Kia ora koutou katoaNgā mihi nui ki te tau hau
Happy New Year
I am now halfway through my Rotary year and I am reminded of how our organisation keeps on keeping on in an impressive fashion. For example this month District Governor Elect Gillian Jones with partner Kevin Prestney left for San Diego on Wednesday 15 January for the Rotary international Assembly where they will meet with DGEs from around the world for training in setting us up for 2020-21.
At the Zone level the devastating bush fires in Australia have taken the Rotary Australia drought relief activities to a new level. RAWCS (Rotary Australia World Community Service) is leading this response.
Photo of the beautiful Keruru in flight - Lane Mohi
In our district we are on the countdown to our 15-17 May Conference and District Assembly (DA) at the Hutt Valley Events Centre. It promises to be a weekend of fun, friendship and learning. Conference planning and promotion is building steadily. Registration opens in February. The conference website is https://www.rotary9940.org/page/conference2020 . The DA will include sessions on governance for Trustees and an update on proposed changes to the Incorporated Society Act, two areas of real interest to all Rotary club boards.
R 100, our Rotary centenary celebrations are well in hand. We began in June 2019 with over 260 guests at Government House in Wellington. Over the next 18 months we will be promoting many events including several baton relays, club celebrations, an exhibition at the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ) in Wellington and maybe a national Rotary telethon out of Auckland to cap off the centenary celebrations in June 2020. This is a time for us to promote our successes and a time to imagine our future through carrying the very best of our practices forward to meet community needs into the new decade and our next 100 years.
This month the National Library of New Zealand and Rotary are consolidating a collaboration with an exciting opportunity to deaccession thousands of books in pristine condition from NLNZ general collections to Rotary book fairs with all funds raised going to local, regional or international Rotary projects. This is a big undertaking. We will roll it out starting with District 9940, progressively include all NZ and Pacific districts and involve other interested Not For Profit organisations. Contact me directly if your club or cluster want to be part of this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Finally this is Vocational Service Month in the Rotary year. Our district board has begun the process of re-energising vocational activities. We need all clubs to look to their vocational spread and recruit representatives from all vocations. DGE Gillian is on the lookout at San Diego for an international partner in a Vocational Training Team exchange with 9940 and we need to recall and promote the long term benefits to our society of previous Rotary Exchange Groups, as they were previiously known. Alumni from these groups are our unsung ambassadors. Our future ambassadors are the Rotary Youth Leadership Awardees (RYLA) whom we meet with this month for the next 9940 RYLA programme.
We have done so much, we have huge momentum behind us all and we have a new decade ahead in which to deliver ‘Service above Self’.
Kia kaha ngā hoa ma.
Stay strong my friends.
John H Mohi
DG 9940