Whoever coined the phrase "time flies when you're having fun," must have been thinking about our Downtown Club!  It's hard to believe that we are halfway through our Rotary year.

At our Annual General Meeting (AGM) this week, in addition to normal formalities of reporting our Club and Trust Accounts from last year we also had some good news stories to share.

The first was the announcement of President Nominee for 2020-21 Stuart Rowe.  

The second was that the Club Trustees approved (subject to process review) a loan of $25,000 to SPBD (South Pacific Business Development micro financing in Fiji), one of the key causes our members voted to support. 

Following the AGM, our Services Projects Director Steve Briggs opened up a rapid fire reporting session where our 8 Champions presented a STAR REPORT (status of their Causes) - in particular what's been done the last 6 months and what the plans are moving forward.  

This mid-year report was both informative and inspirational. While many of the activities communicated to members over the last few months may seem to be fundraising focused, our members have also been busy doing a lot of hands-on volunteer service in support of our Causes.

These service activities range from picking and packing vegetables and driving delivery trucks for KiwiHarvest, to hands-on cooking for families at Ronald McDonald House, to mentoring year 13 students at Auckland Girls Grammar School for the Young Enterprise Scheme, through to collecting food and clothing for City Mission. The list is much longer than I have space to write. If you would like to have a copy of what was presented this week please contact Steve Briggs, or you can find a copy on Dropbox.  

Our Champions did an excellent job of conveying this information to our members and their passion resonated within the room.

At the end of the year, we will provide a similar annual summary of what we as a club have collectively achieved. 

Later that evening, 63 of us enjoyed a special Xmas Dinner Party at William's Eatery organised by Fellowship Chairs Kat Trevor and Gareth Juddery.

We invited our Social Cause Partners from Trees for Survival (Adrian Barkla), Child and Adolescent Mental Health (Dr. Sally Merry and her husband Dr. Alan Merry), KiwiHarvest (Deborah Manning) and Ronald McDonald House (Rebecca Thomson) to join in the festivities.

We were also pleasantly surprised with some guest visitors including former members Antonio Caliari-Pearce and Kate Fisher.  

Santa PFL James also brought his usual cheer and good humour to liven up the evening before dashing off into the sunset. Oh- the life of a busy Santa during the holidays...

There were smiles in abundance along with great food and conversations. Everyone had a great time. 

Many thanks again to Kat & Gareth for their creativity in organising events in new venues with great food & fun.

Our last meeting of 2018 will be 11th December at 7:15am at the Holy Trinity Cathedral. We already have 64 people who have registered. Catering is by EatMyLunch so please send any dietary restrictions to Gill by 6th December. 

Have a wonderful week & see you at the Cathedral!

Lucy