Rapport (Jun 01, 2016)

Posted by Colin Lucas

Meeting 5 July 2016

Our meeting on Tuesday 5 July marked the beginning of President Simon’s year.

President Simon reported on his visit to One Tree Hill College to attend the graduation ceremony for participants in the Rotary Reading Enrichment Program which is supported by our club. Read Simon's thoughts on the day here.

He also congratulated Ross George on his 50 years in Rotary.

We had an update from John Mitchell on our Habitat 4 Humanity project followed by our keynote speaker; Mark Thomas.

John Mitchell updated us on the Habitat for Humanity project that we will be undertaking in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity and St Cuthberts College.

The projects name is “Help Hands Build”. The build will hopefull be taking place in Newmarket on Broadway using Transit NZ Land under the Newmarket Viaduct. This will be a major project for the club and you will be hearing plenty more on the subject.

Finally at Changeover the Club won the Rangitoto Trophy for environmental projects in our District.

Our Key Speaker for the meeting was Mark Thomas – Mayoral Candidate – Auckland City.

Mark gave us a summary of his background, which is a farming background, working in and managing a McDonalds store in Queen Street, Management roles with ANZ and the consulting and membership of the Orakei Local Board.

He identified 3 priorities that he would address if he becomes mayor. These are first making Auckland affordable, fixing Transport in Auckland and getting growth sorted. In short he wants to have an “Auckland that works”.

Mark would rather work on the must haves and not the nice to haves, such as for example the white water rafting centre in Manukau.

Mark told us he wants to review the Auckland Plan when it is released.

There are fifteen key priorities in the plan. Only one is transport. He also wants a debate about the cities balance sheet which is strong on assets which could be better utilised. For example selling shares in the Airport or Harbour and applying the proceeds to transport. He wants to transfer money from poor quality spending to better value spending such as Transport and Infra-structure.

Auckland transport is a particular interest. Mark wants to re-organise it so it does not run as a private fiefdom, as it seems to do now.

Marks address was warmly received by members present. A lively question time followed which showed those present had closely followed what Mark had said and wanted to test his position on various matters.

Thank you Mark.

Rotary Reading Enrichment Graduation

Posted by Simon Dalton on Jul 04, 2016

This was my first official function as the President of Rotary Newmarket. While I knew a little bit about the Rotary Reading Enrichment Programme, I don't think I've ever truly understood the benefit of it.

There are numerous Rotary projects that Newmarket, along with many other clubs, give time and money too. It becomes difficult sometimes to see the wood through the trees so it was a great opportunity to see first hand what effect this programme inparticular actually has on our community.

So, representing Rotary Newmarket and the Newmarket Rotary Charitable Foundation, I joined fellow Rotarian John Meadowcroft, representing the Lois Dalley Charitable Trust, on a trip to the graduation ceremony at One Tree Hill College.

But, before I tell you about my thoughts on the event, its perhaps worthwhile explaining what this particular programme is all about.

The Rotary Reading Enrichment Programme was founded by a Rotarian from the Parnell club quite a few years ago. His name is Harvey Allison and I had the pleasure of meeting him at the ceremony.

Harvey saw a need to improve the reading comprehension of kids in our community. The ability to read empowers learning and without the ability to comprehend the text being read, kids will never truly reach their potential. The concept is relatively simple; identify kids with potential and provide them with one on one tuition in school. The kids must sign a contract and fully commit to the programme and the school must back the concept as the kids will be removed from their usual classes.

While the concept is simple, putting one on one tuition into practice is hard. My hat goes off to the tutors (volunteers) and their coordinators for clearly doing an excellent job. Each child gave a brief presentation. Their eloquence astounded me. If only I had that level of confidence at their age. To stand in front of teachers, tutors, special guests and their parents and have the confidence to present in such a clear many was impressive. There were some stand out kids, as their usually are, that won some specific prizes but all demonstrated that the six months spent with their tutors was time well spent.

What I personally loved though, was seeing the pride on the parents faces. To see your child achieve is a fantastic experience.

So, thanks must go to Brian Langdon from the College for inviting us along. It was time very well spent and showed me clearly that this programme works.