We can all be very grateful to Ainie Kwok, Brian Fergus, and all who contributed to a successful and special evening last Thursday as we hosted 60 delegates from the Zone 7b Rotary Symposium at Waipuna Lodge, including Rotary International VIPs and all our NZ and Pacific District Governors. It was an honour to have their visit and their friendship - helping me realise again the international nature of Rotary and also that those who have stepped up for higher responsibilities in Rotary are down-to-earth and approachable people. Rotary Foundation Trustee Mike Webb from UK gave an excellent overview of the Foundation and the contributions that Rotary makes through the Foundation at local to global levels. He concluded with a hilarious rendition of a story that accompanied a birthday present from his wife Alison; you had to hear it first hand!
Students from Glen Taylor School and from St Pius X Catholic School welcomed our guests in style, and were warmly received. The Glen Taylor students proudly wore their new kapa haka gear, provided through the generosity of public and businesses after a TV1 Fair Go item exposed the school's loss of funds to a fraudster. The Onja project established by our member Sam Lucas in Madagascar was very effectively presented to our guests by Simon Jones, and initial feedback has been encouraging.
This week begins with the Combined Committee Meetings tomorrow evening, Monday 11th Sept. at 6.30 pm at Remuera Golf Club (downstairs) - please join your committee and learn how you can be involved. And for our Thursday morning meeting, we look forward to welcoming Hugh Scott-Russell as a new member, and hearing about communication disorders in adults and children from our guest speaker Dr Suzanne Purdy from School of Psychology, University of Auckland.
Rotary Club of St Johns very proudly hosted many international Rotary guests (and extra's from around Auckland) at our recent 'full house' evening meeting.
Setting the tone for the evening was the Kapa Haka group from Glen Taylor School. Resplendent in their new uniforms, they gave a strong performance and the boys Haka was thoroughly enjoyed by our international guests. It was great to hear from their Principal (and club member) Chris Herlihy, who cleverly took the opportunity to promote the schools big raffle.
This performance was followed by students from St Piux X Catholic School who sang beautifully, accompanying themselves on guitar. They started with a well know kiwi classic (Ten Guitars) and also sang a Tongan number, in celebration of Tongan language week. It is always a delight to host students and staff from this school.
Club member Simon Jones took the floor to tell our guests about Sam Lucas and his Onja project. We can report that Simon's presentation generated some strong interest and comments from special visitor John Hewko (General Secretary of Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation) and some of the other influential Rotarians.
We were honoured to host a very large party of visiting Rotarian’s who were in Auckland to attend the Rotary Symposium taking place primarily at Waipuna Lodge from 8-10 September. The symposium combined two events, ‘Institute’ and ‘Future Leaders Seminar’.
‘Institute’ is an annual event where each Rotary International Director convenes a meeting of senior leaders in Zone (past, present and incoming) to share information, ideas and resources, build new connections and reacquaint with old friends, and exchange ideas about Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation.
The ‘Future Leaders’ seminar was open to any Rotarian wanting to learn more about Rotary from a leadership perspective. The symposium was preceded by pre-Institute events including Governor-Elect and Governor-Nominee training, Governors Forum and the best little club in the Biosphere (St John’s) hosting a joint meeting.
Our guest speaker was Rotary Foundation Trustee Mike Webb from England. To open, Mike told us his Rotary Club meets in the village of Cheddar, and how Cheddar (the Village) got its name. He then went on to talk about the Rotary Foundation.
Henning has sent us an update (via FaceBook Messenger)
Good Day, here I’m again!
I arrived good in Germany, but missed one flight in Dubai, so I arrived few hours later than I expected. After that I did do an internship for four weeks at an carpentry company, but they didn’t want to take me, so I called at one day with 20 companies to get an apprenticeship training position as soon as possible. And one company said that I could come around the next day to talk with the boss.
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Rotary Club of St Johns very proudly hosted many international Rotary guests (and extra's from around Auckland) at our recent 'full house' evening meeting. 
This performance was followed by students from St Piux X Catholic School who sang beautifully, accompanying themselves on guitar. They started with a well know kiwi classic (Ten Guitars) and also sang a Tongan number, in celebration of Tongan language week. It is always a delight to host students and staff from this school.
