A small group of 17, including two guests, were present at last weeks breakfast meeting. Our guest speaker was Conrad La Pointe from Habitat For Humanity, (HFH), and an overview of his talk is included below. It was also our good fortune to welcome Gary's eldest grandchild, Odessa, to our meeting, who was spending some quality school holiday time with Poppa. What a charming young lady!
Prior to listening to Conrad, Co-Presidents Penny & Lesley reminded all of the activity calendar for the next few weeks - and a busy one it is. Some of these activities are the subject of a separate story in this Bulletin, but a brief summary of what lies ahead is;
- August 5th - Dinner Meeting - RYLA Awardees talk about their experiences,
- August 7th - Club FUNdraising event. Pizza and All Blacks, (What a combination). See separate story below and please RSVP to PP Robyn Ingram asap
- August 22nd - Churchill Park Open Day
- August 29th - Rotary Leadership Institute Training - Parts 2 & 3. Interested? Please contact either Penny or Lesley.
- August 30th - Joint Meeting with the Rotary Club of Remuera. (Note no St. Johns Dinner Meeting September 2nd),
- September 10th - St. Johns Fundraising Quiz night - more details to follow. (Note no St. Johns Meeting September 9th).
Prior to moving to our guest speaker, our Co-Presidents advised the meeting of the requirement we have of rotating Trustee's on the St. Johns Rotary Trust. As per the constitution this process now needs to be completed. It is not an onerous role and as a trustee you are exposed to another aspect of our Rotary club. If any members are interested please contact either Lesley or Penny for more information.
Conrad has spoken to our club on numerous occasions during HFH's 25 years in New Zealand and he felt that, as we all had a good understanding of the basic work undertaken by HFH, he would focus his talk more towards the challenges HFH and the country are facing at the moment when it comes to housing affordability, and housing stock availability. The present housing challenges are a very political issue and there are no easy solutions that will resolve the issues facing the country presently. All political parties have a role to play, and over the years various parties have introduced legislation that is having minimal impact and the near term outlook is not looking positive.
HFH and Conrad have their own opinion on what could be, should be, and needs to be done, as do many Rotarians, to address and fix the housing related issues. However, as this publication is not the appropriate forum to debate government policy we will leave it at that and thanks to Conrad for once again agreeing to talk to us and share his knowledge on this subject.
Editor's Note: Many of our guest speakers address us with very thought provoking and excellent content. Securing speakers is nearly a full time job, and thanks to all members for doing their best to attend meetings whenever possible. This acknowledges the effort that goes into securing speakers, and of course a large audience helps to send a positive message to our speakers, that we very much appreciate the efforts that they have made to take the time to talk to us. See you on Thursday!