Posted on Oct 03, 2018

The board met this last week and I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to bring you all up to speed with some of the matters the board has been dealing with.

As many of our membership will be aware Pat Prescott recently requested leave of absence from the club given his wife Barbara is currently not well and Pat needs to give her his full attention. At our board meeting on Wednesday evening the board, after Secretary Bob Rowell talked with Pat, we made the call to offer Pat an Honorary Membership of our club. Pat has given many years of very loyal service to the Rotary Club of Hutt City and we thank him most sincerely for all the work he has undertaken on behalf of the club. Pat will always be welcome to attend our breakfast meeting and our best wishes go to them both.

We have received advice from District Governor Marion Johnston that she is planning to visit our club on Wednesday November 21 so her visit is something to look forward to. Maybe there is something special we can organise for this breakfast meeting.

Rotary International has put the call out to all Rotary Clubs to plant 10 trees for every Club Rotarian this Rotary year. Your board has accepted the challenge and Linton Adams has been in discussion with Ross Jackson at GWRC. A meeting is planned for next week to finalise the plan to have the 400 native trees to be sourced and planted in the Taita reach area adjacent to Robin Maude Grove. The board has agreed to allocate $3000 to cover the purchase cost of the trees which will be supplemented with additional Rotary picnic tables and seats being assembled and located in the same area.

The board has received an application from Yasheca Mohan who has applied to attend RYLA 2019. Yasheca lives in Waterloo and is currently a prefect at Wellington Girls College in her final year. The Board reviewed her application and has agreed to support her application.

The board has also received and an application from Mia Maddison, a student at Hutt Valley School to be accepted on the NZ/AU Student exchange programme next year and all the formalities for this application are currently underway.

We have also received two applications from students at Sacred Heart College to attend the Auckland University Summer Science School. These two applications are also now being processed.

Good news is that we are expecting to induct two new members to the club in the near future. Those involved have verbally confirmed and we are waiting to receive their application forms. This will bring us up to five new members so far this Rotary year.

On Friday November 26 our club will be co-hosting a Corporate Bowling Day, comprising 18 teams of 4, at the Naenae Bowling Club to raise funds for the Billy Graham Youth Foundation. The board would like to see a Hutt Valley Rotary Club team compete so anybody who is keen can contact either Bob Rowell or me. Remember this is bowling tournament for non bowlers and is designed to be a fun day fraternising with Hutt Valley domiciled manufacturers and business people. We must congratulate Cameron Tooley for originating the idea and for coercing what looks like to be a full field of company teams for this fun day of fundraising for such a worthy cause. In addition the board has decided to use this day to encourage Hutt businesses to join Hutt Valley Rotary as Corporate members. Simon Manning has provided all the printed material to be circulated to participating companies for which we are very grateful.

You will also be interested to learn our club has been approached by South Wairarapa Rotary to seek our thoughts on the concept of all Hutt Valley Rotary clubs joining with the Wairarapa clubs to promote a ‘Settler’s Trail, Capital to Wine Country Mountain Bike Tour’. I presented the concept to the board and following a discussion it has been agreed that we join with South Wairarapa to develop the concept further. The ‘Taupo Round the Lake Race’ was originally established by Rotary which became a very successful fundraiser for well deserving charities. The Settlers Trail concept has similar motivations supporting the life Flight Trust and Wellington Free Ambulance. At the Rotary Cluster meeting last Thursday I raised the concept with the Presidents of all the Hutt Valley Rotary Clubs which was met with an enthusiastic response. We will keep all posted as the planning for such an event develops.

Last but by no means least Sue Avison, Harvey Reid, Allan Brown and Conal McKenna presented a full and detailed report on IYM 2018 to the board and followed this up with a progress report on the planning for the expanded IYM programme for 2019. This committee, together with Laura Sessions from the Hutt City Council, are investing much time and energy into an ambitious development plan and the board looks forward to the receipt of the final 2019 plans for board sign-off. 

So you can see the club continues to be involved in a wide variety of worthwhile activities. The agenda for board meetings never seems to get smaller and your board is working well together in the interests of our Rotary Club.