President Peter welcomed members, visitors and Rotary guests. Ngaire Harrison, Val Steiner, Jeanette Crook and Charmaine Donaldson QSM. Our guest speaker will be formally introduced later in the meeting.Peter proudly praised his Rotary Club for the great progress with the Walkway project. Productive working bee on site last Wednesday and Thursday. Fencing, both wood panel and wire and hole for a bollard and concrete connection path laid and bollard concreted in. Then a very good turn out for the Starfish working bee last Saturday, that had the unique participation of Rotary Tauranga Sunrise members. 60 Rotarians in total, working together on a community project. Two productive hours that equalled 120 working hours, achieved a significant amount of productive work and a great atmosphere of camaraderie. Owen Farmilo was the scone ,jam and cream 'chief of staff', for 'smoko', where Jo McNaughton gave Rotarians a plan overview for Starfish new Head Quarters. Peter and fellow Tauranga Te Papa Sunrise President Nick Dangerfield will discuss with respective Club members; reference a sister Club relationship and possible annual reciprocal community work ventures. On Scone matters, Peters' scone making was a mixture of success and failure! success was using self raising flour, and failure was him using plain flour by mistake!!!! Practise makes perfect !!

Peter Thissen  introduced 30 years to date of service as a Police officer, Sergeant Victor Sneddon. Canadian by birth, Victoria : Vancouver Island  :Capital of British Columbia. Sergeant in charge of Te Aroha, Morrinsville and Matamata Police districts. Principally leads the crime prevention unit. But also very much front line duties, that does offer a certain unpredictably each working day. A situation that appeals, due to the varied issues presented to be resolved. Victor enjoys working with schools and their students. Just recently, presented and spoke on the topic of abuse at Hinuera school. He enjoys presenting to schools, as it brings the Police in appropriate contact in a proactive way. "Great to get involved with schools". Sergeant Sneddon also pleased to advise, that Matamata Police are  now  operational 24/7. Victor said prior to that, night Matamata police assistance was 'on call' basis to which he was rostered on many times. So two officers are on night duty keeping us safe, while we push up the zzzzzz  snore ZZZ. He has high regard for his Matamata staff , one of which is very diligent in methamphetamine law enforcement and another who has just transferred down from Counties Manukau, with knowledge and skill learnt in such a densely populated urban environment. Vic is proud of the Police 'can do, will do' mantra. He believes he has a good occupation, loves the job. Has been through the 'learning curves' from the time he transferred from the Traffic Officer era of the Ministry of Transport to the Police force as a 24 year old. His family are very important to him, being a Police officer has provided him good family time, except when he got involved ; as good parents do with their children's sports. His daughters were into netball, one team he coached.. but the wrath of other coaches and parents with his good intentioned coaching , was to say the least....AN experience!! At tonights meeting,he can be assured he is not the only one that has been similarly critiqued from the 'side line'! As in any work place, safety is paramount in carrying out duty. Officer personal safety equipment has got from just the wooden 'knee callous producing' baton, to Kevlar vests, Taser, expanding steel baton, an improved pepper spray. Unfortunately our society has moved in a direction, that armed police will be the norm in the not too distant future. "Unarmed Police now gone". The Aramoana shooting incident, that saw police issued bolt action .22 rifles, were no match for 303, and 30-08 magazine rifles of the offender; thankfully that is no longer the case. Police have available suitable fire arms and supplementary ordinance and appropriate body protection, to resolve a situation. Many opportunities are available for officers of the Police, eg. Diplomatic Protection, Armed Defenders Squad, and even I presume being a physical education officer to help maintain a reasonable fitness regime for officers, who have 12kgs+ of gear on their person when on duty. Victor was very insistent that his good wife introduced him to yoga, which he believes turned 15kgs of fat into 15kgs of muscle! One could hear Sherlock Holmes Rotarians brains going "ching ching" in mathematic calculation on evidence presented, with the admirable suggestion of another 20 years of service to his vocational career of choice. But that was just being light hearted banter, as I am sure as one. We Rotarians appreciate the work and endeavour of police officers like Sergeant Sneddon, who unselfishly commit to a challenging occupation for our benefit. In finishing, "Methamphetamine manufacture and usage issues palls into insignificance to our New Zealand alcohol consumption culture", He encounters the serious alcohol induced issues within our community, that do present some danger to the general public, families, and police officers.He has just recently had the opportunity to visit the USA, Canada, Alaska A (State of the US), Yugoslavia, Serbia ,Montenegro and Greece. Very noticeable in not seeing openly drunken people, in comparison to the excess alcohol consumption issues that is quite evident in our own country. John Fernyhough thanked Sergeant Victor Sneddon for a very informative and thought provoking address, and through his father is very aware of the community contribution work of service clubs .

 

                                                  

 

Dani is  in her last week of school in New Zealand. Pictured with Rotarian Grenville Stocker, who is taking Dani to Orakei Korako geothermal area next week.   www.orakeikorako.co.nz . Also Dani took this Rotary meeting for the opportunity to practice her school speech presentation, which was very good and enlightening as to her Kiwi experiences from her perspective. Dani unfortunately heads for home on the 7th January. Her year with us has just flown bye.

 

 

 

                                  

CLUB DUTY	7TH NOVEMBER	14TH NOVEMBER
CLUB HOST	NATALIE van der GOES
RECEPTION	JANE BELTON	CHRISTMAS FUNCTION
RECEPTION	KRISHNAN NARAYANASAMI
BAR STEWARD	BRYCE SCOTT
BAR STEWARD	KEVIN SING	MATAMATA MUSICAL
SPEAKER INTRO	WADE LINNELL	THEATRE
SPEAKER THANKS	MIKE STEINER
TOP TABLE	WADE LINNELL
TOP TABLE	TBA	'ROME SWEET ROME'
PARTING THOUGHT	LYN DOBBE
DANIELLA HOST	GLENDA MILLIGAN
KITCHEN	DAVE WHEADON	DINNER & SHOW
KITCHEN	GRAHAM MOTION