Present: David Lusk, Des Friedrich, Murray Gillespie, David Brownson, David Gibson, Gary Brown. Wally Garrett, Jan Dempsey, Tony Bird, Geoff Harding
Apologies: Stephen Bovett, Sally Morch, Owen McCluggage, Chas Wilcox, Dennis Eales
Guests: Tilde Skrealid (RYE 2017/18 from Sweden), Gordon Gower (former member and Host for Tilde), Gaylene Lines (Tawa Rotary RYE incoming Student Coordinator).
Des Friedrich acted as Chairman for the meeting.
David Lusk joined by phone and welcomed everybody particularly Tilde and commented that it was nice to know that she was still speaking English fluently. He thought that we would still be meeting as a club via zoom to at least the end of May.
Guest Speaker: Tilde Skrealid
Introduced by: Jan Dempsey
Jan was Tilde's counsellor/mentor in 2017/18 and remembers the experience fondly getting to know Tilde very well in the time she was here.
Tilde:
Commented that she hadn't prepared anything particularly for the meeting preferring to have an open discussion about her life since returning home and her future plans.
She initially found it difficult when she returned from a comparatively free time in New Zealand to living with family and readjusting to those constraints.
However she has now settled back and enjoying her remaining time at High School which ends in about a months time.
Under the current COCID 19 situation in Sweden all High School Tuition has been from home in the last 2 months. She was able to talk to us, as a friend was recording the lesson she was missing.
Her intention is to do a 4 year MBA (Business and economics)course at Lundt University (All english speaking) in a couple of months time after the Summer holidays.
She may defer this for a year and come to New Zealand in January for a Gap year. dependent on whether the New Zealand borders are still closed because of COVID 19
She still does part time work in a retail craft store. All businesses have continued to operate in Sweden since the COVID 19 situation all be it with social distancing required and limited weekly hours for each employee.
Over 70 year olds being the most at risk population group have been kept isolated in their own homes in Sweden. Under 15 year old children have been attending school and kindergarten/preschool. All High school and Uni students are working on line from home.
It was nice to have Gaylene Lines from the Tawa Club join us as the incoming RYE Coordinator and interested in contacts being maintained by Tilde with RYE students from the year she was in New Zealand. Tilde has kept in close contact with Linnea who was from Denmark and they had planned to come back to New Zealand together pre COVID 19.
Tilde has been involved with ROTEC which helps with mentoring incoming and returning RYE Swedish students. She also accepted an invitation to be a United Nations Youth representative in Sweden.
We were also able to peak with Tilde's mother Ingegerd on her perspective of life in Sweden under COVID 19 restraints. She mentioned that social gatherings were limited to 50 people and that there were international travel restrictions but no limits within Sweden.
Thanked by Tony Bird who in thanking Tilde commented that Spotswood College which Tilde attended was going to have its 100 anniversary at Easter but cancelled because of COVID 19. He found the chat (with her mother too) really enlightening and great to see her looking so well. It was good to reconnect with her, thanked her for taking the time to talk to us and wished her well for the future.
David Lusk also thanked Tilde and commented that in a recent email with her she mention she would be working at a warehouse (driving a forklift) for the biggest milk supplier in Sweden for a couple of months. He was pleased that she was connecting with the Dairy Industry.
COVID 19
Des led a discussion about how members were coping at present.
Gordon commented that good things were happening with technology such as Zoom which probably wouldn't have been driven so much under normal conditions.
Everyone was positive about moving into Level 2 and things getting back to a bit of normality.
The Club will continue to use Zoom for the next meeting 25th May and review what was possible after that in June.
Des commented that a Cluster meeting was being held on Wednesday 13th May via Zoom.
All Presidents, PEElects and AG Elect invited.
District 9940 Learning and Development (Saturdays 16th, 23rd, 30th May)
An email has been sent to all members about this. You are encouraged to join the Zoom sessions if possible, although registration can only be made on line through:
www.rotary9940.org
10 May 2020: Registrations are enabled.
Preparing for the new rotary year - on-line learning webinars for Club and District Leaders and interested Rotarians and Rotaractors who want to learn more.
The COVID-19 crisis and lockdown has dramatically affected every community around the world and Rotary is no different.
We lost the opportunity to get together for District Assembly after our Conference in May.
However, to quote Winston Churchill - Never waste a good crisis !
And we are not !
Rotarians and Rotaractors throughout NZ and the world have demonstrated fantastic adaptability taking advantage of technology and our internet connected world. Suddenly, Rotarians are rapidly becoming masters of on-line meetings, conferences and discussions keeping our clubs and activities alive and finding it a rewarding experience.
So - we are going to have a bigger and better District Assembly.
The District Learning and Development Committee are organising a series of zoom on-line meetings for our District.
The Schedule is shown below.
Choose the sessions you are interested in and register.
You will be sent a zoom link in email to join the sessions selected. DONT LOSE THE EMAIL !
.
Next Club Zoom Meeting Monday 25th May
5.00pm Speaker to be advised
Here are the Instructions to join the meeting;
Murray Gillespie is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Rotary Club of Ngāmotu Meeting Room
Join Zoom Meeting ( click on this link)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7897267679?pwd=R016T2ZiZ2ZMMzhOR3BLM1MwMEhpZz09
or alternatively Join the meeting as below
Meeting ID: 789 726 7679
Password: 258949
Murray Gillespie (May 13, 2020)
