Chair                           Wayne Dobson

Grace                          Simon Northrop

 

Wayne welcomed members

 

Apologies                   Marc Nel, Toby Nelson

Visiting Rotarians     Roberta Budvietas  

Visitors                       Jan Gardiner, Mia  and Eileen  

 

 

Andy – The Ahuriri open day was cancelled it has now been set down for 20 January   If you can make it, we would love your support the club will get $500 for this.

 

John -  The apple of friendship has moved on from Marc to me and I have just had a coffee with Jane Gilbert.

 

Katherine – Christmas in the park, I will be on call so can’t attend but  Richard will coordinate the events for 15 December.

 

-the Christmas function this year it will be held at the Heretaunga Croquet Club, 341 Napier Road, Havelock North. Wednesday 12th December.

This is in place of our normal morning meeting arriving from 6pm onwards we will plan to have croquet games starting at 6.45pm.
Cost per person for dinner is $12 and to play croquet is an addition $15 so $27pp in total.

It will be B.Y.O for your choice of beverage, please be aware you must take all empties away with you. 

Can you please email me to confirm your attendance and how many you will be bringing along with you.

 

Brocky-Cycos trip 11 December Waipukurau.  Includes a trip up mt Vernon and a café lunch

 

Quad bikes have made it into the Hawkes bay news, I am a farmer and find that the accidents on Quadbikes are misreported. the reality is that the deaths and injuries from them are a rarity. 

There are a lot fewer quad bikes than Motor cycles and the injuries and deaths should be put into perspective.

 

Most deaths on Farms are suicide a ¼ of the deaths are Quad bike fatalities. It is time we asked the other question

 

Sergeant – Paul  assisted by  corporal Lucy   targeted John for having  kept the  cycos  waiting   he then switched to black Friday and who had  been  where for bargains.  The session was rounded off by fining all those who had not partaken in Black Friday   

 

Raffle – 7 Carroll

 

Andrew was a lieutenant Colonel in the NZ army , he told us of his journey into the defence forces which started as a teacher in  the territorial  army and  became a regular and travelled overseas before becoming a  cadet  officer instructor at Waiouru .

 

He asked us to encourage the younger generation into this as there are now only about 1300 reserves in NZ  . The mindset has to be on recruitment and retention  and highlighted the  important functions of the defence forces.

 

 

They are deployed as follows  .. for NZ,  Australia , the  pacific region and   with the  UN  to  hot spots globally .

 

Lieutenant Colonel Andy Morris led a United Nations team made up of several nationalities, including soldiers from Bangladesh, South America and from other African states.

 

Always unarmed, LTCOL Morris said he never felt personally threatened or intimidated, although lawlessness was common and other UN observers had been robbed and shot at.

 

New Zealanders, he said, were held in high regard by Angolan locals because they put so much effort into negotiation and building trust and “because we had no axe to grind.”

 

Andrew gave a rundown of the numbers of Men v women  and  the change in times where  higher education meant that  those graduating did not slot in so well into the rank structure.

He touched on the “deflect deny  delay “process   which does not work and does not enhance credibility  and spoke of the  changing times where  20 years in the army no longer set you up with a  pension and the former incentives to serve  had gone

 

Simon N  thanked Andrew  and presented him with the pathways coin .