Stephen was brought up in Dunedin and during his time there he was a member of Rotaract, Duneding Rotary Club, Jaycees, Lions and a Toastmaster for 14 Years. 

He met his wife Tracy at a Tostmasters Convention in Christchurch 

Stephen moved to New Plymouth after they were married.
They have been married 20 years now with 2 teenage daughters

Stephen's Address

 

Thank you Jan.

 

I would like to begin by thanking Jan for her year as President.

 

Rotary today continues to be relevant not only in our local communities but also on a world stage.

 

The past few years have seen significant challenges to us both as individuals and our countries:  the Covid 19 pandemic, the cost of living crisis, natural disasters with extreme weather events in our own country and the continuing war in Ukraine, to name but a few.

 

All of these events have impacted directly on people and place them in a position requiring assistance.

 

Apart from fuel and food costing more, we have been very lucky in Taranaki in avoiding the worst of the recent events.

 

We, as a Rotary club can’t help everyone in every situation but we can do our best and we have as a club have contributed in assistance to all of the recent events.

 

Life, however, does go on.  We need to be proactive and keep looking for projects, both small and large within our community.

 

For one avenue of finding ideas for new projects, while I was the President elect, I took Gareth Green, the new CEO of the NPDC, up on his offer and met with him to discuss possible projects that the Rotary Club of Ngamotu could become involved with in conjunction with the NPDC.

 

Gareth told me that there that there are many projects that our club and the NPDC could be jointly involved with and I am still waiting for Gareth to come back to me with a list of these ideas.

 

Themes for a Rotary year begin at the top:  Gordon McInally from Scotland, the Rotary International President for the 2023 – 24 year has this: “Create Hope in the World”

 

Our Own District Governor, Wayne Gordon for the 2023 – 24 year is “Creating Tomorrow”

 

So, what is my theme for the year?  For the club as a whole mine is “Only through engaging with our community can we positively change things for the better”.

 

As for within the club, mine is “that there is something for everyone”

 

My plan for the year is this:

 

The structure of how we run a dinner meeting and the roles will stay the same.

 

The first Monday of the month with be a social night, which will be a combination of pot luck teas at members houses, visits to places of interest or an evening out at a restaurant.

 

The meetings of the second and fourth Mondays will be dinner meetings with a guest speaker

When there is a fifth Monday in the month we will have a dinner meeting with a guest speaker.

 

Projects will be throughout the year, both large and small.

 

There will be regular board meetings.

 

However, remember that this is your club, so if you as members have ideas for projects please come along to a board meeting and present that to us as an idea to consider.

 

The Golf Tournament is consistently our main project for the year and is an excellent fundraiser.  However, as members of this club have served on this committee for many years, they feel that it is time to move on and there needs to be a changing of the guard in order for the project to continue.  For this reason, both Myles and myself will serve on the committee this year this year in a shadow training role and will take the places of people wishing to step down after this year.

 

Membership is also very important.  For this reason, there will be a group of people responsible for this who will meet monthly.  This group will consist of Murray, Myles and myself.  I am not calling this group a committee but rather the Member Action Team.

 

It has been good to see some new faces this last year coming along to the club but we need that to continue.

 

This year our board consists of the following people:

 

Jan Dempsey Immediate Past President

 

Michael Archer Secretary

 

Tracy Bovett Treasurer

 

Wally Garret Director

 

John Pitman Director

 

Myself President

 

Other positions outside of the Board:

 

Lemmon Street Flats Des Friedrich

 

Bulletin Editor Murray Gillespie

 

Arranging Guest Speaker Judy Hanline

 

Facebook Murray & Stephen

 

Welfare Officer Sally Morch

 

Raffle Wally Garrett

 

Apologies Wally Garret

 

My boss at my last job said don’t come to me with problems but solutions.  I would say the same thing to you:  if there are issues within the club, come to the Board with the solutions to them.

 

Lastly, I need to acknowledge the excellent Forests of Peace and Remembrance project that Des has been the driving force behind, along with others.

 

So, let us all enjoy another successful year of the Rotary Club of Ngamotu and remember that this is your club and what you put into it is what you get out of it.

 

The planned social evening will now be hosted by John and Alison Pitman.

 

Venue : 35A, Shelter Grove, Frankleigh Park.

Timing  : arrive from 5.00 pm onwards, with supper served at 6.00 pm.

Catering : John and Alison will provide a couple meat dishes, one beef and one chicken.

 

Please let John know by tomorrow evening, Friday, the 30th at the latest if you will be coming and what food you would like to bring so that John and Alison can co-ordinate the catering.