Speakers

First Light Rotary

EVolocity Project 2027 and onwards

Following an address by the CEO of EVolocity Jason Maraku to the Greenmeadows Club it became very evident that this is a programme worth pursuing using the combined forces of the eight Rotary Clubs in Hawkes Bay.

Grant Spackman and I met with Jason and Jo Morgan, the Partnership Manager, about moving this project forward with Rotary. This arrangement will be used as pilot that could then be adopted to further expand EVolocity within NZ. Potentially with Rotary.

It is important that we run this project as a partnership for the benefit of the youth in the district.

Rotaries involvement will be limited to:

· Providing mentors to schools

· Raising sponsorship

· Event Managers for the Finals.

EVolocity will run the programme that they have been running for a number of years around NZ, coordinating the schools, providing design support, health and safety, scrutineering and finals events.

There are 21 high schools in Hawke’s Bay excluding Wairoa, the local clubs may need to be involved with more than one high school if the number of participating schools increases.

Currently there have been expressions of interest to be involved in 2027 by the following Schools;

Napier Boys High

Tamatea High

William Colenso College

Hastings Boys High

Iona College

Lindisfarne

There is the potential of Te Aute College being included through a Māori funded programme

It is anticipated that schools will enter 3 – 5 teams each.

Rotary clubs will be assigned to the schools they currently support

Mentors

Two Rotarians from each club ideally one male and on female as a minimum to support the school teams.

All mentors will be required to complete a Police check though EVolocity.

Mentor training will be provided by EVolocity

Mentors will be required to attend the launch function at the beginning of the year run by EVolocity.

Mentors will be required to attend their school on a regular basis to keep contact and provide support.

Mentors will be Rotary ambassadors, this programme provides an opportunity to promote the organisation to teachers, parents, grandparents etc.

Sponsorship

EVolocity will provide a budget to run the programme in Hawke’s Bay in late October, but a rule of thumb estimate will be approximately $2,000 per team.

We should look to 4 – 5 sponsors that would provide in the vicinity of $10,000 each.

Alternatively, each Club would need to look at raising funds from local businesses to cover the number of teams they are directly supporting.

Additional sponsorship will be required to run the Finals Event.

All funds would be cleared through potentially one of our Rotary Club’s Trust Account with all funds being forwarded to EVolocity for distribution.

Event Manager for the Finals

The Event Finals are the real opportunity for Rotary to showcase what we do amongst a large number of school people including teachers, parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts, etc, and the Media.

The location will need to be thought through carefully to encourage the public to attend.

Planning for this event should be kept total open book to allow the event to develop ensuring the two organisations Rotary compliments each other’s desired outcomes.