It has been a busy period in the last two months working in a different way during the Covid-19 lockdown and the subsequent easing of levels. Rotary activity for me has been maintained albeit in a different format.

Club visits and collaborative projects
I have indicated that one of my goals for this Rotary year is to meet with groups and clusters of Clubs together, either on projects or at events while meeting with individually with Club Boards.

Prior to the Covid lockdown I met with Cashmere and their Board and was to meet with New Horizons in Mid-August. With the Covid-19 restrictions, this face-to-face meeting was postponed, and I have since met with them on the 27th October.

Despite not being able to program Club visits until recently I have managed to visit a number of Clubs for various reasons and have worked with others on projects. I will continue to do so while meeting with each Club Board separately.

I have visited Westport, Hokitika and Rangiora Clubs informally. This last week I have been in Nelson and met with several Clubs and Rotarians. I will report more fully on this visit in the next newsletter. I am working on a new programme as to how we can achieve my goal, which many clubs are working on, to join collaboratively on events and projects and how I can participate.

I have worked on Tree Planting projects with members of both Ashburton Clubs at the Tinwald Rotary Arboretum and more recently at the third Dallington planting Day with Christchurch New Horizons, Papanui, and Christchurch Sunrise members.

This third Rotary Peace, Remembrance & Forest Park Planting Day, was the last for the season and took place on the 2nd October in collaboration with Conservation Volunteers New Zealand groups in the Dallington Loop Red Zone area.

These clubs attended along with the local community, including families, planting 1,500 small native trees in two and a half hours with 70+ people, unfortunately not culminating with a BBQ this time.

It was an excellent afternoon and other combined planting days are planned to start in May next year to plant the 220,000 plants assigned to this project. It has been suggested that this becomes a family fun day.

Covid-19 and connecting with Clubs
During the lockdown I met on Zoom with several groups, including initiating two open-Mic Friday night sessions which were open to all Rotarians.

The Zoom technology has enabled a range of connections in the last two months from redistricting updates to the cluster meetings for some AG’s and district team/committee meetings for club development RYLA etc.

Assistant Governors
All the AG’s have met with their Presidents in the new cluster groupings throughout the Covid lockdown period and beyond either F2F or by Zoom. I have continued to attend some of these, where possible, and have been encouraged by the continuing enthusiasm, collaboration, and support within the groups.

District Committees
This year Foundation, Training and Development, and Club Development committees are meeting regularly with their D9980 counterparts. Two new committees have been formed.

An Environmental committee to promote and assist all clubs in the district working in the new Rotary International Area of Focus. And a District RYLA committee.

Westport
PDG Liz and I visited Westport in mid-September to meet with the Westport club, PDG Gary Hopkinson, AG Karen Stade and members from the supporting Nelson/Marlborough and Greymouth clubs as well as Habitat for Humanity Nelson to view the situation at first hand and to strategize Rotary involvement going forward.

We met with The Buller District Council Recovery Manager and after viewing the housing affected and the Shop Zero, set up with Greymouth and Westport Rotary input, the group met and developed a work sheet of possible projects for Rotary.

The team is actively working through options for respite and making the shop Zero more effective while detail for other areas is being identified and progressed.

The first family has been given a respite package in Hanmer Springs with accommodation at the Hanmer Forest Camp over Labour weekend.

To date with the district commitment of $20k a total of approximately $78K has been raised for the Westport Rotary Flood Relief Fund and I am aware of several clubs raising funds and commitments made which will result in a further amount of $12K in funds to come which could bring the total to $90K.

District Member Numbers
While numbers fell by net 50 in the last Rotary year, according to RI Membership Reports we have to date had a net increase of 13 members this year. 1069 as at 30 September. I am aware of membership initiatives in several clubs and hopefully Engagement of current members is being pursued following the Covid lockdown.

Hokitika
I attended the AGM of the club in mid-September and an extra-ordinary meeting after, where the club considered options for their future. They have had a further meeting since and are to reconvene to make a decision.

Provisional Passport Club
The club currently has 18-19 potential members and is actively pursuing interest to gain the next 1-2 members to charter. There is a varied age demographic, and the group is planning on chartering as soon as possible.

Under the championship of PDG Deb Gimblett the provisional club has undertaken several projects and is actively working with other clubs as opportunities arise.

The group have supported the first planting day at Dallington, assisted Ferrymead club with Yellow page delivery and held a “Lift the Lid “mental health day walk along New Brighton beach with gold coin support for Paige Sullivans 298 Rotary sponsored car initiative. This was supported by other Rotarians and members of the public.

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District 9999
Several Zoom presentations have been held in Clubs to explain the structure of the new district. I remind all clubs to return their voting paper on the new constitution prior to the 19th November.