Next Tuesday 5
th March our usual venue at Centennial Court is not available for our club meeting so instead we will have a working bee on the south bank of the Clutha river opposite Rotary Park. We will meet 5.30 pm at the Alexandra -Clyde Anniversary track car park (on Poplar Grove off Earnscleugh Road) and move on to the work site from there after a safety briefing. Anyone who is unsure where to go should contact Ren Lothian. A number of club members, including Ren, have already started this project.
At our last two meetings our “guest” speakers have been our own members. I hadn’t known that Mike Vercoe had gone to Christchurch to help with the clean- up after the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, taking Bill Currie and Jim Penno with him. Mike was shocked at the devastation in the Garden City and told us how himself, Bill and Jim were mainly involved in the effort to clean up the results of extensive liquefaction. A commendable response to a major emergency by these Rotarians.
This week Richard McKenzie educated and entertained us with a brief but comprehensive overview of the hole in the ozone layer problem and the (now) more serious issue of climate change. The ozone depletion issue was brought under control when it became economically advantageous to remove CFCs from products such as refrigerators and aerosols following the Montreal protocols. Climate change is a lot more problematic. However Richard cheered everyone up by telling us how the world has avoided a coming ice-age!
We have the Tasmanian Professional Development Exchange group with us for a few days from the 19th April. In liaison with Cromwell Rotary, Jim Carroll has worked out a schedule of activities for the Australians which should keep them busy. Anyone who would like to help with billeting this group please contact Jim.
In the next few months, among other things, we have the 4 way speech competition (Baz), Dictionaries for Schools (Jillian), the Charity Dinner on May 18th (Justine and the Fundraising Committee) and the Rotary District Conference at Oamaru.
One programme the directors considered at their last meeting was Innovative Young Minds. This initiative is designed to encourage young women to explore science, technology, mathematics and high-tech manufacturing, known as the STEMM sector, in which women are presently under-represented. The programme is open to year 11 and 12 students. In 2017 it started, originally only in the Greater Wellington area, but has now expanded nationwide. Rotary has been one of the sponsors from the beginning. It looks like a worthwhile project to me.
See you “riverside” Tuesday! Bring gloves and ear defenders.