We’re are at the end of our 20/21 Rotary year. I personally look back on it as one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had. It has been a privilege to be a District Governor (DG) in our Centennial Year. Many special opportunities have opened. I hope you feel the same in your own engagement within Clubs, Networks and District-wide.
I reflect on this role, sometimes described as the CEO and the Chair of the Board rolled into one. It has very broad responsibilities. It requires a strong supportive team and I’m grateful to have had that. I’m grateful too for the huge support Kevin has given me – we’ve worked as a team. The Assistant-Governors and the Chairs of Committees have played key roles in driving the strategy and direction. Of course Rotary’s structure of annual changing of roles has an impact at Global, District, Network and Club level, with continuity a challenges. I believe our level of collaboration addresses that. I’ve appreciated the opportunity to tap so readily into the wisdom of the Governor train and previous DGs.
While we’ve celebrated our proud achievements this centennial year we are all aware that, unless we make changes we’re going to be a severely diminished organisation in another 100 years. That must not happen. So a key consistent message from me has been the need to change – not for change’s sake but for our sustainability.
Sadly, while I have been encouraging change, our membership has diminished. There are several reasons for this. COVID has had an impact. Some Clubs found it too challenging to attempt to remain connected via Zoom during lockdown, resulting in members becoming disengaged. For others the cost became just too great. Some Clubs have closed, with challenges in finding people to take leadership roles a key reason.
Nevertheless the majority of Clubs have survived and even thrived during the last year. I’ve been hugely impressed at the energy and positivity I’ve seen during our visits. Who said we couldn’t change! Many Clubs readily embraced zoom, with meetings and projects continuing. Some inducted new members remotely, those people attracted by or connected as a result of the wider reach we had.
I’ve come to realise that in order to grow we need to focus on two key things: we need to ensure that our members are enjoying their Rotary experience – engaged and having fun. I’ve challenged Clubs to look at their culture – are they attractive to new members? Are some of our rituals off-putting and past their use-by date?
And we need to consider how to start new Clubs. In my own Club recently we’ve been exploring the possibility of a Satellite Club. I believe there’s a real opportunity for an E-Club based in our District and reaching widely, even globally. Some initial conversations are exploring this.
I’m delighted that our Foundation giving has increased. A number of Clubs and individual members have responded to my call of becoming a centurion club or member in this, our centennial year. Projects have benefitted from District grants and we’ll well on the way to achieving another Global Grant supported project through Wanganui North Rotary.
We’ve risen to supporting the COVID need at local level with food banks and more broadly – including providing masks to Fiji and oxygen to Nepal. I’ve been so impressed at some of the work Clubs are doing to support their own communities during these challenging times.
What a year it has been! And now - I wish you all the best for the new Rotary year ahead. Let’s continue to expand our numbers and our reach – we have never been more needed.
Nga mihi nui.
DG Gillian
Significant New Zealand-Wide Paul Harris Fellow
Earlier this month, the New Zealand and Pacific Islands District Governors made a unique presentation when they combined to bestow a Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) on an outstanding New Zealander – Doctor Ashley Bloomfield.
Dr Bloomfield is New Zealand’s Director General of Health and has been widely acknowledged for his public health leadership of New Zealand’s ‘team of five million’ throughout the COVID 19 crisis.
We Governors were delighted Dr Bloomfield accepted our wish to acknowledge this leadership and each of the six Districts contributed US$1000, enabling us to make a very significant award – that of a PHF plus five sapphires pin.
Our citation thanked him for his steadiness under fire, his integrity and authenticity, and his courage to own mistakes and undertake to investigate resolution. Dr Bloomfield has noted ‘leadership is an invitation to collective action’ and we felt he and his team demonstrated this wholeheartedly, bringing a daily ‘calming’ influence to television screens around New Zealand during the height of the pandemic.
Each Governor spoke, providing some background or connection about this PHF and Rotary, particularly in relation to key centennial projects in two of Rotary’s areas of focus – Disease Prevention and Treatment, and Maternal and Child Health.
D9940 is supporting the fit-out of the new Wellington Regional Children’s Hospital and across Zone 8, the Rotary Give Every Child a Future project provides three vaccines to 100,000 children in nine Pacific Island countries over three years as well as establishing a sustainable vaccination programme.
These projects, and Rotary’s commitment to End Polio Now, align with Dr Bloomfield’s demonstrated leadership in keeping New Zealanders safe in this COVID world.
DG Gillian, as the host District Governor, was privileged to facilitate this recognition and present Dr Bloomfield with the certificate and pin.
It is important as we farewell the 2020-2021 Rotary Year too we reflect on the tremendous work done by our members and extended whanau. Each in our own way we have risen the challenges this year has thrust on us, continued our effort and lived to the ideal of "Service Above Self".
This is down to everyone of you: our members for your hard work; dedication and roll-your-sleeves-up attitude. On behalf of the District - Thank you for all your time and effort.
D9940 Changeover 3rd July 2021
Mark, Marilyn, and Wayne are excited you are registering to come to our District changeover followed by a session to help plan our multiyear future.
The Theme is:
‘Rotary clubs working together – with our communities - to change lives.’
Rotary is entering a brave new world, and this is a real chance and an exciting opportunity for you to celebrate our successes, have your say and help shape our multiyear future. The way we will be doing it means everybody’s view counts.
If you have one - bring a device that can log on to Wifi to use the decision support software. Don’t worry if you don’t
Location: Massey University Sport and Rugby Institute, Palmerston North Campus. We picked this as a mid-way point for our district to encourage maximum attendance. (Access off ‘Old West Road and Albany Drive’). Plenty of parking.
Timings:
09.30 to 10.15 am: Arrival and Fellowship. To keep costs down – bring a plate – but only if you can – no pressure to do so. Don’t worry if you cannot as we have it covered.
10.15 to 11.15 am: District Changeover, including a talk by our historian Dr Stephen Clarke on Rotary’s been here before – ‘Dark Days – Silver Linings’ and Gillian’s reflections on leading the District through these difficult times. There will be a number of presentations to mark the occasion.
11.30 to 3.30 pm: Multi-year Action Planning, to shape our future. This session will include lunch.
Costs
District changeover & Strategy session $22.00 / head, inc. Subway lunch
Interact, Rotaract, Probus staying for the day: $15 a head, inc. Subway lunch
District Changeover only - $10.00 / head, excluding lunch
All are welcome: Rotarians, Interactors, Rotaractors, Probus members, families and friends.
Mark, Marilyn, and Wayne and the District Leadership teams are looking forward to seeing you there.
Those attending will leave excited and energised by having helped shape the future of Rotary.
As we head into the 2021/22 Rotary Year, the first of our second 100 years, we are on the look out for any volunteers who can lend some of their time either to our various projects, committees or events.
If you want to get involved in anyway, or wish to lend a hand, flick me an email.
We are always happy to accept help!
Please Help!
Our District Gazebo has recently become homeless and is needing a new home.
If you have space and are able to let us store it between events please let us know by contacting us here.
Connecting with us via Social Media is the BEST way to stay connected with the work we are doing and it is updated LIVE so you can get the information faster than you would otherwise with our District Bulletin.
Interested in Volunteering here?
If you are interested out in sharing our stories with our communities, please let me know as we always can use a spare hand.
Feature for July Celebrating Our Members' Successes
In the last month the PR team has received severals notifications of members successes whether it be through Paul Harris Fellowships or through Queen's Birthday Honours.
As we are expecting some further both at District Changeover and the remaining Club Changeovers, in the upcoming July Edition of the District Bulletin we will feature all our members who in the last month (and in the beginning weeks of July) have been honoured in this way.
If you have any information about any individual who has been honoured for either their work for Rotary or to the community please let us know here.
PR Team
TO PRESIDENT ELECTS & DISTRICT LEADER ELECTS
I joined Rotary in 2006 after a 30-year career as a secondary school geography teacher. Unfortunately, retired teachers continue to teach, we can’t help it. But we are also learners.
In my new role as Chair of the 9940 Learning and Development Committee I have had to learn new words, words such as device, digital native, generational change, and a tsunami of acronyms. And it’s been difficult as I have no grandchildren or great grandchildren to teach me.
Recently I was asked by a President Elect for a President’s Job Description. My reply, “Mmmmm, I don’t think there is one.” However, digitally inept and fumble fingered I worked throughmyrotary.org (don’t forget to register)>Learning & Reference>Club Role>President>Lead Your Club: President – Presidents Manual. An 85-page job description, not exactly what my friend was expecting, but never-the-less, a job description. And I advised him, as I advise you, to save the President’s Manual to his device – it’s a “GO TO RESOURCE.” There are similar manuals for a number of district leadership roles.
President elects, District Leader Elects, do not despair.
You have a generationally diverse, gender diverse, geographically diverse Learning and Development team to support you and yes, to help you through the vast library of riches that is to be found in myrotary.org. The Learning and Development team will guide you through the 100 or so LEARNING MODULES to be found at the Learning Centre. (You don’t have to do them all!!)
You are about to take on one of the many rewarding roles in Rotary, be it at Club level or District level, the learning centre is your secondary source of information.
Your primary sources of information for District leadership will be the District Planning Session at Changeover, PEDS ("President Elect Development Seminar". Also for all District Leader Elects) 2022 and SPPEDS ("South Pacific President Elect Development Seminar". Also for District Leader Elects) 2022
DATES BELOW
Sat 3rd July, 2021
Changeover and District Planning Session in Palmerston North.
We need your ideas for Rotary – People of Action in our Second Century.
Sat 19 – Sun 20 February, 2022
PEDS 2022, Palmerston North
__________________
Sat 5 – Sun 6 March, 2022
(Dates & Location to be confirmed)
SPPEDS 2022, Auckland
SEE YOU THERE!
PLANNING SEMINAR, PEDS and SPPEDS will be inspiring, rewarding, and highly informative opportunities for you ALL to develop your Rotary skills.
And as a footnote, if you have held a Club or District role in the past, we need your skills and experience.
Richard Wishnowsky,
9940 Learning & Development Chair
Rotary North donates $35,000 for Wellington Children’s Hospital.
Rotary North presented a grant of $35,000 to Bill Day, Chair of the Wellington Hospital Foundation, as part of Rotary District 9940’s commitment to raising $400,000 to pay for the cost of outfitting two whanau/family rooms.
The amount was made up of $5,000 from their annual trailer raffle proceeds, $5,000 from the Whanganui Community Charitable Trust (Rotary South) and $25,000 from “a very generous private donation from a person with strong links to Whanganui and children’s wellbeing.”
Tony Hodge, Club Director of International and Medical projects, spoke a little about Bill, who was a senior executive of Westpac, the CEO of NZ Community Trust, a former chair of the Life Flight Trust (previously Westpac Helicopter) and now a board member and a director of the Wellington Free Ambulance.
Bill helped to found the Wellington Hospital Foundation in 2005 and it was him who first approached his friend Mark Dunajtschik about the proposed children’s hospital. As most of you will know Mark is spending $50 milllion to build the hospital.
Rotary Club of Whanganui
Does Anyone Need A Mask?
After the delivery of 27,000 masks to Fiji direct from Lanaco in Auckland we are now sending Lanaco’s stock that was sitting in a warehouse in China to Fiji.
Our fellow Rotarians are delighted that there is an opportunity to give quality masks to people in villages who would not normally be high up in the queue for Covid protection. The situation in Fiji has risen to traumatic levels with cases of new Covid and cases of death rising on a daily basis.
The masks that have been donated to us come from an earlier production when Lanaco shipped the materials to China and the masks were manufactured in China. These number just over 53,000 and were originally going to be given to India but it has proven much too difficult to get them delivered and distributed. Venky immediately asked – can we send them to Fiji? Do they want them (a very important question) and the answer to both was a resounding yes.
Customers and shipping documents are signed and within 2 weeks the new long lasting masks will be available in Fiji. These will be collected by the Suva East members and distribution will start from there.
I want to thank Lanaco for the very generous donation which, when combined to the first shipment enables 80,000 people to have a quality level of protection. Photo’s from the Suva end will be posted as soon as we have them. In the meantime, a donation to Rotary (at a conservative count of $250,000 ) does not go unnoticed.
Thank you
Adrienne Murray
RHYMING AROUND THE ALPHABET: A – Z BOOKS AND CARDS
Report on District Grant provided in 2020/2021.
It was a pleasure recently for five Rotary Clubs in the Wellington region, supported by a District Grant, to be able to present a number of Rotary Rhyming Around the Alphabet Books and Cards (A – Z Books and Card sets) to senior members of nursing staff on children’s wards at Wellington Hospital, for distribution to children in need.
Bill Day, Chairman of the Wellington Hospitals Foundation, official charity for Wellington Children’s Hospital thanked the Clubs involved for their contribution and the achievement of a District Grant.
District Literacy Convenor, Joy Durrant (who is also a member of the Children’s Health Fund Raising Committee on behalf of Rotary), co-ordinated the application for a District Grant.
The Rotary Clubs of Mt Victoria (Carol Green); Porirua (Adrienne Murray); Port Nicholson (Mike Selvadurai and Joy’s Club); Wellington North (Graeme Waters) and Wellington (Tony Hassed), all gained the support of their own Club to help this effort.
A grand total of 317 Books and Card sets were presented, on behalf of those Clubs, with help from a district grant, for the benefit of children in Hospital.
In addition, a number of Books and Cards will be provided to support children in Samoa. This would have happened already but was delayed by restrictions caused by Covid-19.
Thank you to the District Grants Committee for supporting this initiative, from five Rotary Clubs. To assist in the improvement of literacy and enjoyment of books amongst young children across the District is heartening; it is also heartening to see the five Rotary Clubs working together in this manner.
Joy Durrant
District Literacy Convenor
People of Action: 100 years of the Rotary Club in New Zealand
Our story of 100 Year Celebrations have been caught broadly across the NZ Community!
Rotary Give Every Child A Future has been doing some fantastic work in recent months and has started a brand new project (see below)
GECAF is our Oceania's Centenary Fundraiser planning to vaccinate 100,000 children across 9 Pacific Countries.
Rotary Give Every Child A Future is YOUR Centennial project. If you or your club has not donated please consider doing so, and a huge thank you to those who already do.
RGECAF DONATIONS
Rotary New Zealand World Community Service (RNZWCS) 03-1702-0192208-01 quoting Ref No 419 (RGECAF).
Please include your club’s name to ensure Foundation giving recognition points.
Our website is now live! We have had a few visitors and donations from members of the public to the Rotary account as a result.
Looking after the health of our children is not just a foundation imperative for Rotary on both a local and international front, it is extremely important to our communities. Our thanks go to the clubs that have donated in amounts from $1000 to a staggering $50,000. We are overwhelmed with the generosity of members of Rotary and the public in general when it comes to the health of our children.
I have been advised that (as with most building projects) there is a slight slippage in time and the new hospital should be completely operational by Easter 2022. The handover of the hospital will now be in February and staff will be spending time learning the new systems associated with the new hospital. Personally I can’t wait to see how our wonderful Rotary Whanau rooms will look (Just look at the balconies from the Hospital on the right).
To donate towards the cause you can either transfer directly to: Children’s Health Trust 01-0527-0714560-00 or visit our website below.
Think about how you can serve Rotary and your community to best change lives and remember there are always opportunities to get involved. If you are keen please let us know by contacting us here.
For Clubs & Committees:
If you wish to use the 2020-2021 logo for anything please do so by visiting here.
If you wish use the 2020-2021 logo specifically for Facebook of Instagram, please feel free to copy and past the above as it has been designed for a 1500px x 1500px level.
On indulgence...
Having just completed my first year as Public Image Chair, and in the spirit of fellowship month, I want to pay tribute to a few people whose support who have helped me throughout the year as I have become fully involved with matters of the 9940 District.
Firstly, to our District Governor Gillian Jones, thank you so much for the opportunity to serve our organisation in this way. Thank you for your kindness, leadership and wisdom as we have worked throughout the year: whether it be a phone call or an email I have always enjoyed hearing from you. Enjoy the break and don't become a stranger!
To Adrienne Murray, thank you for your friendship and again the opportunity to serve with you for the new Wellington Children's Health Trust. You uphold all the values of Rotary every day and are a true inspiration and friend. Put simply being in Rotary would not be the same, nor near as fun without you.
To Martin Garcia, thank you for your wise counsel and friendship. The work you have done and are continuing to do for the Rotary Foundation is vital for our success as an organisation, and often unsung. I have enjoyed every moment working with you and I enjoy doing so again over the next year. Your shoes have been hard to fill, but I am trying my utmost everyday.
To Richard Stephen, your work is too often unsung but without it we would be lost. Thank you so much for the hours you have selflessly provided to me and others in our District so we may be able to provide for our members and our community.
To Tony Heyward, thank you for your continued friendship. That phone call whenever it arrives helps to remind me sometimes in the midst of all the busy-ness the why in what we do. Thanks for your friendship.
To John Mohi, thank you for showing me the ropes and helping me to better understand the various cogs of the organisation (there are many cogs!). Your passion for Rotary is an inspiration to many of our members, never forget that.
To Alan Butler, you keep the ship running and the utmost gentleman - your work this year has been of huge importance to the District and I am glad to call you friend.
To my team - and especially to our former District Bulletin Editor Freya Kerr - thank you for all the work you have done this year. 2021-22 will provide us with plenty of new opportunities and I am looking forward to working more closely with each of you to get our new look social media, branding and website working for all who need it.
In my own Club I wish to thank (to name only a few and in no particular order) Lee Wilkinson, William Sommerville, Joy Tracey, John McKinnon, Helen Algar, John Boshier, Cheryl Barber, George Fairburn, Denise Church, Christine and David Hurley, David Forsythe and Tony Hassed for their friendship and support in all my endeavours and opportunities in my Club to serve. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Lastly I would like to thank every Rotarian in our District for their support and patience. There is a lot of work that goes behind both these District Bulletins, branding and PR and while it is not always perfect (we are all human) your support and feedback has always been appreciated.
Deadlines For The Next District Bulletin
Going forward for the 2021-22 year, and following feedback received, we will be taking stories for the District Bulletin until the 20th of each month. So please ensure for the July edition you have provided me your story and photographs by the 20th of July.
On photographs, while I try my best to include photographs if they are of an unsuitable quality (e.g. blurry, on angle and are not easily edited) I sometimes will not be able to include them. Throughout the 2021-22 year I will be providing some useful links in District Bulletins and communications to Clubs and Committees on how to capture the best shots.
