Our last meeting of the 2018-19 Rotary year was truly memorable and I am extremely proud of the results we collectively achieved.

 

We first did our Club Annual Review, then a recognition ceremony, follwed by the last Sargent's session (which in total raised $5,371 for the year) led by PFL James.

 

I gave everyone a recap starting with a “flash back in time” to November 2017, when our All Members Feedback Survey highlighted 6 key themes:

 

We then covered the Feb 2018 Strategy Session where 14 members (including President Elect Byran, Past President Gill, and members with different tenures in the Club ranging in age & backgrounds) came together to help plan out the Club strategy for the next 3 years.  

 

 

The Action Plan we developed to help "future-proof" our Club is listed in the slide below. We then covered some of the top goals shared at our 10th July 2018 Club Assembly, namely:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although we had to make some changes (e.g. moved Battle of the Suits fundraising event to August from March and cancelled Nadia Lim Dinner and Valentine Day's lunch meeting), we managed to exceed all of our other key targets.  

 

Club Treasurer Grant Hally gave a report out of how well we did Financially this year:

 

Major highlights include: 

 

In addition we were able to capture "Mal's Challenge" (a campaign that started at the end of Past President Gill's year) and together our members contributed $52,000 along with Mal's promised $50,000 to raise a total of $102,000 for our Club Trust which will help us prepare for the future. 

 

The grand total of all funds from all channels is an incredible $269,029  !!  

 

 

So how does this translate into the type of programs and people who we have helped this year?

 

 

Based on the estimates given by our Champions, we have positively impacted over 1,800 people's lives. 

 

I'd like to say a BIG THANK YOU to our Board Directors:

 

 

and to the Champions of our 8 Causes:

 

 

for their leadership, enthusiasm and time that they have given to our Club to help us progress forward and to serve our community. 

 

At the recognition ceremony (which will continue at the Changeover Party) we first recognised a few key partners who have supported our Club for close to a decade.

 

Sarah Little, Operations Manager at the Northern Club was our guest and kindly accepted the certificate of recognition for The Northern Club. Sarah has been a fantastic person to work with concerning our breakfast meetings and events held at the Club including our annual Past Presidents Dinner and others. They have provided us with professional and friendly service consistently over these past years and have been very flexible and accommodating to our requests.  A special thanks to Peter Wilson & Nicki DeVillers, GM of the Northern Club for establishing the relationship 10 years ago that enabled us to have our Club meetings in this beautiful historic venue. 

 

Jonathan Amos from Starsoft was our second awardee. Club member Bob Davie (who passed away a few years ago) established a relationship with Starsoft and they developed our meeting registration notification email system (the one prior to Club Runner). While we no longer use Starsoft, it is important we recognise the support they have provided us (for free) and wish them continued success.

 

In addition to our Champions & Board members, we are fortunate to have some outstanding members who went above and beyond by demonstrating teamwork and positive behaviours to help our Club move forward.

 

Byran Theunisen & Steve Briggs - did a fantastic job helping me with our Club Strategy & Structure and I will recognise them at the Changeover (since they had business trips outside of Auckland and were not present);

 

Des Trigg, Kenneth Winstone & Frankie Crellin- have done a brilliant job ensuring we have a great line up of speakers that "feed our minds" with current issues of the day and help us leave with a positive experience for the week.

 

 

Des as the Speaker Convenor and leader of the team, has help us retain our reputation for bringing in excellent speakers ranging from business leaders such as Brian Gaynor, Craig Heatley, politicians turned philanthropists former PM Jim Bolger, Sir Don Mckinnon and various community leaders such as Alwyn Poole a Chartered Schools Champion and Adina Thorne, a lawyer helping to get justice for people with leaking homes.

 

Dan Turkel, Graham Hendry, Susanne Loesser - have done a great job managing our weekly operations. Dan (who was the only one present on the day) is one of the Reception Team Leads and also sends out our weekly meeting notices. This role is important as it ensures everyone has a breakfast and smile waiting for them when they arrive. Often times these members are also the last ones to be seated and it requires quite a bit of multi-tasking as well. 

 

 

PFL James Langton was recognised for his contribution as the Sargent's team lead and was given a new title "Master of Fun" as he did a wonderful job ensuring we don't take ourselves too seriously while helping us raise money for the Sunshine Fund. In addition James is the Champion for City Mission. 

 

 

Kat Trevor & Gareth Juddery - were recognised for their leadership as Chairs of the Fellowship Committee. They have done a wonderful job finding new venues to hold our various events including the Christmas Party at Williams Eatery and have organised several volunteer service events at City Mission (cooking for the homeless) and Ronald McDonald house in addition to the other fun events (Rub Shoulders at Diane Davidson's, Melbourne Cup at Sheila McCabe's, etc.) that were held this year. 

 

 

David Graham & James Billing were recognised for their "out of the box" innovative thinking - including James' Art Walk project which was a huge opportunity to do something different, but a bit too big for our club to do it on our own. David Graham brought to our Club celebrity speakers including Craig Heatley & Michelle A'Court which helped us raised a significant amount of money for our Club causes. He also enabled us to have our First Meeting of the Year as an evening Yacht Cruise around the Auckland harbour. 

 

 

James Hook was recognised as our "Outstanding New Member of the Year" and is multi-tasker extraordinaire. James has taken the initiative to help where ever he can and he does it with a smile and positive attitude. He was our 5-minute speaker convenor, member of our Sargent's team, he takes photo at our meetings for the Noticeboard, and volunteers and attends almost all of the events.  

 

Wayne Dyer & Gill Johnston were recognised for the wonderful mentorship that they have provided me in terms of wise counsel and advice. They have also been extremely helpful and supportive of ideas and were instrumental in launching new projects and initiatives that help prepare our Club for the future.

 

 

Our Club is only able to do the things we do, because of our collective passion and teamwork. Thank you all for your generosity, care and commitment to our Downtown Rotary Club.

 

I am honoured to have been President and look forward to passing on the chains to President Elect Byran in just a week's time.

 

See you all at the Changeover Party on Saturday 29th June.

 

Yours in Rotary,

Lucy