Hi everyone. Hope you have all had a fantastic weekend. Although rather breezy, hopefully you may have been able to venture out into the garden and enjoy some sunshine.
President Jane Belton opened our meeting with some wonderful news that Past President Alice Albright had given birth (3 weeks early) to a beautiful baby boy named Anders Henry Albright. Congratulations to Alice, Ashley and big sister Ava and welcome to the world Anders.
Stew Wadey mentioned that it is coming close to planting time for Spud in a Bucket - Labour Weekend, and suggested that if you didn't want to grow a spud, you might like to donate a bucket to someone.
Fantastic idea!
Robert Stuart reported that the Interact Movie night was very successful and that they made a very tidy profit of $300.00 which they are going to donate to WASH - Water Sanitation and Hygiene.
Our Rotarian of the week was Sue Whiting for all of the outstanding work that she does for Grey Power among many other things.
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Stew Wadey shared with us who he thought that the mystery Rotarian is, based on following clues:
1/ I’ve been on stage with Rob Guest and Billy T James.
2/ I played representative indoor cricket for Waikato/BOP.
3/ I broke my finger playing my first game of basketball but still scored a 3 pointer.
See below Stew's powers of deduction:
Now, I had the good fortune to be entertainment steward for Tokoroa A&P Association/ Axeman Carnival in early to mid 1980’s. I had a budget that we had Billy T, twice. Once, was when Pierre the Pencil, was part of his TV Show. So I look to see who would be about 19 to 25yrs of age of that era to have been on stage with Billy T. Next, Rob Guest, whose career took off with stellar performances when he appeared in the Hamilton Operatic Society's productions of Half a Sixpence and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Late 1970’s .Rob Guest left NZ 1981. So that enabled me to narrow my scope down to a 1960’s child. The Indoor Cricket clue had me stumped for a while, So I hit out beyond the limited boundaries of the indoor cricket net and hit the six target, when someone informed me some representative teams included both male and female gender So I pitched up further in looking for someone of either gender, although that might not be a Politically Correct description these days.. Then went through a few hoops regards Basketball, although not quite becoming a basket case to whittle down my investigations, in looking for 1, 2 or 3 pointers which may lead me to the Club Member I am looking for. But what really clinched it for me, Stars of Stage like to have noticeable cars, Prince Tui Teka, with his Rolls Royce, Patsy Rigger, a Putaruru Country and Western Star was known for her Valiant Car with Bull horns attached to the front of the bonnet, and of course our star liked her Maserati: Maz McIvor
Well done Stew - You were correct.
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Our speaker for this evening was Tim Hampton, on behalf of the Matamata Chamber of Commerce and speaking to us about the need to replace and update the town security cameras.
Although we currently have cameras at the clock tower, they are not adequate for what is now required, ie number plate recognition. Tim has been working with local businesses, contractors and police, to deploy a new modern camera network to meet our immediate community needs.
The Chamber believe it is important to leave infrastructure to councils and government organisations - whilst community groups can help fund and inspire projects; it should not be up to community groups to operate complex infrastructure - this is what councils are funded to do.
What they are hoping Rotary can fund -
- With complex crime on the rise, police are needing to look further back in time than ever before to track criminals.
- Our current system can record for approximately 25 days into the past.
- We are looking to increase this to 120 days for the police. The cost for this is approximately $4000.00 plus gst and they are hoping that Rotary may be able to fund this.
The below map shows all of the surrounding councils who currently fund their own security cameras, but not Matamata Piako. Ours have been funded by the Chamber of Commerce, but they would now like the council to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of the cameras.
Council has now committed to a long term plan to consider public safety. Council is responsible for promoting and supporting community wellbeing; ensuring our public spaces remain safe for our communities to use is part of supporting community well being.
Let hope this also includes the much needed security cameras and their maintenance.
Lynette Stanley commented that the town owes Tim a huge thankyou for the amount of work he has put into this.
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Lots of things coming up for us to help with over the next few months, so keep an eye on the newsletter and help out where you can. Could be a good opportunity to bring along a friend who may be interested in what Rotary does. 😊
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