District Governor Mitch Brown December Update

Its nearly half way through the Rotary year as our Clubs and District activities are being completed prior to the holiday break. And wow, I reflect on the year so far and can only but admire the many projects that Rotary have undertaken and the great achievements and contributions to our communities.
 
This Rotary month theme is Disease Prevention and Treatment month. It has been announced that the Rotary Centenary project for New Zealand and Australia to celebrate a 100 years of Rotary in our countries will be a Pacific Island countries immunization program in support of UNICEF disease prevention. The project will commence soon, culminating in a three years’ time with the centenary and charter 100 years ago of the first Rotary Club in New Zealand, the Rotary Club of Wellington. The club was chartered at the YMCA, Willis Street on the 7th June, 1921 and currently has 138 members.
 

sary documentation and funding to support the Global Grant application which has culminated in the endorsement of the project. Now the hard work commences with the build of the Tranzit bus and fit out to create a mobile health clinic that will definitely Make A Difference to the people of the Cook Islands. It is hoped that the delivery of the mobile health clinic will be in March of 2018.

 

End Polio Now program has unfortunately seen a 16th case reported in the Afghanistan border area. This is still a fantastic decrease and drop in reported cases from last year’s 37, so the end is close and the giving to the End Polio Now fund is critical to see off this greatest humanitarian disease elimination that a service organisation has undertaken. Thank you to all our Rotary Clubs who have undertaken a wide variety of End Polio Now fund raising activities from the World’s Greatest Meal, to Murder on the Orient Express movie nights, trailer raffles and fundraising events. There are still many fund raising projects that will see Club contributions to directly fund the End Polio Now work happening over the coming months.

 

District Club Development and Membership Chair Tony Heyward has hosted an all day workshop with his committee to charter the strategy for our District which will guide our Clubs and future Rotary membership opportunities and practice.

 

The strategy looks at many aspects of our Rotary District needs including long tern strategies through developing and supporting High School/College based Interact Clubs, our many District Youth programs, Rotaract Clubs, Satellite Clubs and Next Rotary Generation (NRG) clubs.  As well, our many and varied membership campaigns and support to create sustainable Rotary Clubs and membership with direct connection to our communities to see Rotary excel in the 21st century.

 

We have also started the engagement process to discuss and share the thinking and opportunity that will occur in the coming years for Districts in Australia and New Zealand to be Re-Districted. There are very good reasons for this and the communique that you will see coming from RI Director Noel Trevaskis has put very good context around the need and the opportunity that is presented to all Rotarian's. Please take the time over the summer holiday break to have a read and think about Rotary of the future in New Zealand and be prepared to share your thoughts and ideas in the New Year.

 

One Rotary Club has added value to its new members by having a New Members Night. The Rotary Club of Wanganui invited me to attend a special gathering at a wonderful venue for fellowship and discussion around ongoing engagement and support for the new members who had joined the Club in the last 6 months. I would encourage all Clubs to provide similar opportunities to members to keep mentors and membership nominees connected with the Club and the projects that meet the new members desire to be active and involved with the club and community.

 

My thanks to District Vocation Chair Liz Koh for the full on work that she had underway through October and November. We have seen the support to the Wellington Region Rotary Clubs with the vocational conference looking to the future called "Work in Progress". I attended part of the day and was welcomed by many Rotarian's that had attended through their Rotary and professional connections to this significant event. The spin off for this has been the opportunity for representation of Rotary at this month's Welly Awards recognising excellence across a range of community activities.

Liz also joined me in establishing Rotary support and engagement with the Manawatu area based Talent Central who have spoken at the Rotary Club of Feilding about the Passport to the Workforce program. This is a fantastic employment initiative that guides school leavers to achieve key workforce preparatory skills prior to arriving at a prospective employer or career path.

 

I also attended the launch of the New Zealand Business Week Program at College House, Palmerston North Boys High School. The delivery of NZ Business Week will be hosted in Palmerston North early next year. Our Rotary lead is Christine Jones and we look to support the re-engagement of the program with attendees from schools attending this popular business development program for students.

 

If you wish to assist with the District Vocational Committee for this year and the future, please contact Liz Koh. If you wish to support NZ Business Week please contact Christine Jones at the Rotary Club of Milson.

 

My November District Governor official visits and project support visits were to Masterton South, Dannevirke (Happy 90th Birthday!!), as well as visits to Otaki, Kapiti (40th birthday celebration) Milson (Carousel Confectionery Tour), Palmerston North, Terrace End, Takaro, Levin, Wellington and Wellington South.

 

It is great to be able to spend time finding out more about our Clubs and Rotarian's Service Above Self work and to meet the many Rotarian's of our District. Still more to meet through December and into next year to complete all our Clubs visits.

 

My thanks to Anneke Wolterbeek our District Friendship Exchange Chair who with great support from PDG Anthony and Nicky Scott provided a wonderful itinerary for a visiting Friendship Exchange from Taiwan. I was fortunate to have their visit to Palmerston North coincide with the District Governor visit to my club, the Rotary Club of Takaro. What a great night, with cultural exchange, singing, waiata and fun and fellowship with boundless energy.

 

I thank the other Clubs of the District who assisted with supporting the program of visits, opened up their homes and clubs to what was an amazing group of Rotarian's. If you would like to know more about our planned District 9940 outbound exchanges please contact District Friendship Exchange Chair Anneke.

 

If you would like to be part of the committee that provides opportunities and support for outbound and inbound Rotary International Friendship Exchanges, please contact Anneke on her email - aewrootbeer@gmail.com

 

And that just leaves me to wish you all an enjoyable and safe time over the festive season.  I look forward to working with you all in the new year as we "Go Wild about Rotary"

 

E-mail fiona.mitch@xtra.co.nz

Phone 027 4822295