Rotary Club of PlimmertonNew member introductions
Sue Adams
Sue lives in Camborne with her husband, Murray. She was a member of Eastern Hutt Rotary for many years until 2013. These days Sue runs her own business, Assurance Counselling and is involved in Counselling, Mediation and Employment Assistance, but in the 1970s she owned & operated a shop in Lambton Quay selling high fashion shirts and ties. Sue says retail business was exciting and rewarding on reflection but believes she is much more fulfilled working with people. She never fails to be amazed at the incredible impact they have on her life, learning more from them than any training could afford. “I believe that every person has a fundamental right to express their opinions, to be listened to, heard and respected. I believe that the person who will listen, hear and respect another’s opinions, beliefs, values and feeling even when they differ from their own will develop a deeper level of maturity. This does not mean they have to change their own beliefs or values in the process”.
Sponsor - Wendy Betteridge
Mike Doig
Mike lives in Plimmerton with his wife, Phillipa. He transferred to us this year from Wellington Rotary Club where he'd been a member since 2001. Mike regaled us with his past work experiences, from how Colonel Gaddafi changed his life to his recent retirement from a position with Science New Zealand. In late 1960s to early 1970s Mike was an engineer with a large multinational in UK and was to work on a big project in Libya which was cancelled when Gaddafi came into power. He transitioned from manufacturing via degrees at Victoria University to the Ministry of Research. Mike's interests including reading, ham radio, fixing things, electronics and travel. The following quote encouraged him: “Manufacturing industry is not just a mechanistic world of science and mathematics: it is not a cold laboratory. It is instead a warm world of humanity in which all the classic dramas are played out – good against evil, prosperity against want, generosity against greed, beauty against ugliness. It is a world in which science and art go hand in hand, and where bold bright people with knowledge and imagination have much to do”.
Sponsor - Bill McAuley.
Roy Gilmour
Roy lives with his wife, Donna, and young family in Upper Hutt. They recently returned to New Zealand after 10 years in Asia. Sadly, he reported, he lost his sense of humour while working for two years in China. The long hours made him serious! His work experience began in retail with Michael Hill jewellers, then with a fork lift licence he worked in the Olympic Village in Sydney which led to logistics and delivery. Home became Hong Kong after attaining a university degree in management and unlikely jobs led him to realise his real life work was teaching, but he returned to NZ and with his wife currently run their own business marketing a large ink jet printer he imported from China. While in Hong Kong he helped in a rugby club with children with hair lips and his wish to help in the community has inspired him to join Rotary.
Sponsor - Peter Sinke.
Brian Paget
Brian lives in Mana with his wife, Kate O'Byrne. He was a Rotarian with Wellington East from 1965-70 and Kapi Mana from 1995-2001. Brian divided his life into 9 decades, from the one he was born in, though school and university years to work as an architect with the Clock Tower in Lower Hutt to his credit. Overseas civil service saw him in Sierra Leone in the 1960s and on return to NZ family, home and work with Tse Group in Auckland occupied him till his return to Wellington with work at BRANZ, lecturing at Vic, and work with Craig Craig & Moller. In the 1990s he became interested in computers and programming, was a charter member of Kapi Mana Club and started up Friends of Mana Island for which he was awarded a PHF in 2001. He retired in 2013 from owning his own computer consulting company.
Sponsor - Graham Wallace.
Joe Perera
Joe lives in Paremata with his wife, Sheryl. He immigrated to New Zealand from Sri Lanka in 1972 as a boy with his family. His father was a doctor in Napier. Joe graduated from Auckland university with an electrical engineering degree in 1978 and married Sheryl that year also. He worked for NZED which became Electricorp then supervised construction of Rangipo, Ohau, Clyde and Ohaaki power stations. Promotion to management gained him experience in geothermal power at Ohaaki, then two years were spent on development projects in Java. He was head hunted by Telecom where he worked for 18 years till taking early retirement in 2013. Now he gets up at 2am to run his own Options Trading business specialising in the New York Stock Exchange. Joe & Sheryl enjoy travel.
Sponsor - Peter Lillico.
Rob Tinney
Rob lives in Plimmerton with his wife, Janice. He is currently a Project Manager with North Power Ltd. Rob is a Life Member of Plimmerton Boating Club and was a member of Plimmerton Volunteer Fire Brigade for 25 years. He can't be with us tonight so we will await his introduction on another night.
Sponsor - Peter Lillico.
Snippets
Peter Sinke reported on the Adult Playground which is being built in the Pacific Island Community in Porirua East. He has volunteers who have offered to help with the paint work.
The almoner reported on Graham Kelly’s health.
Treasurer, Bruce Couch advised donation receipts have been given out and the Club has donated $6,800.00 to The Rotary Foundation, made up a monies collected for Polio, the sale of wine, and meal refunds.
President Ron gave a Board report. Grant A Wish will donate $10,990 worth of wishes to low decile schools in Porirua East. He showed the Club members the Enduring Vision Document for Te Ara Piko, The Meandering Path. It is on the website. Thanks particularly to Phillip Reidy. There will be a limited edition produced expressly for the Opening of the Pathway later in May. A website for the Pathway is being set up.
The Communications Committee will soon be starting to work on the ‘Members Only’ section of the website. When this is up and running members will be able to log in to find such everyday things as contact details for other members (and much more). Being able to do this doesn’t require training (of course) but if anyone in the club would like to be included in some training in content management, please let Phil Currie know. A training session will be organised as soon as practical and some members from other sites on the platform – such as Tawa Rotary, Shine, educationporirua, healthporirua, e-Learning, Te Ara Piko, Pauatahanui Residents Association, etc., may also want to participate in the training at the same time.