It was great to see a good turnout for the club night and maybe the free drink helped with the feedback during discussions. It is essential that we do have these nights to discuss, review and improve what we do for ourselves and the community.

 

There was agreement to continue with all our core projects especially the iconic book sale. The key discussion point therefore was the book sale and there was excellent support for it to continue with a new working committee of Mark Willyams, Hugh McIntyre, Ren Lothian, Gordon Wilson, John Whitaker and Bob Clark to drive it along. It will be important to use outside sources as and when required, but given the iconic nature of the event and the donations to the groups involved, it shouldn’t be difficult to get the numbers. There will be some good support from the old hands too to ensure a continuity of knowledge, especially about book valuations.

 

There were also some good suggestions to improve the other projects we are doing and a few suggestions for some new initiatives around town (see later).

 

The Charity Dinner was another of our projects thought to be important to continue with. Names of possible speakers were discussed and Jamie Joseph was mentioned.

 

Another important issue raised was the wearing of Rotary uniforms when involved with community projects. Rhys will relook at uniforms and the possibility of stocking them.

 

With regard to the quiz night, the club could consider having more raffle tickets available and perhaps a silent auction on the night.

 

Also, from an IT point of view, the club will focus on this issue when it is clear regarding the future of Club Runner.

 

Jillian will look to establish a committee to grow membership through corporate and associate membership with a focus on those that support the charity dinner initially.

 

I gave an update on Regionalisation. It will be interesting and hopefully worthwhile as this new structure comes into being and as we start to get involved with some new Central Otago projects with the clubs of Queenstown, Wanaka and Cromwell. We also reviewed elements of the District 9999 Strategic Plan and there were some good suggestions around that, particularly the strengthening of our ties to Dunstan High School once the new principal is appointed.

 

Cleaning a road/track.

Mountain biking for youth.

Updating existing Alexandra signs, including an update of the Rotary signs.

Reestablish a good working relationship with Dunstan High School when the new principal starts.

Ensure we get recipients of our support along to talk to us as the diversity of people involved is much wider than our current membership. This is also another avenue for prospective members.

 

The club already does quite a bit regarding an environmental strategy with support for the Tititea Lodge, trees for babies, firewood, Poplar Grove work and Haehaeeta. Perhaps the club could be more involved with the Haehaeeta Trust.

 

There was agreement to replace the river side BBQ (that doesn’t work and is flood prone) with a picnic table at a different site.

 

Brian to review the plantings and the Rotary sign on Poplar Grove.

 

John to give periodic 5-minute backgrounds on the core Rotary functions, including Rotary Foundation, District Grants, RYLA, Polio etc. all exciting stuff! This will be good for new members and maybe even the old hands.

 

There will be a working bee at the Community House on Tuesday the 19^th of March. The hedges need trimming along with the oak tree at the entrance and spraying the courtyard. John to follow up with Bernie to ensure that cars are clear of the hedge.

 

 

 

An intrepid team of Rotarians headed up to the Mt. Aspiring Education Trust Lodge for the weekend of the 9th to 11th of February. The mission was to ensure the lodge was set up for the camp season; lawns were mown, water tanks filled, diesel filled and the new generator checked and running. Cleaning stuff was checked and cleaning done. The lodge was sparkling.

 

Two lumberjacks cut up a dead Willow and many hands cut wood for the woodshed which is brimming to the top, enough for two seasons.

The gutters were cleaned out and a toilet door repaired after a member got stuck inside.

Time was found for relaxing, supping of ales and enjoying delicious meals thanks to Hugh.

 

There were no complaints of snoring, everyone had their own room!!

The energetic tramped out the long way enjoying the spectacular scenery.

 

A very worthwhile few days away.

 

 

 

 

This was a sporting drama directed by George Clooney that follows a group of impoverished young Americans who, through rowing, emerge from the depths of the Great Depression to take on Hitler’s regime.

 

Berlin, 1936: a crew of nine Americans arrive in the heart of Nazi Germany to compete in the Olympic Games. All blue-collar boys who learned to survive and thrive at a time of economic depression, they have dominated the sport of rowing in their nation, easily beating teams from the most elite schools. Now they are eyeing Olympic glory and gold.

 

The movie focuses on Joe Rantz who was a member of the rowing eight, made up of eight oars and a coxswain from the University of Washington, which in the 1930s had quickly risen from junior varsity to Olympic hopefuls. Rantz and his story epitomised the adversity faced by members of the Husky crew as they called themselves.

 

Joe Rantz was born in 1914 in Spokane, Washington, he was four years old when he lost his mother to cancer, and when his father remarried, his stepmother reportedly took a quick and vicious disliking to him. At the age of 10, Rantz was forced out of the family home, and for more than a year he slept in the town’s schoolhouse.

 

Though eventually allowed to return home, several years later Rantz was abandoned completely. One evening when he was 15, he arrived home from school to find his father, stepmother and half-brother in the car with their belongings, ready to leave Spokane in search of a better life. They had no intention of taking young Joe, and he had no idea where they were going.

 

The teenage Rantz was left to fend for himself: hunting or fishing to eat if he could not rely on soup kitchens, and earning scraps of money by selling liquor he had stolen or taking labour jobs where he could.

 

But still Rantz grew up tall, strong and athletic. And it was while competing in sports at school that he caught the eye of the University of Washington’s rowing coach.

 

Rowing alongside Joe Rantz were Don Hume, George ‘Shorty’ Hunt, James ‘Stub’ McMillin, Johnny White, Gordy Adam, Chuck Day and Roger Morris. The diminutive Bobby Moch yelled the instructions and motivation as the coxswain.

 

They had been chosen among hundreds of young men vying for oars on the various university boats. Despite rowing’s reputation as a pastime of the elite, these men came from the working-class world of the Pacific Northwest, where their fathers worked as loggers, fishermen and dairy farmers.

 

This was soon after the Great Depression, and rowing offered poor and struggling students the promise of food and a place to live, but also a chance to earn money. The University of Washington secured part-time jobs for all members of its rowing crews, which enticed many like Rantz to persevere during the gruelling and highly competitive try-outs.

 

Rowing enjoyed immense popularity in the US at the time. Thousands attended each regatta, with many spectators standing on special observation trains that ran along the riverbank to ensure not a stroke would be missed.

 

Newspapers hailed the Husky team who became known as the ‘boys in the boat’ – working-class kids taking on teams from elite East Coast schools – and covered their successes with relish, describing their motion as a “symphony of swinging blades”.

 

In 1936, they dominated the national collegiate rowing championships in Poughkeepsie, New York, and raced to victory at the Olympic trials in Princeton, New Jersey, becoming the first crew from Washington to represent the US at the games.

 

In Berlin, the boys stormed through the heat of the men’s eight, outpacing the British team made up of veterans of the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race, to face the favourites – Italy and Germany – in the final.

 

Despite being given the worst lane, where they would be battered by the winds, they stuck to their trademark tactic of sitting back for much of the race before powering to a sprint finish. In a close finish, the US crew won the gold medal by half a second from Germany.

 

The Berlin Olympics was to be a propaganda showcase for Adolf Hitler’s regime, carefully curated to hide the truth of the Third Reich from the rest of the world.

 

The German athletes delivered, too – especially in rowing. Hitler watched from a balcony over the boathouse at the finish line as the German crew won five of their seven events, but he had to endure the humiliation of the US victory in the most prestigious race, the men’s eight.

 

The Fuhrer ‘neglected’ to congratulate the winning American crew.