President Robyn welcomed visitors to the meeting Graeme Webber, Sue Milner, Adrienne Miller (Porirua Rotary) and Bronwen Byers as well as Silvio Ribeiro and his wife Adriana. She also welcomed back from holiday Blewdy Blewden, John Bullick, Gordon Calder, Keith Rogers and Bev and Don Wilson. Carey Church mentioned the invaluable help that Adrienne Miller had been in establishing the Garden Festival.
Guest Speaker: Brigadier Jon Broadley, New Zealand Defence Force – NZDF update
Don Harris introduced Brigadier Broadley who has had many years’ experience in the New Zealand Defence Force and is a resident of Cambridge.
Brigadier Broadley said that the modern environment poses different challenges to what was experienced during the first and second world wars. Although the current threats are not a conventional war, threats to our security and way of life still exist. Through live television and social media we see incidents such as the tragedies in Christchurch, the Middle East, Africa, New York, London, Paris, Nice and Sydney played out in public with a level of detail and immediacy. This did not exist in the early and mid-20th centuries. Brigadier Broadley emphasised that terrorist attacks were not the only threat to our security, citing piracy and missile testing by certain countries, amongst other things.
New Zealand’s zone of responsibility in terms of Search and Rescue stretches from the equator to Antarctica and from half way to Australia to half way to Chile – an area of 30 million square kilometres. A total of 15,000 personnel – comprising fulltime, part-time and civilians are employed/engaged, with 250 personnel deployed on operations overseas.
From a military perspective, viable and sustainable military options must be maintained for the future. A strategy that prepares the NZDF for the future around three goals has been established to ensure the organisation is an effective Force for New Zealand. NZDF is always striving to work smarter and find better ways of doing things.
In closing and prior to questions, Brigadier Broadley thanked Rotary Cambridge members for their service to the community.
Induction of new member – Silvio Ribeiro
August is Membership and New Club Development month for Rotary, and very appropriately President Robyn had the pleasure of formally inducting into Rotary Cambridge - Silvio Ribeiro. Silvio, who is from Brazil has lived in New Zealand for three years and now
resides in Cambridge with his wife Adriana who was also present. Silvio is no stranger to Rotary having been involved in Rotoract. His father has been a Rotarian for 30 years and has held many official positions. Members acknowledged appropriately Silvio’s induction into the Rotary Club of Cambridge and are looking forward to his contributions and working with him.
His classification has been registered as Marketing-Digital. Silvio is already a member of the Publicity team and will be a member of the New Generations Committee under the directorship of John Bullick. We are sure Silvio will bring valuable new ideas to the club especially in the digital space.
Notices
Proposed project for a Matching Grant
President Robyn advised that discussions had occurred with relevant Council staff members in exploring the proposed project of upgrading/enhancing the bank of the Square opposite the Town Clock and a shelter for the bus stop opposite the i-site. Further research was required and members would be kept updated.
Firewood project
Ian Grant, Ken Leatham and Chris Crickett were working out a plan for donating or selling trailer loads of firewood.
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
The AGM will be held next club meeting – Thursday, 15 August.
Club meetings
President Robyn reminded members as follows:
- Club meeting 22 August – Chamber BA5 – a business After 5 meeting with Chamber members.
- Club meeting 29 August – Vocational visit to Ruakura to learn about Small Animal Research and sheep milking. Please advise your intention to attend.
Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust
Doug Lang read a thank you note from the Westpac Rescue Helicopter Trust for the Rotary Cambridge $2,500 grant.
Raffle Winner
Greg Gascoigne (first prize) with Roger Hill taking second place 😊
Rotary International News
-Value of Rotary Volunteering
A special report prepared for Rotary International by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Civil Society Studies estimated the value of Rotary member volunteer hours per annum at $US850 million (translated into New Zealand dollars this equates to $1,314,146,325.68). The report estimated that Rotary members provide about 47 million hours of volunteer effort a year. For the 2018/19 year, Rotary Cambridge had an estimated total of 6,500 volunteer hour
-International Convention – 6-10 June 2020, Honolulu, Hawaii
15 December 2019: Last day for early-registration discount
Registration is open to Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors, alumni, Youth Exchange students, club and district employees, and spouses of deceased Rotarians. Guests can also attend at the appropriate fee.
The temperature in Hawaii in June is between 22-30 degrees Celsius. Consider taking advantage of the relatively close location to New Zealand and attend this major world-wide Rotary event.
| 2021-22 RI President selected | Shekhar Mehta, of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2021-22. He will be declared the president-nominee on 1 October if no challenging candidates have been suggested. | |
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