1996 District Convention (Moorea)

KI Logo Te Awamutu Convention Report


Content:

This page contains the report of participants from the Kiwanis Club of Te Awamutu about the events of the 1996 Kiwanis NZSP District Convention on the island of Moorea. It is esentially a copy of the handwritten letter that the participants sent from Tahiti to the Club Newsletter Editor.


Moorea, French Polynesia, 19 September, 1996

To: The Editor - Newsletter of the Kiwanis Club of Te Awamutu

Dear Darby,

Wish you were here! We wanted to report to the Kiwanis Club of Te Awamutu that all participants at the convention and their partners are having a wonderful time and thoroughly enjoying the sand and sun and Kiwanis fellowship and Club Med and the convention itself. We can report that the Club Med is an excellent venue for a vacation but we have all been most diligent in attending to Kiwanis business first.

The convention itself consisted of three half-day sessions. The first day was a presentation of the new strtegic plan for the District. Although we did not manage to come away with a copy of this, it sounds like it is a reasonable and necessary guideline for the future development of our District and our clubs. There were also workshops on new club building, membership growth, Public Relations, community service and a new special project called "Odyssey's End". A Te Awamutu participant attended each of these workshops. The bylaw and policy changes (except dues) were also all approved during this session. The policy change regarding commitment of clubs to international projects (proposed by Christchurch Central) was defeated.

Day 2 was taken up with District Officers' reports, a forum on IDD and a somewhat questionable grilling of the two candidates for Governor-Elect.

Day 3 was dedicated to awards and a quite stirring talk by Walter Sellers (International President-Elect). Walter has all the style and charisma of Martin Luther King Jr.! There was also a presentation of the international vision for Kiwanis in the 21st century. In addition, there was the all-important vote for Governor-Elect and the District dues increase. Neville Puckey of the Kirikiriroa Club was elected Governor-Elect over Mike Boyd of the Roto Wheneua Club. This was largely due to a lively introduction by our Guy Probert. Kirikiriroa certainly seem to be dominating the District officers with Governor, Governor-Elect and District Secretary all coming from that club.

The District dues increase from $36.00 to $40.50 per annum was passed despite spirited opposition from the Te Awamutu delegation. This will surely mean a rise in our own club dues.

The Te Awamutu fared slightly better in the awards arena. We got a nice banner patch for exceeding our IDD contribution for the year and we got an award certificate for being 2nd-best in the Governor's Award points for the 1995/96 year. We are happy to report that Graeme Bastin received a Distinguished President's pin and Ron Albon a Distinguished Secretary's pin for their efforts in that year.

The other good news is that all six Te Awamutu participants have behaved as perfect gentlemen while here. Our partners, however, were most energetic in finding new ways to distract us from the serious business of the convention.

Tropical regards,

David Fentress
Guy Probert
Mark Irwin
Kevin Choat
Brian Legg
Ray Renshaw

NZSP District Home Page / Te Awamutu Kiwanis Home Page


Page last updated by webmaster@kiwanis.org.nz (David Fentress) on 3 August, 2008.
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