Starting as the Discovery Programme until that company closed its doors. Last year and this year we have used Youth Basketball NZ to run the programme.
Chris has invited any St. Johns members who are interested, to feel free to come along. If any members have any questions please direct these to Chris.
Six Irish men were playing poker when one of them played a bad hand and died...
The rest drew straws to see who would tell his wife. One man draws the shortest straw and goes to his friend’s house to tell the wife.
The man says to her, “Your husband lost some money in the poker game and is afraid to come home.”
The wife says, "Tell him to drop dead!" The man responds, "I'll go tell him."
The Priest...
An Irish priest is driving along a country road when a policeman pulls him over. He immediately smells alcohol on the priest's breath and notices an empty wine bottle in the car.
He says: "Have you been drinking?"
"Just water," says the priest.
The cop replies: "Then why do I smell wine?"
The priest looks at the bottle and says: "Good Lord! He's done it again!"
Co-Presidents St. Johns Rotary, Penny McGarry (Ph: 021 702 310), and Lesley Harris (Ph: 027 4935 498)
THURSDAY MAY 19th - BREAKFAST MEETING GUEST SPEAKER: PP HUGH SCOTT-RUSSELL:
HAG Sailing 2022 commenced on Monday May 9th, but unfortunately, (you guessed it), Covid once again raised its ugly head and a new plan needed to be designed forthwith. With the professionalism shown by Yachting New Zealand, and others involved, a new plan was introduced with minimal disruption.
The GI Food Bank in association with the GI Citizens Advice Bureau have requested our help as detailed in the letter below from Kate Anderson, CABAC General Manager;
