Visitors: Kerri Price, Clara da Silva, Julia, Gulia Morandi, Campbell Higgins (guest speaker)
Welcome–from President Michele Beaton who welcomed guest speaker Campbell Higgins from Acorn, and exchange students Clara da Silva and Gulia Morandi, guests of Glenn Dougal.
FYI: Simon Beaton spoke about electricity and adapting modern technology to existing infrastructure. He made two key points:
- 4th Generation power lines have a carbon/ceramic core making them stronger so that you can increase power capacity by around 30%. So as old powerlines need replacing, they can be replaced by the newer type.
- But we will need more capacity. Existing high voltage AC power lines have significant power losses mainly because they are AC. High Voltage DC powerlines are now increasingly being used, an example is solar farms in the Sahara region exporting power to northern Europe using HVDC underseas cables. Power loss is very low compared to HVAC. It is possible to pit a solar farm in the Australian desert and export the power using underseas HVDC to NZ.
Guest Speaker – Campbell Higgins, legacy giving manager for the Acorn Foundation spoke on the work of the foundation.
People give back to their community from a number of motivations including tradition, gratitude, faith, experience, recognition, legacy, tax management, in Memoriam, values, wanting to help and make change, and personal satisfaction.
Acorn donors can give as Unrestricted (Acorn chooses where funds go), Field of Interest, and Donor Directed.
Acorn responds to the community needs based on data received from a community survey conducted in 2020 and 2023.
Acorn also provide scholarships and awards eg in writing, sports, engineering.
There is also a community group fund supporting the Katikati Community. The fund has recently reached $50,000.
Pass-through is giving where the donor chooses the recipient and it goes from donor through Acorn to recipient in the same financial year.
Giving Circles - these are groups of 10 or more people who give a small amount each month and at the end of the year they decide where the money goes.
Pass-through corporate donations - businesses donate to causes.
Hundreds of people have left a gift in their will to Acorn which has been able to be gifted back to the community year upon year.
Biggest recipient is Waipuna Hospice, with donors tagging their donations and bequests to go specifically to the hospice.
Acorn is based in The Kollective in 17th Ave.
Notices & Announcements
- The Great K Valley Cycle Adventure is happening from 10am -2pm on Sunday 21 April. Weather looks good for Sunday. Anyone who has put their name down to help out, please meet after the meeting today.
- Garden and Art Festival 14-17 November. Mother's Day special $60 tickets have been released.
- Wayne Shadbolt is looking for volunteers for the Dawn service on Anzac Day in Papamoa to help him park cars early. Please contact Wayne Shadbolt to help with this as he is the only one down to do this at the moment.
- Chris Dever Is coordinating Poppy Day in Omokoroa. Text ‘POPPY’ to 8595 for $3 donation. (It will be billed to your cellphone bill). An Omokoroa Anzac Day commemoration will also be held in Omokoroa.
- May 3 - committee meeting - focusing on new projects, things that are small and relatively easy and can be repeated annually or biennially.
- June 1 & 8, 2024, dates are proposed for 'Guess Who is Coming for Dinner' raising funds for shelter box project.
Raffle: The vino was won by Kerri Price.
Sergeant at Arms: Les Geraghty
Les "fined" a few people:
- Barry for complaining about the undercooked bacon
- Greg Brownless for making news headlines talking about democracy.
- Wayne Shadbolt for putting together the bulletin and emailing it out to Rotary members while in Japan and while being sick with Covid. And for doing the PowerPoint at Rotary ...because fortunately Trish Geraghty's birthday came up on the screen this morning so Les was quickly able to text her from his breakfast at Rotary and pretty much save his marriage :) Les should probably be fined for that!
Les gave us some interesting stats on Japan and recounted some of the places they visited during their trip - Kyoto, Tokyo, Mount Fuji, trains.
Parting Thought from : James Clague
'Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential.' - Bruce Lee
