Trust you all enjoyed more freedom this past week with Bars now open and really hoping none of you were ejected from the two Bars the Police were duty-bound to close?
Government has announced this afternoon that meeting numbers can increase to 100; so please stand-by for updated information on our first physical meeting back, 95% likely for June 4. We just need to go over logistics with the Golf Club, but will keep you all informed as soon as we have definite details.
Thanks to those who responded to my ‘start time’ email poll late last week. Overwhelming majority said YES to the earlier Zoom start of 7:30am; so please note in your diaries that this week's Zoom meeting will start at 7:30am. Great preparation for easing back to our normal meeting time, which was (remember) 7:00am! Ouch.
This week we host Parafed to present a special fundraising project they would like Rotary to consider helping with. RC of Otahuhu have also been invited to join us, so I’m looking forward to going happily dizzy tracking everyone via Gallery view (aka the Brady Bunch x 10). See you on Zoom!
Thank you Rotary Club of St Johns for your generosity. As announced at our meeting last week, members donated $460 to the Glen Innes Foodbank, which as a Club we agreed to top up to $1,000 for New World Stonefields to further supply stock.
We are delighted to advise that once again New World Stonefields are matching our donation!
So, GI Foodbank has access to a further $2,000 to keep stocks up. Heartfelt thanks to Graham Fabian who continues to liaise with the Foodbank to provide this stock at cost and transport to them free of charge!
Just to recap - GI Foodbank were recently, and very sadly, advised that they had lost their usual funding source. RCSJ quickly rolled out a plan of action to ensure our local Foodbank remains open and stocked in order to cater for a predictable surge of families needing them.
To date our response to GI Foodbank 'Feed the Need' has been:
$2K grocery/stock donated at cost, free delivery on 5 May
$2K grocery/stock donated at cost, free delivery (as of 21st May), order in progress
1 x boot-load of member donated grocery/stock delivered to Foodbank early May
1 x Foodbank Collection at New World Stonefields ‘ready to roll’ as soon as we move to Level 1 (usual collection provides 120+ boxes of stock which overfills the Foodbank)
due to the publicity, in the wings there is a potential collection via Remuera Rotary Club at New World Remuera
Many thanks to the Glen Innes CAB for keeping us in the loop on the Foodbank needs. At our Project Re-Boot meeting last week, membership agreed to make our local Foodbank a top project priority as there is every sign that the economic situation will continue to impact many in our community.
A total of 25 members, all ready to participate in "Operation Re-Boot", attended last weeks Zoom Meeting.
The meeting was very productive and thanks to all who participated. If you missed this meeting, remember that you can still make your ideas and thoughts known at any time to your Committee Director ... we do value your contributions.
The club's planned activities are numerous but will require some adjustment as various Covid-19 rules become known. The club is able to involve all who wish to engage including volunteers from outside our membership plus we are looking at using new initiatives such as the use of technology better in all we do to increase engagement.
The first project "off-the-rank", when we are able to gather, is to assist the GI Food Bank where the demand by families in adversity has skyrocketed. Special thanks to Stonefields New World for enabling this collection when the time comes. Please click on "Read More" to see an outline of the project plan that will be implemented when Covid19 restrictions permit.
Note: More detail of other events and projects under Operation Reboot are detailed in a separate story further on in this Bulletin.
Club activity and regular Thursday meetings are currently suspended due to the COVID-19 Virus and the associated restrictions on numbers for gatherings. However, "Zoom Meetings" are held each week until further notice. Details of future meetings follow. (Watch out for your "Zoom" invite via email, from President Robyn, which she will send out on Wednesday evenings. We look forward to having all members join in!
Guest Speaker will be Yann Roux CFO of Parafed Auckland. Parafed Auckland lead a network of 15 sports clubs and activity providers catering for 300+ members. They are the lead organisation for all physical disability sport in Auckland, providing pathways and opportunities for beginners, all the way through to Paralympic Champions! Their parent body is Paralympics NZ.
THURSDAY JUNE 4th:
Evening Meeting - We may well be able to return home to the Remuera Golf Club for this meeting. If that's not possible we will hold our second Evening Zoom Meeting. As the New Zealand General Election looms closer and the election campaigns begins to ramp up, the Guest Speakers on the night, Chloe Swarbrick and Paul Goldsmith will make this a very important and interesting meeting.
FRIDAY JUNE 26th CHANGEOVER:
This event is one of the most important dates in the Rotary Calendar. Please diary now and we will hope that crowd restrictions will be lifted allowing this event to be celebrated as planned. Should this not be the case, a "Plan B" is being considered and details will be shared should it be necessary.
New Market Rotary have invited St. Johns members to attend their Zoom Meeting Tonight, Monday May 25th.
Rotary Club of Newmarket President Colin invites you to Zoom in on:
Monday 25 May
7:30 pm
Guest Speaker Scott Houston who will be talking to us about Artificial Intelligence and what it holds for the future.
Scott was the founder and CEO of GreenButton, an award winning global software company that specialized in high performance cloud computing. GreenButton was acquired by Microsoft in May of 2014 and Scott is now working with other New Zealand hi-tech companies that are expanding offshore.
Previous to this, Scott was the chief technical officer at Weta Digital during the production of JRR Tolkien's "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King" Lord of the Rings movies.
"In addition to the FoodBank" activity detailed above, your club has identified several other projects and activities that will be part of Operation Reboot as soon as restrictions allow. These activities are split in to two categories;
PRIORITIES:
Change-over
Fund Raising Quiz Night
Dove Hospice High Tea
Environmental Clean-up
ONGOING PRIORITIES:
Hospice Garage Sale
Dictionaries in Schools
Tooth Brush Distribution
Glendowie College Interact
School Gardens
ERK's
RYDA
Addtional details on all of above will continued to be shared at weekly club meetings and via the Bulletin.
At last week's Zoom Operation Re-Boot meeting, we discussed how many of us are missing meeting-up.
While we continue to wait for the '10 and under' limit to be lifted, I cordially invite you to meet-up at Annabelle's Restaurant (St Heliers) on Friday's at 10:00am. All members are very welcome, so please feel free to drop-in and meet-up with your Rotary family there. Maybe by the time this is published the Government restrictions on numbers will have changed, otherwise as necessary, the Restaurant will assist us with required social distancing rules.
I hear last Friday there was a lovely 'cluster' who thoroughly enjoyed the meet up! I will be there Friday (29 May) at 10am and look forward to some company.
Last weeks Bulletin summarised the clubs last Zoom Meeting which focused on the very successful "Online RYPEN".
Now its time to introduce you to our RYPEN online leadership team via a recording of the Zoom Evening Meeting. Grace Cussell, Henry Thomas-Kircher, Gabriel & Claire De Guzman shared their motivation and thinking and put together an innovative online programme during lockdown.
Here is the link to a recording of our Zoom evening meeting;
This is a message sent from Scott Burridge (President Elect, RC Newmarket) on behalf of his wife Debbie. It has gone out to members of RC Newmarket, but Scott wondered if any of our members might be interested...
I would like to initiate a new service called “The School Run”.
I have a good friend, Rosey Dodson, who teaches at Remuera Intermediate. They have two young students who really struggle to get to school but are keen to attend. I am looking for people who would be prepared to join a roster for taking one of these students to school on one or two mornings each week (to be at Remuera Intermediate in Ascot Ave by 8.30am) and to also provide them with a healthy packed lunch. Neither student will need to be collected at the end of the school day.
“Pebbles” is a delightful 12 year old girl who lives in Onehunga. Her father does not get out of bed early enough to take her to school. There are gang affiliations and her mother lives on the streets. Pebbles can only be transported by a female. The driver will wait outside the house and Pebbles will come out. There will be no contact with her father and no judgement.
Demetrius is a 12 year old boy who lives with his grandmother in Lillington Road, Remuera. His grandmother is often unwell and she struggles to get her grandson to school. His grandmother is appreciative of any support and would be keen for him to be taken to school and also provided with a healthy lunch. Demetrius could be transported by a male or female. Contact with the grandmother is fine.
If you have any interest in joining a team of helpers to achieve this goal, please contact me. I’m thinking only one/two days a week commitment for each person and we can be very flexible in accommodating holidays etc.
Thank you Rotary Club of St Johns for your generosity. As announced at our meeting last week, members donated $460 to the Glen Innes Foodbank, which as a Club we agreed to top up to $1,000 for New World Stonefields to further supply stock. 
The meeting was very productive and thanks to all who participated. If you missed this meeting, remember that you can still make your ideas and thoughts known at any time to your Committee Director ... we do value your contributions.
Evening Meeting - We may well be able to return home to the Remuera Golf Club for this meeting. If that's not possible we will hold our second Evening Zoom Meeting. As the New Zealand General Election looms closer and the election campaigns begins to ramp up, the Guest Speakers on the night, Chloe Swarbrick and Paul Goldsmith will make this a very important and interesting meeting. 
"In addition to the FoodBank" activity detailed above, your club has identified several other projects and activities that will be part of Operation Reboot as soon as restrictions allow. These activities are split in to two categories;
At last week's Zoom Operation Re-Boot meeting, we discussed how many of us are missing meeting-up.
Last weeks Bulletin summarised the clubs last Zoom Meeting which focused on the very successful "Online RYPEN". 
Mary Ann has been very busy in the kitchen and pictured is a batch of many of the lockdown conserves she has made! 
We don't want our beaches looking like this!!!
