Penny McGarry
Co-President
Rotary Club of St, Johns
Ph: 027 4935 498
Lesley Harris
Co-President
Rotary Club of St. Johns
PH: 027 4935 408
Good Evening All,
As was said during our Changeover speech, we are indeed honoured to be entrusted the Leadership of such a wonderful group of Rotarians who comprise the Rotary Club of St Johns.
Thank you to everyone who came to Changeover, it was a challenge playing 'twilight bowls', but it was done in the
true St Johns spirit, and a good time was had by all.
It was a fun evening, but with some serious moments when we awarded Paul Harris Awards to Gary Key, Peter Walsh and Robyn Ingram – such well-deserved awards for your service to the Club and our community. Congratulations to you all.
It was also lovely to welcome John Cornaga back for the evening, and to see him awarded Honorary Membership for his long service to the Club. Congratulations to John and hopefully he will not be a stranger.
Thanks must go to our now Past President Hugh for ably steering the Club through the uncharted waters of Covid, and ensuring the Club is still in good health – no mean feat! Don’t think you can put your feet up yet Hugh as there are many projects wanting your attention in Community and International.
We have thought about our programme for the year and we hope it is a reflection of something for everyone as we work towards "Feeling good by doing good in our community" and enjoying some good old fashioned Rotarian Fellowship along the way.
Our year will only be successful if we all work as a team to achieve our outcomes. We will keep you posted as to our progress, together with reports on the Board and Trust meetings in the Bulletins, and a Membership update, perhaps monthly.
As Co-Presidents there will be times when you just get one of us at meetings, but there are times when we will be a double act, or double trouble - however you choose to interpret the circumstance!! We do intend to keep the irreverent St Johns tradition alive and are looking forward to a fun and productive year with you all.
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Where does one start when reporting on the St. Johns Rotary Club 2021 Change-over? It's not easy with so many highlights, but we will give it a go anyway.
Attended by 53 people, 32 Members and 21 Guests / Partners, at the Glendowie Bowling Club, the fun commenced at 4.45pm, with a few keen wanabe bowlers out on the green trying their hand at Lawn Bowls under the watchful eye of our DG Elect Allan and Auckland Representative bowler, wife Sue. Although there was the odd good bowl bowled, most were very, very average, except of course the "Cross Green Bowl Off", which was won by none other than aspiring bowler, Dr. Peter Buchanan.
The formalities commenced around 6.30pm with President, (now IPP) Hugh, thanking all Club members for their support and efforts throughout the year. His comments were enhanced by an excellent slide-presentation put together by none other than our own Social Media Guru, Colin R. You are able to access the slide show via this link; https://youtu.be/nmhSzKl-BfI.
Historically the outgoing President acknowledges the efforts of his or her Board, with a small gift of some sort. Well, as Hugh is known to do, he treated us to something quite different, with a "Virus" themed presentation which was innovative, humorous and meaningful. Full descriptions of the individual Virus definitions as penned by Hugh, can be seen by clicking on "Read More", at the end of this story.
As each of Hugh's leadership team received their Virus based acknowledgement, they also received a delicious box full of chocolates and candy and this photo of PP Robyn speaks of the excitement felt on receipt of the gift by all the recipients!!
President Hugh then introduced our newest Honorary Member, John Cornaga. John recently resigned from the Club after a very involved 25 years as a member and the Honorary nomination was a unanimous vote by the Board. Congratulation John, well deserved.
President Hugh then surprised three members of the club with a Paul Harris Fellowship Award each for outstanding and substantial contribution to Rotary International and specifically to St Johns Rotary. These went to Robyn Ingram, Peter Walsh and Gary Key. Gary's award was his second Paul Harris Fellow making him a Sapphire recipient.
Following dinner a very relieved President Hugh introduced Penny and Lesley, (The Twins), as our new Co-Presidents, and thanked them both for stepping up to the challenge. He then presented them with the Chain of Office which they will share throughout the year.
In response. in their inaugural speech, they thanked Hugh for his leadership over the past 12 months and acknowledged that the club is in very good spirits and as first time "Co-Presidents", they are looking forward to carrying on the good work.
The new presidents reminded the members of the Rotary International motto for the year, "We Serve to Change Lives", and that locally we need to be mindful of this, and being Rotarians comes with some inherent commitments and we need to feel good by doing good in our community". The new leadership team were then introduced - see next story for details.
Prior to letting Hugh sit down and "relax" the Twins final duty of the night was to present Hugh with his Presidential Caricature.
Courtesy of our celebrated photographer Candid Kev, there were many photos taken of the evening and some of these can be seen by clicking on "Read More" below, following the "Virus" descriptions.
The St. Johns Rotary Board & Support Team 2021 / 2022
Last Friday at Change-over, our new Presidents', Penny and Lesley, or better known as “The Twins”, announced their Board and Support team for the new Rotary year, and what a great looking team they are!
To remind you, the following are the position;
Co-President: Penny McGarry
Co-President: Leslie Harris
IPP and Co-Director Community: Hugh Scott-Russell
Co-Director Community: John Lewisham
Director Club Services: Robyn Ingram
Director Foundation: Gary Key
Treasurer & Secretary: Alex Gatt
Director Science, Technology & Education: Peter Buchanan
Director Youth: Tom Street
Co-President Elect: Graham Fabian
Co-President Elect: Gary Key
Supporting the Presidents and their Board will be;
Bulletin Editor: Peter Walsh
Membership: Beryl Robinson
Photographer: Kevin Kevany
Sergeants and Club Fellowship Team: Michelle Foreman, Angus McPhee and Cheri Jolliffe.
Now for a little bit of fun - can you name each of these youngsters and the Board Position they hold? Simply list the names in order of the pictures below and send your entry via e-mail to the Bulletin Ed; walshp@xtra.co.nz, before 7.00pm Wednesday 23rd June. A great prize awaits the winner! Note: There are 11 Board portfolios, but we are only looking for 9 names in the correct order. (Board Members are not permitted to enter competition).
THURSDAY JUNE 24th - Breakfast Meeting - Guest Speakers: Andrew Bowie, Julie Cullen & Alex Muntz. "Sensible Screen Use"
The evidence is clear that excessive screen use in young children is harmful to development causing issues down the line like myopia, obesity, social anxiety and even resulting in regressing learning outcomes. Scarily NZ is leading the way with device adoption in schools which is likely only fuelling the issue. IT guru Andrew Bowie, Paediatric Physio Julie Cullen and Dry Eye Specialist Alex Muntz (Auckland University) have started an organisation called Sensible Screen Use to get the message out there and drive a little more awareness around this alarming topic.
THURSDAY JULY 1st - Dinner Meeting. Guest Speaker - James Palmer BA, LLB:
James is Chief Executive, Community Finance and Christian Savings and he will provide us with an overview of the real stats and state of housing in New Zealand, and a discussion on some of the solutions needed to tackle New Zealand’s greatest social crisis since the Great Depression.
Christian Savings is New Zealand’s only registered charity that is also licensed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand as a non-bank deposit taker. Christian Savings manages over $225m, with over $180m in loans to a range of not-for-profits and Community Housing Providers.
James identified a need to grow impact investing to help meet New Zealand’s significant housing crisis. He founded and launched Community Finance in 2019. Community Finance is now New Zealand’s largest open impact investment intermediary established to facilitate investment into affordable housing. The core focus is on permanent solutions delivered by reputable organisations who are equipped to take care of our most vulnerable New Zealanders. Community Finance has already advanced over $50 million to Community Housing Providers such as The Salvation Army and Community of Refuge Trust. In 2021, Community Finance launched the Aotearoa Pledge to raise an additional $100m for impact investing through the housing sector. By April 2021, $71m had already been pledged from a range of fund managers, KiwiSaver providers and community trusts and foundations.
At the Institute of Financial Professionals of New Zealand Gala event in May, James won the coveted Emerging Leader Award for 2021.
THURSDAY JULY 8th - Breakfast Meeting - Guest Speaker Gordon Robertson, Glendowie College:
Gordon was appointed as the seventh Principal of Glendowie College in August 2020 and has been a member of this school community since 1986. We look forward to hearing his update on the college, his educational philosophy and what goals GDC has for the near future.
Members will recall Director Muriel recently provided an update on the St. Johns Rotary sponsorship of the "Manaiakalani Years 7 & 8 Basketball Leadership Camp".
Club Member Chris Herlihy, who is involved in the Camp, has advised that the camp is now underway with 30 students participating from 10 different schools from our area, and it is great to see that most are schools whom we have supported in the past in a variety of ways.
Glen Taylor, Glen Innes, Point England, Glenbrae, Panmure Bridge, Stonefields, St Pius X, St Patricks, Ruapotaka and Tamaki Primary.
Law of the Bath - When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.
Law of Close Encounters - The probability of meeting someone you know INCREASES dramatically when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.
Law of the Result - When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, IT WILL!!!
Law of Biomechanics - The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.
Law of the Theatre & Football Stadium - At any event, the people whose seats are farthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The people in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people are very surly folk.