(note addition of Fish & Chips and Pie and Chips options)
» Orders should be in by 12pm Wednesdays, including beverage choice (we can accommodate late orders, except for Club Sandwiches and Paninis, as we order those in)
» All members must pre-order, including beverages
» Advise if your order is a standing weekly order, then you will only need to email if you wish to amend or cancel the order
» Changes may be made until 10am Thursday (except Club Sandwiches and Paninis)
» Lunch will be put on the group table 12:30-12:45pm
» Payments must be made after the meeting is finished (we are too busy 12:15-1pm to take payments - it slows down our service to you and to others)
» If you order and do not attend, you will be invoiced via Rotary
» All guests are required to purchase lunch (can choose from a lighter option e.g. scone) and may not bring in their own food
Bill Francisco, Past President writes: The Rotary Club of Dunedin, Florida is one of about 45 Rotary Clubs on the Gulf side of Tampa Bay in District 6950. Our 61 members are a mix of retirees and members still working. We have been meeting via Zoom video for the past several months averaging about 30 members online each Tuesday at noon. We do not know when we'll be able to meet in person again. We were chartered in 1947, the oldest of three Dunedin Rotary clubs. We normally (not this year) conduct two major fundraising events annually - the Rotary Triathlon and a Casino Night or Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Raffle. With the annual proceeds from the two fundraisers and our foundation, we give around $70,000 annually to the local community. Here is a link to our webpage listing the local organizations we support. We also support The Rotary Foundation and are among the highest per cap in our district. Contrary to the news you probably have seen about Floridia, our community health is doing relatively well and our hospitals have been able to handle the Covid-19 patients. We are wearing masks and most of us retirees are staying home. In the past several months our club has focused on supporting Dunedin Cares, a local food bank, where demand has increased dramatically. With a tourist driven economy, we have been hit hard with unemployment and local tourism revenue was down 50-75% March-June. We are looking forward to better days and being able to meet and socialize with our members again.
At a recent Board meeting it was recommended that $1,250 of Trust funding be donated to a project with Rotary South (and others) to provide "C Pens" to schools for use by children with dyslexia. A "C Pen" is a portable, pocket size device that reads text out aloud. It has a built in dictionary for when you come across a word that you don’t know the meaning of - you just scan the word and it displays the definition and reads it out aloud. You can also scan lines of text and up load to a PC or Mac. Initial trials will be carried out by teachers and learning support coordinators to determine the benefits, and whether to extend the project.
Tomahawk Smaills Beachcare Trust planned for a planting day on Sunday 2nd August, to plant out a prepared area opposite the Tautuku Fishing Club. This turned out to be a stunning day with warm sunny onditions. Support exceeded the trustee’s expectations, with 111 volunteers turning up, ranging from locals and regulars from the Tomahawk area, University of Otago students from several hostels, and members from various Rotary Clubs in Dunedin. Great to see 9 from Rotaract there too.
It was the first planting for 2020, which has been delayed due to the COVID-19 lockdown affecting planning and preparation, when normally this would be the 3rd planting for the year. So the trustees are very pleased that as a result of the strong turn-out (a record) they managed to get over 750 natives planted within an hour. This is part of an ongoing project to restore dunes of Tomahawk and Smaills beaches, to provide better protection from rising sea levels, assist penguin and sea lions that inhabit the area, improve the biodiversity, and generally beautification.
As a sleeves-rolled-up project, our Club had 4 members take part – John Drummond, Alistair Logan, Rick Wellington and Gordon Tucker (along with Rick’s daughters and wife Sarah, and Gordon’s son).
At last weeks meeting we had the District Governor for 2020/21 Dylan Murray as our guest speaker. Dylan is a member of the Waimate Club although he was born in Dunedin and was raised mainly in Timaru. He did come back to Dunedin to attend University and obtain a degree in Economics. Dylan is a Senior Sergeant with the NZ Police and is currently involved in Crime Prevention, although spent many years as a detective, with a stint overseas. Dylan’s partner Rebecca is also in the police force and Dylan is the father of 5 children, so it’s a wonder he has time to take on the role of DG! With what NZ has faced over the past 6 months, this has opened our eyes to the way we communicate with each other. He is encouraging us to continue some of the methods we used to keep in touch during lockdown to maintain and develop a much wider scope for club meetings. This can include using overseas speakers by zoom, keeping in touch with alumni and having Club exchanges via webinar. This also going to be key to keep in touch with other clubs with the merger in July 2022 of 9970 and 9980 into the new District 9999 He urges us to think about how we want our Club to look in 5 years’ time. We need to build the membership of Rotary and consider how people want to interact – including the formation of clubs that may not be the traditional format. We should celebrate achievements and contributions of our members and of the club by sharing photos and stories through the media and in our Bulletin. Planning for the year is well underway. Unfortunately there are to be no RYE exchanges this year, but for our young people there is still the Science Forum and RYLA is planned to be in Queenstown from 29 Jan – 3 Feb with almost double the numbers of participants with 40 attendees. ShelterBox is another key contribution from Rotary with over 85million displaced people in the world and Dylan would like every club to consider how they contribute to this project in whatever way they can. Finally, you need to note in your diaries that Conference will be in Waimate next year from 19-21 March.
Lindsay Brown MNZM
Sadly, we acknowledge the recent sudden passing of long standing member of Rotary Dunedin, Lindsay Brown.
Lindsay joined Rotary in November 1985, which marks nearly 35 years of service to our Club and the wider Dunedin community, including business, the University of Otago, the Cancer Society’s Otago and Southland Division and the National Board, and Mercy Hospital.
Lindsay received the Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the community in 2016, and was a Paul Harris Fellow
We extend our sincere condolences to Eleanor and the family.
More than 25,000 young people graduate from RYLA courses, camps and seminars each year in countries around the world. It provides an environment in which young people develop their leadership, team-work and communication skills. Many RYLA graduates refer to the RYLA experience as “the week that changed my life”.
Katie Slaughter and I (John Drummond) have the task of promoting our Club activities. We are currently working on a Membership Campaign - about which more will be revealed in due course! In the meantime, if anyone has ideas for activities and events we could promote, or suggestions for promoting who we are and what we do, please let us know. All ideas are very welcome! Contact us at drummond_john@yahoo.co.nzor katie@walshandbecknz.
Bill Francisco, Past President writes: The Rotary Club of Dunedin, Florida is one of about 45 Rotary Clubs on the Gulf side of Tampa Bay in District 6950. Our 61 members are a mix of retirees and members still working. We have been meeting via Zoom video for the past several months averaging about 30 members online each Tuesday at noon. We do not know when we'll be able to meet in person again. We were chartered in 1947, the oldest of three Dunedin Rotary clubs. We normally (not this year) conduct two major fundraising events annually - the Rotary Triathlon and a Casino Night or Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Raffle. With the annual proceeds from the two fundraisers and our foundation, we give around $70,000 annually to the local community. 
At a recent Board meeting it was recommended that $1,250 of Trust funding be donated to a project with Rotary South (and others) to provide "C Pens" to schools for use by children with dyslexia.
Tomahawk Smaills Beachcare Trust planned for a planting day on Sunday 2nd August, to plant out a prepared area opposite the Tautuku Fishing Club. This turned out to be a stunning day with warm sunny onditions. Support exceeded the trustee’s expectations, with 111 volunteers turning up, ranging from locals and regulars from the Tomahawk area, University of Otago students from several hostels, and members from various Rotary Clubs in Dunedin. Great to see 9 from Rotaract there too.
