Rotary Meeting Thursday 7th October 2021
Ian welcomed our guests Matthew McLeod from the Henderson Rotary Club (Guest Speaker) Jacqui Leatham, Suzanne Wilkinson and Rotary members.
Ted Mason opened the meeting on time and welcomed everyone. Ted reminded us that this was our 7th meeting on zoom.
Guest Speaker
David Partis welcomed our guest speaker for the evening.
David and Matthew were inducted into the Henderson Rotary Club on the same day in Sept 11, 2008. Matthew also runs a computer company called Vivid Computers in Auckland and David and Matthew work together on various website related projects.
Matthew McLeod has been a past President of Henderson Rotary Club and is also incoming District Governor for District 9910.
Matthews speech covered the background to the Henderson Clubs experience with successfully setting up two Satellite Clubs.
The year that Matthew was President at the Club (201/2016) he decided it was the right time to embark on a project to set up a pilot Satellite Club. This had not been done before in New Zealand and he worked closely with his board and the Rotary District governance team as well as Rotary International to set this pilot up.
The Henderson Club was struggling at the time with the same issues that all Rotary Clubs seem to have worldwide, attracting new members, keeping existing members and balancing the diversity of the membership base.
The Henderson Club was established in 1960 and had a peak of membership around the 1980’s & 1990’s then the membership had fallen again to around the 45 members mark in 2014.
The main differences in a Satellite Club are:
- They are an extension to an existing Club
- More flexibility
- Different culture
- They meet at a different time and venue
- More focused on projects rather than meetings and meals
The Satellite Club model may appeal to people:
- Who are time poor
- Cant afford to spend a lot of money on weekly meals and meetings
- Don’t fit the current Club culture
- Who are younger and keen to do more hands on projects
Matt explained the process the Club went through and the trials and tribulations setting the Satellite Club up.
The membership of the Henderson Rotary Club has remained stable since 2014, however the Club now has a total of 72 members:
• 47 members in the main club (13F / 34M)
• 18 members in the Rotalite West satellite club (14F / 4M)
• 7 members in the South Kaipara satellite club ( 4F / 3M
• Overall 31F / 41M = 43% female, 47% male
• 24% under 40 years of age
As a result of the success of Henderson Rotary’s satellite clubs, a total of 7 satellite clubs now exist in District 9910.
The inaugural Satellite Club of Henderson in 2015
Matthew completed his presentation and fielded a number of questions from the Cambridge members on the zoom call.
David thanked Matthew for his presentation.
Some examples of the projects the Satellite Club take on.
Notices
President update – Ian gave us an update about how the Club is to operate at the different Covid levels in the coming months. Ian will circulate this widely to all members in due course.
Urban Miners – Bill Robinson provided a brief update. There was a good collection held at Te Awamutu last weekend and a good processing day Thursday 7th.
Bookarama – Ray Milner provided an update. The event is cancelled due to the difficulties working under Level 3 Covid levels. We will postpone until the New Year hoping the world is a different place in 2022. Ray thanked everyone for their hard work this year getting us to this point and the volunteers who have helped ready us for the Bookarama Event which is now postponed.
Garden Festival – Don Wilson and Bev met to work out the distribution of flyers for the Garden Festival. Carey sent out a Garden Festival Covid Policy Update regarding how we will operate in and around the event date should the event not go ahead.
District Grants update – Ian gave us a summary of where we are at. The idea has been proposed to establish a Cambridge Rotary Apprenticeship scheme where we advertise, interview and select a suitable recipient and award an amount of funds for tools and equipment for their apprenticeship. More information will be circulated as to how this will work.
Cycle Group update – Nigel informed us that the ride on Friday 8th October was cancelled due to the change in Covid levels.
75th Anniversary update – John Bishop provided us with an update. The event is still going ahead at this stage and we will make a decision early November as to how the Covid level situation looks and whether a cancellation is required or not.
Park Bench update – Laurie and Bill Wilson are waiting for Covid levels to drop back to level 2 and a fine day to go out to Flynn Cove and put the bolts in the concrete and start building the Park Bench. David is waiting for a quote for the plaques from a company called Awards (Trophy & Engraving Experts) in Hamilton who have provided the Tree Trust with a number of seat plaques in the past.
