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Club Information
Thursdays at 12:30 PM
Petridish
8 Stafford Street
Dunedin,  9016
New Zealand
VenueMap
Venue Map
Bulletin Editor
Bruce Collier
Stories
Last Weeks Speaker - Gillian Bremner
Past member, Gillian Bremnar paid us a visit on her return to Dunedin with a presentation titled “Retirement with a Difference”.
 
Gillian’s husband, Graeme, relocated to Botswana, upon a contract Graeme had with the University of Botswana in 2018.  They packed up their lives into a container, including Graeme’s Landrover Defender (which has been very useful over there), however due to some visa issues, had to return to New Zealand.  Graeme returned again in May 2019 with Gillian following November 2019.
 
Botswana is a land-locked country in Southern Africa, the size of France in land size, but has a population of around 2.2m, due to 2/3 of the land being taken up by the Kalahari Desert. The capital is Gaborone, but the locals call it “Gabz”.  With the land relatively flat, roads are very straight with few corners, with a speed limit of 120kmh – due to roaming cows and elephant, it is recommended to not drive at night as there are many deaths from driving into animals at night!
 
They purchased 16ha land under a company structure with two locals, and began developing the property with a brick and concrete main home, wooden out-houses/guest-houses.  The two extra houses were built in 5-10 days each, without requiring consent, for around NZ$35,000). Whilst relatively cheap and fast, the builds are labour only, so they had to source all building materials (which can often be in short supply) and project manage, and workmanship can be poor with some windows not opening properly, and a shed with a leaking roof due to the corrugated iron being nailed to the valley and not the peak of the corrugations. With the rainy season November to March providing plentiful drinking water, the dry season required a 120m deep bore hole to be drilled on their property using a special tree as a guide to where to drill. The bore provides ~5,000L water/day, and to provide for irrigation storage on the property they built a swimming pool, which took 9,000L of cement to build.
 
With Graeme’s contract with the University, they have now focused on further developing their business plans, which includes:
-           developing a wedding venue that was a previously deforested part of their property that was parched earth, and now is grassed area with BBQ and a dam for a water feature backdrop, however with the impacts of Covid-19, there is less demand for wedding venues at present.
-          developing “self-drive tours” for foreign tourists, giving guidance on suitable places to stay and areas to visit. Botswana is generally a safe place to visit (snakes and scorpions an exception), with good roads and amazing places such as an elephant watering hole where accommodation villas and restaurant surround the hole with the elephants as interested in the people as the other way around.
-          Developing a nocturnal wildlife tour (in conjunction with their son), with animals such as pythons, porcupine.
 
Covid-19 has been an interesting experience, where there have been 70,000 cases and over 1,100 deaths. Government management has been to restrict movement between parts of the country using permits, but has been easy to get around the rules.  Due to a lack of alcohol supply, Graeme build a still to make their own rum – this choice was due to availability of ingredients over drink preference.
 
Gillian welcomes visitors, and said the best time to visit is May – July (winter) due to being more mild average temperatures around 28 degrees and dry.
Mike Hesson Speaking on Cricket in India
Mike Hesson has agreed to speak at Dunedin South Rotary Club’s lunch meeting on Wednesday 21 July.
This is an open invitation to you and our club members.
Those attending would need to RSVP to Norm Sparrow, email norspar55@gmail.com by 17 July.  
Arrive at Otago Golf Club upstairs in the clubrooms by 11.45am.  
Lunch is $20 for a two course meal, pay cash to the person on duty and you will be seated at 12noon.  
You would be able to leave by 1.15pm.
It is a rare opportunity to have Mike available to share his story.  A great motivational speaker.
Meeting Attendance
Members are encouraged to attend Thursday lunch meetings whenever they can. They are an opportunity for fellowship, to hear interesting speakers, and to catch up with our Club activities.
 
Meal Orders
The current lunch menu can be downloaded from here
(updated 20 Feb 2021)
Please email your order to orders@thedishcafe.co.nz by midday Wednesdays, including beverage choice.
 
Semi-Annual Dues:
Semi-annual dues are based on recorded membership as at 31st December & 30th June respectively, and the Club is levied by Rotary International based on these numbers.  This levy also includes a charge for your monthly magazine.  Any changes to your membership status needs to be processed by Rotary International before 31st December or 30th June.  To avoid the situation of the Club having to pay RI levies where a member retrospectively resigns, the Directors have agreed that Club semi-annuals will be invoiced in December for the January to July period and in June for the July to December period.  It is hoped that the earlier invoicing will encourage members who are reviewing their Rotary involvement to reach a decision prior to the cut-off date, to avoid the Club incurring the cost.
Mana Tangata
People of Action
Copies of this new book detailing the history of Rotary in New Zealand and the South Pacific are now available for purchase from Past-President Gordon
(Special Price = $40.00 due to the club agreeing to purchase in bulk).
 
Did you know that the first national conference was held in Wellington on 21-22 June 1923 with 73 Rotarians present from all four clubs (Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin) p.38
 
Osteoarthritic Knees ?
 
 
 
If you experiencing knee pain
on most days
a PhD Physiotherapy student
would  like to hear from you.
https://otago.ac.nz/ukope
Participants receive a
$100 supermarket voucher
 
 

PARTING THOUGHT (stolen from the Rotary Club of Invercargill South by Bruce Cowan) 

Optimists see a glass half full; pessimists a glass half empty; and accountants ask why  you have bought such a big glass in the first place! 

Sponsors
Interested in being a sponsor?
Download the website sponsorship guide

 
We all know President Cameron - or do we?
Speakers
Jul 15, 2021
Cargill Enterprises
Jul 22, 2021
Garden Centres, Subdivisions, Affordable Housing & the future
Jul 29, 2021
Tracking Covid-19 in NZ using genomics
View entire list

Speaker Ideas

If you would like to hear a particular speaker, or have any speaker suggestions please email John Drummond drummond_john@yahoo.co.nz

Duty Roster

Follow this link to the Duty Roster. 

The five week roster is the most accurate and members are urged to check the Duty Roster webpage regularly. 
Club Management Group.

Essentials

SPEAKER HOSTS please remember to send a summary of the Speakers presentation complete with photo to   Bruce.
Birthdays & Anniversaries
Member Birthdays
David Ojala
July 10
 
Ron Mackintosh
July 16
 
Join Date
Harlene Hayne
July 1, 2011
10 years
 
Brian Daniels
July 2, 1987
34 years
 
Claire Haines
July 2, 2020
1 year
 
David McEwen
July 2, 2020
1 year
 
Peter Gouverneur
July 5, 2007
14 years
 
David Ojala
July 15, 1994
27 years
 
Carmen Houlahan
July 17, 2017
4 years
 
Lynne Guy
July 23, 2009
12 years
 
Katie Slaughter
July 29, 2010
11 years
 
Centennial Project Committee
April 2023 marks the 100th anniversary of Rotary Dunedin and the Directors wish to form a small "sub-committee" to plan and coordinate the celebrations! If you would like to be on this team please advise Past-President Gordon.
 
Rotary "Compulsory" Magazine Subscriptions
 
Please be aware that the digital copy of
“The Rotarian” is only half the cost of
the digital copy of "Rotary Down Under".
If you would like to change your
subscription email
 
Volunteers needed - Riding for the Disabled
 
They need help with
the riding sessions, the horses
and making grant applications
See: www.rdadunedin.org
Or email info@rdadunedin.org
 
Speaker Programme
Thanks to those who have suggested speakers - could we make this an on-going effort?
John, Lynne, and the Club Management Group have put together a fantastic programme for the next two months which is too good to keep to ourselves!! Please print this out, and use it as an opportunity to invite friends, colleagues, neighbours, professional contacts, in fact anyone who may be interested
 
 
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