To celebrate 100 years of Rotary in Australia and New Zealand, we’ve teamed up with UNICEF to give life-saving vaccines to 100,000 children across the Pacific.
Our clocks have moved forward 1 hour so more time to enjoy the outdoors in the evening and a morning sleep-in! Here’s a tip - with the changing of the clocks, Fire and Emergency NZ recommended checking your smoke alarms at the same time.
Open Members Forum – Global Grant – Tuesday 29 September
Thank you to Alan Richardson for leading last Tuesdays club meeting while I attended a dinner with family who were returning to Sydney the following morning. Alan shared that Lindsay Schofield from Community Link has been rescheduled as our guest speaker for tomorrow night to allow us to prioritise our discussion on the Global Grant in Tanzania. Tomorrow evening, we are running an Open Members Forum that will cover the Global Grant process, accountability and responsibility, project overview, and updates from our host and implementing sponsors including current support. This is our first experience as an international sponsor, and I want to take a moment to thank Elaine and everyone else who has helped make this happen.
Domestic and Family Violence
Recently we have indicated that all of the Districts in NZ are running a national campaign to cast a spotlight on Domestic and Family Violence issues. All clubs are being invited to take part, and our board of directors have agreed we join in with this campaign. Bernadette Costello has kindly agreed to lead this campaign and will talk to you on Tuesday night. Campaign activities include Purple Fridays starting in October and walks in November 2026. In the meantime, I suggest you read the National Sponsorship Proposal at the bottom of the Bulletin.
Upcoming Events
Wishing a successful and enjoyable Molesworth & Middlehurst Stations 4WD Tour commencing this coming Sunday 4 October. Also, if you are able to help, don’t forget to sign up for Tititea Lodge Spring Clean on 10-11 October
and our Duck Race Ticket Sales commencing this weekend 3 October until 3 November.
Can you believe it?
There are only 11 weeks to our final event for 2026 so don’t miss any of these important dates
Tuesday 3 November - Melbourne Cup Event
Tuesday 24 November - Queenstown Club & Wanaka Clubs fellowship night at Cardrona Hotel
Tuesday 1 December - Annual General Meeting at the Albie
Tuesday 8 December - Club Auction Night at the Albie
Sunday 13 December - Christmas Party at Paddons Paddock
World Polio Day
Did you know, Rotary and Rotaract clubs use World Polio Day on 24 October as an opportunity to raise awareness? The majority of the world have been certified.
Ngā mihi,
Geoff
Club Duties
Duty roster notes.
1. All active members (except honorary members and Directors/President) are eligible to be rostered for duties.
2. Rostered members are responsible for doing the duty or arranging a substitute. Please assist us with this.
3. Please advise Jenny Dickie of substitutes on 021 342 227.
4. Duties are for the rostered week only.
5. Duties are notified in the fortnightly bulletin.
CLUB DUTIES ROSTER
29th September
6th October
13th October
20th October
Attendance
Alan Richardson
Noelene Pullar
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Meet Greet and Photography
Richard Purdy
John Milburn
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Introduce Speaker
N/R
Rosie Burridge
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Thank Speaker
N/R
Jenny Moss
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
3 Minute Speaker
N/R
TBA
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Raffle
Ken Goldfinch
Stuart Ayres
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Parting Thought
Sally Angus
Roger Hamilton
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Audio Visual Support
Ron Horner
Ron Horner
Committee Meetings
Fire Station
Upcoming Meeting Night Events
September 29th: Open Members Forum: Discussing a Global Grant Presentation and discussion.
October 6th: Sue Svensson: Regional Community leader
September 29th: Lindsay Schofield: Community Link Upper Clutha.
Lindsey Schofield is Relationships Development Manager for Community Link. She is responsible for fundraising, grant applications, donor/business/community relationships for this well-loved local charitable organisation. Lindsey has lived in the district for over 20 years and lives in Lake Hāwea with her husband, who is a self-employed landscaper. Lindsey was previously General Manager for the Festival of Colour for 10 years and in recent years has also worked at Radio Wānaka and Precious Collaborative. In her spare time Lindsey is a volunteer companion visitor for Age Concern, delivers Meals on Wheels, enjoys biking and walking on the local trails, yoga, and time at home in her garden.
Previous meeting Highlights
September 22nd: Daz Coppins- Organising the Festival of Colour
There was an extensive bio on Daz in the previous bulletin and without wanting to repeat that it seems very clear he is very well placed to take on the CEO role.
Daz confirmed to us that FoC is a Registered Charitable Trust with the first show being held in 2005. It is held on a two year cycle and now every alternate year we have Aspiring Conversations.
Daz is still very active in the arts and music and currently plays guitar and drums in a band called East York and with local group Fiona and The Glow.
Daz and his family have lived in Wanaka since 2022 and he proudly calls himself a local.
The next FoC runs for 9 days from 3-11 April 2027 and is going to start with a massed dawn lake plunge on the 3rd . Daz spoke to rapidly increasing attendance figures and among the stats he told us that 2025 FoC brought regional economic benefits of $2.9 million.
Daz spoke of a real drive to involve and engage local schools in production and directly with the shows. He talked of his plans to encourage extended community involvement and sustainability into the future. He talked of the increasing challenge in obtaining funding.
He currently is very much a “one man band” having responsibility for
Operations
Programming
Grants and compliance
Marketing, P.R. and social media
Sponsorship
Daz has just hired a manager to assist with all the work to get FoC up and running. He acknowledged the key reliance FoC has on volunteers out of our community and next year will be no exception.
The Crystal Palace will still be a key hub for the nine days but he explained that the building does come with a significant cost and he spoke very positively about the proposal to create a Wanaka Performing Arts Precinct which could become a
permanent home for FoC.
Daz spoke with enthusiasm and energy about his new job and we were left in no doubt that the future of FoC was in good hands.
Thanks to Dave Evans for his summary
Parting thoughts from Mike Elliot
You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that
are beyond imagination.
I have heard your views. They do not harmonize with mine. The decision is taken unanimously.
When I am right, I get angry. Churchill gets angry when he is wrong. We are angry at each other
much of the time.
“The more I get to know men, the more I love dogs.”
Belgium is a country invented by the British to annoy the French.
Meet the Local Candidates
Do you have questions you would like to put to candidates and parties?
The Wanaka & Upper Clutha Community Board with assistance from local volunteers are holding a Local Candidates election evening on Thursday 8 October at 7pm, Wanaka Town Hall.
Our Waitaki Electorate is one of the most expansive in New Zealand; including Wanaka and Hawea, Oamaru, Ranfurly, Cromwell and Alexandra as well as extensive rural and farming country.
We are looking for some really representative local community questions to put to the candidates and want to hear from a wide cross-section of the Upper Clutha community.
Submit up to 3 questions via the following link. LINK
We will group these into categories and select as many as practicable to ask candidates on the night.
There will also be questions directly from the audience.
Please share this with your network and ensure that the Upper Clutha is well represented in the discussion this election.
Tititea Lodge Working Bee 2026
The annual Tititea Working Bee will be on the weekend Sat10th/Sunday 11 October 2026.
(I am having trouble creating a sign up list hence this preliminary email !)
This is always a fun weekend combining some work with lots of socialising .
The tasks will be as normal -general cleaning and tidy up ,garden tidy ,firewood etc plus a bit of fence rebuilding .
As always some may wish to come both days and some just for the Saturday.
Cost for food and other details will be advised in due course.
Friends and family most welcome
Kind regards,
John Milburn.
Registrations are now open for our wonderful gala dinner. We will have Rotary Foundation Trustee and Rotary International Past President Gordon McInally in town, all the way from Scotland. As our keynote speaker Gordon will be telling us about the work the Foundation does in New Zealand, in our Region and beyond and how our contributions create lasting impact.
We will also hear another story which will touch your hearts from a survivor of Domestic and Family Violence.
The whole evening will be led by John Prendergast as MC and we will have a distinguished local Rotarian leading our auction.
If you have anything to donate for auction, please let Dave McKissock (dave.rotary9999@gmail.com) know. We are also looking for sponsorship so if your company can help, we can offer branding options, table naming options, table drinks etc.
Prices are $85pp for Rotarians and our families, $100pp for others.
This will be a great evening for Rotary in Invercargill and for the Rotary Foundation. Support us as well as you can. Register now at:
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