Present : President, Wally Garrett; Immediate Past President, Jan Dempsey; David Brownson; Geoff Harding; John Pitman; Dennis Eales; Murray Gillespie, Ian Smiley, Gary Brown, Sally Morch,  Des Friedrich, Simon Northrop, Michael Archer ( 13)

 

Apologies :Tony Bird, Myles Derry(2)

 

Visiting Rotarians: Majoie Hemelaar ( SouthAfrica), David Brown (Rotary Club of Wellington, Somerset, UK)

 

Guests: Jackie Mayne, Ngaire Claridge, Suzanne Vennik(Guest speaker), Patricia Malapit ( 34th Rotary Science and Technology Forum Student) and her mother.

 

Grace :David Brownson

 

Fines were levied by Ian Smiley on things Medical

 

Three Minute Talk : Majoie  Hemelaar talked about the new method of testing for Cervical Cancer. 180 people/year get CV and 60/year die of it in NZ. Previously Pap Smear tests (every 3 years)  may be combined with a test for human papillomavirus (HPV) — a common sexually transmitted infection that can cause cervical cancer.

Now a self test swab can be done every 5 years and referred to a GP.

Australia has introduced a vaccine for young girls before they are sexually active which has reduced the rate of CV considerably.

 

 

 

 

 

Patricia is from Sacred Heart College (Year 13). She talked about the 34th Rotary Science and Technology Forum. This is a very intensive Programme over a 2 week period run by Rotary in conjunction with Auckland University, AUT and Massey University and which our club contributed 50% of the cost.

She described it as a very challenging academic and social interaction programme.

All students were given a Dragon's Den (problem solving) exercise where they had to come up with a solution in the middle of the second week.

During the 2 weeks they were exposed to a very broad range of Branches of science and visits to several different science related companies.

She was particularly interested in Sports Science (keen sportsperson) and Biomedical Science.

Notable visits to The Liggens Institute, Biomedical Engineering at The Auckland Medical School and Watercare looking at Environmental Science.

She was exposed to Robotics with a coding challenge and surprisingly pleased with the outcome. 

Now likely to go to Auckland University as a result of the Forum. Her ambition is to become a Paediatrician.

She thanked the Club for giving her the opportunity to attend a full on, amazing experience, meeting so many fellow students around the country and creating friendships through teamwork.

 

 

 

 

Our guest speaker was introduced by her mother Sally Morch.

 

She's the NPDC Wastewater Manager and her talk was about the Wastewater Treatment Plant.

 

The plant processes 22 million litres  of wastewater from Domestic and Commercial users

from 5 Pumping stations (the largest processing 2/3rds at the Te Henui pump station) in the NPDC District. (1 million Litres is the amount of water at The Kawaroa Baths)

Interestingly Tegels wastewater is processed in the evening.

 

Initially the wastewater is screened for any solids above 5mm. The sludge collected is taken to The Landfill (roughly 5/6 spa pools per day).

 

The plant uses 75,000 litres of potable water per hour to break down the wastewater, through various processes using natural microorganisms to convert matter into gases and water. Use of settling ponds and Chemicals then separate water (discharged to an outlet 480Metres off shore of drinkable water) and sludge. There is a thermal drying facility which converts 20% of the sludge to Biomass and saves $1.3Million in landfill costs. The fertiliser is sold as Bioboost at Mitre 10 and Palmers.

 

There are a lot of compliance requirements and no consents for discharging raw sewerage.

 

Gary Brown thanked Suzanne for a very interesting talk and reminded us how forward thinking the council had been to develop the Carousel Plant in 1984.

 

 

 

The Directors will be recommending that The Trust  purchase 4 boxes of these books @$400.00/box to go to Marfell and Moturoa Schools.

 

 

Instead of meeting on the 2nd Monday of March (Taranaki Holiday) we will meet on the 3rd Monday 18th March.

 

Monday 25th March.- Car Rally

 

We will be meeting in Watson St opposite the Auto Lodge at 5.30pm for a car rally (probably lasting 30 minutes) which will involve answering simple clues to questions which will eventually lead to a meal at Stumble Inn and prizes?

Numbers to Murray Gillespie by Sunday 24th March, in Wally's absence (on holiday in the SI) will be required for reservations at Stumble Inn.

 

 

Murray Gillespie reported on a successful tournament held in hot fine weather on Friday 9th March with 23 teams  competing for the Annual Russell Moore Memorial Trophy. Close to $14000 Gross raised.

The wining team and Russell Moore Trophy recipient was the Taranaki Rugby Champs- lead by The NZ Rugby Coach of the year Neil Barnes.

Big thank you to all those that helped on the day, particularly Des Friedrich and Myles Derry. Myles ran the 50/50 raffle very successfully with 2000 tickets sold $2320 collected

$1160 going to the prize pool. Mark Irving the winner of the raffle generously donated his winnings $1160 back to Flourish.

Next years Centennial Tournament to be held on Friday 14th February 2025 (Valentines Day).

 

 

Des congratulated Geoff Harding and Janet Dunlop on the great gardening work they were doing at the flats.

Des mentioned that the Clubs PO Box was now closed at that all physical mail would go to a letter box installed at 106/5  at The Lemon St Flats.

 

Parting Thought : Dennis Eales

 

Some things man was never meant to know for everything else there is Google