Presentation
Bill Robson District Governor was in attendance and made a presentation to a surprised Pat Taylor. It was a merit award in recognition of outstanding services to Rotary. Pat was both surprised and touched. Members gave him a standing ovation.
The popular Green slot talk was put aside for today given the full programme.
Notices:
- President Michele made a plea to publicise the Great K Valley Cycle Adventure and thanked HOBEC for sponsorship of the event. Asked members to help identify other sponsors pointing out that there was good publicity available given that last year more than 200 people attended. next year.
- She also said that on 19 March Katikati Rotary were holding a BBQ at Te Puna Quarry – with the proceeds going to the Quarry park – It was more of a social event – tickets available from Michele at $25 each.
- Reminder about conference – 6 club members going so far – cheap deal for people who had joined Rotary post 2021 – only $75.
- Members asked to find the link and vote in the TECT community awards – vote for Bryan Winter as volunteer of the year and Rosalie for her work on Bringing Back Our Beach.
Guest Speaker – Erina Islam - Club Rep at Rotary Science and Technology Forum
Introduced by Chris, Erina is a Year 13 Tauranga Girls College student who attended this 2 week forum held in Auckland - along with 186 others. Erina was in a diverse group of 28 dubbed the Blue Group. One of the members was a Mount Maunganui student so she had someone attending in common.
There were modules in AI, chemistry, biology – her favourite, robotics, bioengineering and nutrition. She enjoyed doing practical stuff which had not been possible during Covid. Her moment in fame came in the strength test where her results showed her to outpower some of the boys on the course. She enjoyed learning about the crystallization of ethanol – it was fun because the instructor used colourful language. She also learned about green lipped mussels – good subject for dissection as
doesn’t feel any pain. “That’s because they can’t scream” one of the audience remarked drily. Erina showed slides of mussel’s gills and abductor muscles which keep the mussel closed and prevents it from desiccation or drying out. Other experiments included the dissection of sheep’s heart and lungs plus technical visits which including a Landcare visit and a visit to ESR forensics. Erina said she had experience as a debater and it was interesting to see how others approached debating. She gave her thanks to the club for letting her have the experience. She hopes to go on to have a medical career
Thanks came from David McDonald who said he enjoys the club focus on youth focus activities which was reinforced by Erina’s presentation.
Chris Dever in his new role of retired gentleman then introduced Ross Mosley who talked about his life and his work history.
Ross is a chartered accountant – which is his career to date. His home is 80% females – he has 3 great daughters “most of the time.” He hails from Dunedin where he went to school with fellow club member David McConnochie. He grew up in a house connected to a soft drink factory – grew up mixing soft drinks and doing deliveries – learned a lot of skills getting up early at 4am and working hard – the business had been established in 1876 making it one of the city’s oldest. He attended Otago University and did a finance degree – thought he was going to go to London and be an investment banker. He did go to London and worked with a couple of banks and trained with Deloittes, one of the big 4 accounting firms. He worked with PGG Agrifeeds and how they used molasses from sugar cane processing in the manufacture of animal feed. He also related how the waste from processing sugar cane was burnt to produce steam for electricity generation. He also talked about being CFO at Ziwi and the manufacture of pet food from carcasses and
offal. Appreciates businesses that are value adding. Most of all he enjoys – working as a team – creating sustainable enterprises – scalability and growth – creating jobs – increased wages being paid and family.
Everybody gave Ross a big hand.
Raffle: The vino was won by Wayne Shadbolt to a chorus of envious disbelief.
Two parting thoughts from : Bob Sutton
“A good person will never belittle others but uplift and empower them instead.”
And from Winston Churchill: “An appeaser is someone who feeds the crocodile hoping they will then be last to get eaten.”
Everyone then gave their usual rousing rendition of the national anthem.
