The club is going to undertake a diversity survey to ultimately help drive membership.  This is a District initiative to better understand membership demographics over time (ethnicity/gender/age/ etc.) and /or areas of involvement (youth/environment/wellbeing etc.) to “present an accurate narrative of the diversity of Rotary” to dispel myths, or otherwise, and to identify areas to broaden our appeal.

 

Rhys Jenkins and Mark Willyams will put the survey together as the content is at our discretion as each club and its community is unique.  The intention is to do the survey on an annual basis to better understand the club’s direction.  The results will be sent to District so they can in turn build a broader picture amongst the clubs. We will discuss this more at our next meeting.

 

It was another interesting and enjoyable meeting this last week, with some worthwhile general business discussions, including the recognition of Finn Butcher as Alexandra’s most recent (only?) Olympian and the welcoming of Richie Stephens as a well-deserved honorary member. Plus, the interesting presentation from Uruuruwhenua Health last Tuesday on their expanding role as a holistic health provider throughout Central within the Maori framework of care. They do such important and worthwhile work (further information below).

 

The Charity Dinner and Auction is struggling, despite having what is recognised as a great speaker in Simon McKinney.  We don’t have enough tables as it’s a tough economic environment out there and the corporates aren’t coming on board as we hoped.  So please, put some tables together with friends, family, neighbours, aunties etc.  And from your own networks of business contacts.  If you are unsure if they have or haven't been already contacted, please discuss with me.

 

We didn’t have a great representation at the District Conference (myself included) so it was good that we did have Rhys there, thanks Rhys.  He gave us a quick overview of the conference and his key take outs. One really interesting initiative is the Mobile Community Hubs that are first and foremost an emergency resource, but secondly a base for community groups, like us, to work from when they need a mobile base - all proudly sign written with Rotary.  The desire is to have 4 of these in Central with one here in Alex.  Watch this space.

 

A reminder that the role of ‘meet and greet’ (including last word) requires that all visitors have a name badge and that the club offers them a free drink. Of course they do not pay for their meal as well.

 

And don’t we live in our own paradise, these autumn days are just stunning. Remind yourself of that occasionally.

 

 

Damian Spring (picture below right) is the CEO of Santana Minerals Ltd and a mining engineer and a chartered professional member of the Australasian Institute of mining and metallurgy and holds a first class mine managers certificate. He is based in Arrowtown.

 

He spoke about the open caste gold mine soon to be opened in the Bendigo/Ophir area, and in particular the Rise and Shine gold site which is being touted as "the most significant single gold discovery in New Zealand in four decades" (according to Santana Minerals Ltd).

 

The company’s statement to the Australian stock exchange earlier this month details results from drilling at four sites within the wider 272sq km of the Bendigo-Ophir gold prospect, which is about 10km from Tarras.

 

While the ‘Rise and Shine’ site is the most promising. ‘Come In Time’, ‘Shreks’ and ‘Shreks-East’ sites have also been drilled.

 

The combined total of gold resource was estimated to be 2.9million ounces in January 2023, which was confirmed by infill drilling last year.

 

Just a small part of the prospect has been drilled and studied so far. In December, the mining permit was extended for another five years by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, and Santana is preparing to extend research to the wider site.

 

Ecological studies were under way, taking in plants, bats, skinks, geckos, invertebrates, moths and pests.

 

An environmental manager is being recruited to produce an assessment of environmental effects for resource consent applications, which Mr. Spring hoped would be lodged later this year with the Central Otago District Council and the Otago Regional Council.

 

Mr. Spring said the December repeal of the Natural and Built Environment Act meant the process reverted to known processes under the Resource Management Act, providing certainty for the company to move forward. Financial metrics were not yet available. The company still needed to work out what the mine could look like, how much it would cost and the value it would produce.

 

No formal community engagement has taken place yet, but school groups had visited to learn about what Santana Minerals was doing. 

 

[above information from Santana site]

 

As John has said above, the presenter(s) gave a very interesting talk on Maori health initiatives in Central Otago. There is also a centre in Queenstown.

 

Uruuruwhenua Hauora call their centres 'wellbeing centres'. They cater for anyone in the community not just Maori.

 

Uruuruwhenua Hauora employs 'Navigators' to reach out to people in need. Navigators also link people to community services including to GPs, to ACC, sexual health clinics, vaccine clinics, public health nurses, mental health facilities and offer Smoking support for those wanting to give up.

 

The wellbeing centres also provide fitness and nutrition coaching, free weekly counselling sessions, job seeking support and sleep safe programmes.

 

Below is the uruuruwhenua logo. The image is of a woman. Surrounding her head is an area, a space of thought and mental health.

 

Her arms depict two birds opposing one another and represent the comings and goings of people in the area.

 

The arms signify the nurturing and supportive concepts of whanau and in the centre there is a mountain giving birth to life and to good health.

 

The 25th of April is the National Day of Commemoration of Australia and New Zealand for victims of war and for recognition of the role of their armed forces. It marks the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War.

 

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The soldiers in those forces became known as ANZACs. Anzac Day is a commemoration of the anniversary of the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli, Turkey on 25 April in 1915. When Great Britain declared war against Germany for its invasion of Belgium in 1914, Australia and New Zealand, as Dominions within the British Empire, regarded themselves automatically also at war.

 

At dawn on 25 April 1915, the first of approximately 70,000 soldiers from the Allies landed at Gallipoli. The objective was to drive through to Istanbul, take Turkey out of the war and to provide supplies to Russia in its fight against Germany. Out of these 70,000 soldiers, more than 20,000 were Australian and New Zealand soldiers. What had been planned as a bold stroke became a stalemate after the invading troops failed to reach their objective on the first day. For the next eight months they clung to the land they had captured, before eventually withdrawing at the end of 1915.

 

After both sides had suffered heavy casualties, the Allied forces were evacuated. It is estimated that 8,700 Australian and 2,700 New Zealanders were killed.

 

One year later, in 1916, the first anniversary of the landing was observed in Australia, New Zealand and England and by troops in Egypt. That year, 25 April was officially named ‘Anzac Day’ by the Acting Australian Prime Minister, George Pearce.

 

Today we speak of an ‘Anzac tradition’, meaning the ideals of courage, endurance and mateship that are still relevant to this day.