This Week's Meeting
This week's meeting saw us introduced to our Club President Nominee for the 2016/2017 Rotary Year, the induction of a new member, a five minute synopsis of one of our Club's newer members and a guest speaker who showed us what we can expect from the Auckland Trotting Club over the next thirty years.
Monday was a busy day, beginning with welcoming our newest President Nominee for the 2016/2017 Rotary Year Andrew Aitken. Andrew will become President after Stewart Germann and is looking forward to a busy and productive year.
We welcomed our newest member, and recent guest speaker, Donald Jessep to our Club on Monday. Donald has had a very varied carrier, from being raised on a South Island sheep farm, to being a door-to-door salesman, to finding his niche in facilitation. Welcome Donald!
Our 5 Minute Speaker Kalev Crossland, is a corporate litigation lawyer as well as a keen surfer and paddle boarder. Kalev was raised in Christchurch and then moved with his family around the Pacific, which is where he learnt his love of water. Studying law at Canterbury University was decided upon because it was the only degree at the time that allowed Kalev two week days on the water. As well as work, Kalev has four daughters and a farm in Raglan – no doubt chosen because of its proximity to surfing beaches.
This week’s speaker was Dominique Dowding, Alexandra Park’s CEO, who spoke about the Auckland Trotting Club strategic vision and rational. Currently this organisation has about 800 members, whose average age is 66 years and whose mantra, up until recently, tended to be ‘we don’t, we won’t, we can’t’. However for the Club to survive, a complete rethink and overhaul was required, which was eventually accepted – involving a 30 year strategic plan. The first phase of this plan includes developing part of Alexandra Park into luxury apartments and retail and constructing a new base for The Blues – ultimately creating a hospitality and entertainment precinct for the area. Long term, the outcomes for the Auckland Trotting Club are to grow the business, develop Green Lane and grow harness racing, while at the same time reforming one of Auckland’s oldest institutions.
Sergeant Matt Kemp used the theme’s of Cyclone Pam (which is why Pam Clarke was personally fined), Club sport participation, the upcoming Northland by-election and St Patrick’s Day to boost our Sunshine Fund.