34 members and guests enjoyed a very busy and stimulating meeting with the speaker being our new 9920 District Governor Gary Langford, who was accompanied by his wife Jan, making their first formal visit to St. Johns Rotary as DG.
Garys home club is Auckland East, with whom St. Johns have a very close relationship. Gary's address to the club focused on the District and their activities as well as talking about the strength of Rotary world wide and a few specific successes and important projects, such as the Rotary Foundation and the End Polio Now project. He encouraged all members of the club to keep doing good work in the community and telling our story which will attract more interest and members to Rotary. He also asked all Rotarians to never forget the "Rotary Four Way Test", and to practice this in all we do.Gary's motivating talk ended with an invitation to all, to attend the 9920 District Conference, May 15 - 17 2020 to be held in the Owen Glen Building at the University of Auckland. He also mentioned that if anyone was contemplating attending the 2020 Rotary International Convention in Honolulu June 6 - 10, to get in quickly to register, as accommodation will be at a premium!
Other guests at the meeting included Peter Garrett, Past DG 9910 and member of the Rotary Club of East Coast Bays, Peters wife Elaine, who is DG Elect for 9910 and ADG 9920 Dennis Mallard.
It was also our first introduction to Lauchlan Kerr, a 17 year old year 12 student from Sacred Heart College, who has recently been selected to spend a year in Argentina under the Rotary International Student Exchange programme, sponsored by St. Johns Rotary. Lauchlan, who was accompanied by his Mum and Dad Tessa and Damain, introduced himself to the club and as President Robyn said, "we have a good one here". He will leave for Argentina in January and we look forward to seeing a lot more more of him over the next few months.