Day 1 of District Conference

Saturday 18th April and the team heads for the Conference venue at Forum North where we start at 8.15am with a story from DK Lee about a little girl who picks up starfish from the beach and throws them back into the water so they can survive. The morning program consists of a number of interesting and noteworthy Rotary projects from restoration of vintage trains and then pulling them through the main street as a fundraising exercise to Takapuna North's project of building a multimillion dollar Yes centre for the disabled, to updates on Rotaract and Polio plus and world community service and then came the surprise in the form of Western Springs project uplift.

Project uplift consists of dispatching second hand bras to the Pacific Islands such as Fiji. To date some 50,000 bras have been sent and its all done from the home of Rotarian Rachael Moore and her team. They also fly to the islands to ensure that the items are properly fitted and judging by the various photos she presented it's a project that is well received byt the happy recipients.

The inbound GSE team form India presented their presentation which was very professional. Rotary India is quite active with some 87,000 members and they are opening new clubs on a weekly basis. Perhaps we should look at taking a leaf from their book as they obviously have the growth model down pat.

The outward bound team from 9910 to India then presented their account of their India experience and no doubt it was a memorable trip for them all.

Hugo Meares then gave an interesting talk on Generation Y and what it meant to Rotary. Gen Y have their own language which consists of sending messages without the use of vowels. Example: i think would be (pls snd 2 bnk $40 tks) or something akin to that! The world is moving forward at a faster rate and it would appear that the generation gap is widening so the message was if Rotary wanted Gen Y as members it needed to be aware of what Gen Y were all about.

The afternoon saw some of our team off on a scenic walk including climbing rocks before changing into our beach wear attire for the District Gov's beach wear party at 6.30pm. The event was held indoors and the well attended event included district awards and some lively music.