Apologies from Majoie and Gary

David Brownson’s opening remarks touched on the financial challenges and undertakings the Club has been involved with, both in the past and in the current circumstances.

Simon Northrop conducted a profitable Fines Session, testing members on their knowledge of New Plymouth, including population numbers, Walkway status and sunshine hours.

 

Murray introduced our Guest Speaker Josh Hickford, CEO of the Taranaki Foundation.

 

 

Josh gave a resumé of his early life growing up in New Plymouth and his experience of successfully battling cancer in his early twenties. He has been a dedicated fundraiser for cancer charities as a result , including a television stint on Survivor. 

He joined the Tanaraki Foundation because of its position as a platform for enabling meaningful donations to be made to the community. It provides a straightforward way for individuals or families to ensure that such  bequests are carried out  in the way they want them to be.

The Foundation provides the support and organisation to get many projects up and running such as Destination Kawaroa where it has sourced funding for Stages 1 and 2 and is in the process of helping us obtain grants for Stage 3.

It deals with huge projects such as Destination Kawaroa but is also there to help with modest individual legacies, ensuring that these are used as the benefactors envisage. 

The numbers of people involved and the total sums of money involved are rapidly increasing.

 

Jan Northrop thanked Josh for telling us more about the Foundation and the nuts and bolts of the work it does behind the scenes.

 

Jan Dempsey’s 3 Minute Speech centred round her concern about the way children today are missing out on so much that was taken for granted even just a generation ago. 

They no longer just play outdoors together and simply enjoy family time. She said we should all be encouraged to interact with our grandchildren, read to them, take them out on family outings, help them enjoy nature and simply talk to them.

Teachers too should encourage their pupils to learn more about the world about them and engage with it.

 

David Brownson reported that the Walk of Memories project is now ready to go and members will be receiving the relevant emails in the next couple of days.

 

Gaylene had  raffle tickets for each member to sell. There are fantastic prizes on offer and there are photographs of these to display at point of sale when we set up at our pitches at various supermarkets etc. A roster will be sent out for members to add their availability.

 

Murray confirmed that he will be staying on as President into next year.

 

Des spoke about his grave concerns about the future of Rotary in Taranaki. He feels the solution could be a joining together of the Clubs into one single entity, with each Club still able to act independently. At our next Business Meeting he will present a detailed case for the viability of this.

He is therefore stepping down as Trust Chairman with immediate effect to concentrate his efforts on this. Sally Morch is taking over the Chairman role.

 

Ian Smiley gave the Parting Thought:

 

 Being positive isn't pretending that everything is good - it's seeing the good in everything.

 

The meeting ended at 8 pm.