Meeting In Review - 14th October 2021

As our Co-Presidents have said in their column above, last weeks meeting was a lot of laughs, (Something we all need at the moment), and 23 members zoomed in for the meeting and joined or made the laughs!

 

Our guest speakers were three members who have been required to work through Lockdown, and all three have had, and are having, very different experiences.

 

A summary of what they each shared with us covered below, but first a few other comments from the meeting.

 

Following the welcome by our Co-Presidents, zoomers were each asked to share "One Word" that explains what each member was feeling as lockdown continues.  Not all were able to limit their feeling to just one word, but following is a few of the words shared;

During the Directors Reports, Robyn once again asked members to assist her identifying speakers. This is a big job and any help will be appreciated.  Foundation Director Gary again reminded members that it's not too late to donate to our charity of choice, the Rotary Foundation and Co-President Lesley briefly updated the meeting on the outcomes from the October Board Meeting, which are reported below separately.

 

Angus then entertained us once again with a short Sergeant's session before hearing from our three guest speakers and first up was Lynette.

 

Once again Lynette's talk was as humorous as her previous ones. The humour essentially revolved around the new toy that she has acquired during lockdown.  The toy, a "Theragun" appeared to be a cross between a.............and several other toys and you had to be there to see the demonstration and hear about the excitement it brought to Lynette, to really appreciate it.  However, the Theragun did help Lynette get through Lockdown to date, particularly with the restrictions placed on Real Estate.   What was very interesting, despite the restrictions, is that her company are still recording record breaking numbers of sales, buyers, prices etc.  Living alone also has its challenges during Lockdown, and particularly if you experience a very unusual health scare as Lynette did.  We were all very pleased to hear that she ended up handling the situation despite the difficulties, and that she is now well and eagerly awaiting to be released into Level 2 or better to allow her to get back to work, and start turning all the listings that she has, into sales. 

 

Next up was Patrick, who is in the "moving" business.  Essentially the day Level 4 was announced, business stopped.  They had 170 contracts on the books ready to start moving and for 5 weeks, until we moved into Level 3, nothing could be done.  Adding to his company's challenges was that the business was identified as a Covid place of interest which posed further complications.  Patrick is now back on the road quoting, but doing business in full PPE is restrictive and although business is slowly returning to normal, many customers are frustrated and angry.  It's not pretty out there.

 

New World Lunn Ave has once again risen to the challenges, and Graham and his team have continued to serve our community to the highest possible standard, despite having to deal with many situations that the customer would never ever see, or appreciate.  The level of "panic", by customers is less than previous lockdowns and this helps.  Online shopping has continued to grow and they struggle to meet the demand, although they are doing all they can to open more delivery slots increasing "online staff"  from 6 to 26 with teams working throughout the night as they face an 86% increase in online sales.

 

On the subject of vaccinations, the store management has conducted significant education and there has been a good result from peer pressure.  Graham feels his store is above the game with only 3 of 158 employees who have not yet received either one or both vaccinations!  Very impressive.   

 

The amount of work required to maintain  a safe and happy workplace, happy and supportive customers, full shelves etc etc, does not just happen and St Johns Rotary members and the community at large are very fortunate to have such a professional business available in our community to meet our essential needs.   

 

A big thank you again to Lynette, Patrick and Graham for their time and willingness to share their experiences.