Last week I asked our members to think about “3 good things” that happened over the previous week and to share that experience. This kind of activity is similar to “gratitude journaling” which is an effective way to create a positive mindset.
So while this morning PFL James Langton started off with a few negative sound bites around the passing of Doris Day, and our guest speaker Tanya Hart opened with how climate change is gradually wiping out our environment, I was encouraged to hear the rest of her story which paints a more hopeful future.
Tanya Hart is the Regional Coordinator for “Trees That Count”. This morning she talked with us about Sir Stephen Tindall’s vision to reduce New Zealand’s carbon emissions through a native tree campaign called “Trees That Count (TTC).” TTC partners with businesses and individuals to promote tree planting as a way to reduce the impact of climate change. All the funding that they receive goes into their Tree Pool, and they match it with a planter who gets the trees into the ground.
Tanya spoke about a recently published UN report on Biodiversity (May, 2019) that stated “if the world warms up another 0.5 degrees, over 1 million species of plant and animals risk extinction”.
So while humans are the main culprits of the current environment, we can change and become the heroes if we all take action now. TTC has a goal for 200 million additional natives to be planted over the next 10 years. Already 23 million have been planted to date. TTC also wants to create a culture where planting or gifting native trees becomes the Kiwi “thing to do” to celebrate occasions. Tanya also shared with us that they are in discussion with Trees for Survival (a Rotary tree-planting program) to see how they can collaborate to increase effectiveness in having more people out planting to counter climate change effects.
(Rob Wills thanking Tanya Hart)
If you want to make a positive difference (and gain some positive karma credits) come out and join our team supporting Trees for Survival at one of the upcoming planting days: 17 May- Kings School; 20 May- Meadowbank Primary School; 20 Jun Remuera Intermediate School; 6 Aug Ponsonby Primary School. For more information please contact champion Kenneth Winstone.
This morning we also had 8 members from the District RYLA promotion team attend our meeting. Peter Ross, District Chair of RYLA was our stand-in 5-minute speaker and shared with us the importance of mentoring for the RYLA alumni group. While RYLA itself is a great leadership development opportunity, there is much more Rotary can offer after the program to these aspiring young leaders in terms of career development advice or even with working together with our clubs on projects for the community. RYLA is also a wonderful way to bridge the generation gap and to help us continue growing Rotary as a service organization.
We concluded our meeting with the induction of our newest member Weilian Du. As her sponsor, I am particularly proud of her achievements to date and her “can-do” willingness to engage in community volunteer projects such as Cooking for the Homeless where she first met Des, Byran, Jan, Kat & Gareth. Please take a look at the “Stories” below for more information on Weilian’s background and extend a warm welcome to her when you next meet her.
Over the weekend 11 of us Downtowners (including partners) attended the District Conference which was excellent. See stories below for more information and photos.
Wow! What a conference. We laughed, we cried and were inspired after hearing some great speakers share their personal stories of self-reflection and courage to step out of their comfort zone to achieve great things - both in the community and within themselves as leaders. Our team of Downtowners had a fantastic time getting to meet other Rotarians from around our District during the cocktails and networking sessions. We also learned about the various projects ranging from dictionaries for schools, water guttering and storage systems in Africa, fundraisers, and also a pitch from the current year's Rotary Youth Exchange Students for more host families to help support the program. The day and a half conference was also very effective in sharing best practices and ideas such as Dr. Tom Mulholland's KYND software app which helps individuals measure they overall wellbeing (https://www.kyndwellness.com). John Boscawen also introduced Gill & I to the Former Chair of the International Committee from Suva (and current Club President) who shared with us a local perspective of how the SPBD Microfinancing Program in Fiji is taking off and changing lives. More info in a separate story coming soon.
(John, Gill & President John Bainbridge from Suva Rotary, Lucy)
We also enjoyed a glamorous gala dinner while being entertained by a live band and fancy footwork on the dance floor.
Come experience the fun, fellowship and inspiration at next year's District Conference hosted by the Rotary Club of Auckland East. It will be held mid May 2020 at the University of Auckland OGGB Business School. More information on early registrations to come out shortly.
This morning I had the pleasure of introducing our newest Club member - Weilian Du.
Weilian was born and raised in an eastern coastal city in China about 2 hours away from Shanghai by high speed train. She is the youngest of 2 siblings and all her family are residing in China. Weilian has a Bachelor of Management degree from University of Ningbo majoring in Logistics Management. At the age of 22, Weilian traveled outside of China for the first time to Serbia where she was the first Chinese student at the University of Novi Sad, gaining a perfect GPA in Logistics Management. Her time in Serbia infused her with enthusiasm to learn more about the world and inspired her to jump on a plane in July 2017 to New Zealand where she enrolled as a Masters of Commerce Student specialising in Information Systems. Just last week after a competitive interview process, Weilian received an offer from KPMG to join the Lighthouse team (Data Analytics Center of Excellence) in Auckland. She will start her new role at KPMG in February 2020.
In addition to studying, Weilian likes hiking, nature and of course traveling. Several weeks ago, Weilian was part of a team of 3 students from UoA who were selected as the finalists in a worldwide competition (SDG Challenge held by mSchools at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona). Weilian and her team represented New Zealand as one of the 6 finalist teams from 6 different countries (US, Chile, Spain, Ecuador, and New Zealand) with their virtual reality software product which helps individuals with autism to improve their social skills. Given her interest in helping people with autism and the University of Auckland Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) team's need of computing/web/marketing skills, Weilian will join our Rotary team supporting CAMH led by Champion Graham Hendry and also continue her support of City Mission under the leadership of Champion James Langton. I will be her mentor/buddy over the next 6 months. Please join me in making her feel welcome.
Members Simon, Susan & President Elect Byran joined Greg Moyle down on the farm.
Susan shared with us this morning one of the "good things" that happened over the past week was her visit to Greg Moyle's farm where she helped along side Simon, Byran & Greg to do some harvesting of fruit & veg from the 35 acre property. The fruit & veg were then brought to the Grey Lynn market where Past President Gill gave Greg a helping hand to sell the fresh produce. Funds raised from these efforts go towards purchasing materials for raised garden beds at local schools.
Please contact Greg if you would like to join him on the farm one weekend.
Trees for Survival is an environmental education programme which involves young people growing and planting native trees to restore natural habitats by helping landowners revegetate erosion prone land, improve stream flow and water quality and increase biodiversity. The Trees for Survival programme creates community partnerships by engaging schools, their community, local businesses and Councils all working together to restore our natural heritage.
Come out for one of our Tree Planting days at the following schools listed below:
Trees For Survival 2019 Planting Dates
Fri 17 May - Kings School
Mon 20 May - Meadowbank Primary School
Thur 20 Jun - Remuera Intermediate School
Tues 6 Aug - Ponsonby Primary School
(in 2020) - Freemans Bay Primary School
For further details see: http://www.tfsnz.org.nz/ or contact Champion Kenneth Winstone (kfwinstone@gmail.com)
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