Meeting in Review - September 10th 2020

Unfortunately we were still not permitted to meet face to face, and although not ideal, last weeks meeting was once again held on Zoom, regrettably with a declining number of participants.  Only 14 members, 3 guests and four official apologies.  For those who did participate, they enjoyed good online fellowship and, of course, listened to our guest speaker, Shirin Brown - Labour Candidate for Tamaki.
 
Murray introduced Shirin who was very quick to sincerely thank St Johns for inviting her to attend our meeting.  Shirin was born in Iran and arrived in New Zealand in 2000 on a working visa, with a professional background in Education and Film Making.  For the last 6 years she has been the local board member for Waiheke.
 
She has been a member of the New Zealand Labour Party for several years and in 2019, impressed with the way the country was being run, she put her name forward to represent Labour in the upcoming election, and as they say, the rest is history.
 
Other interests she has include;
  • Being an advocate for small business,
  • She is the Chair for Forest and Bird - Waiheke,
  • Supporting families and reducing poverty
  • Equity and social justice. 
Following her introductory comments and touching on her primary interests, the floor was opened for question.  There were a good number of questions on a wide range of subjects, to name a few; 
  • Poverty issues,
  • Motutapu and the current restrictions on planting,
  • The impact of COVID-19 on the lower socio economic population,
  • Tamaki re-development,
  • Iwi involvement in local projects,
  • Apprenticeship programmes,
  • and many others
 
Following the meeting, Shirin sent the email below, (to view click on "Read More").  She also attached information on the Discussion series that she refers to in her email.
 
From: Shirin Brown <shirin@shirinbrown.co.nz>
Sent: Thursday, 10 September 2020 9:14 AM
To: Robyn Ingram <Robyn.Ingram@outlook.com>
 
Dear Robyn
 
Thank you so much to the RSJC for welcoming me today.  That was really lovely of you all and I hope we're able to meet in person the next time.  Please thank Peter B. for his closing that was particularly touching. 
 
Here is the event information for the online discussions I'm leading.  It would be lovely to see members of Rotary join in with their experiences.  In practice, it's been a lovely way to see democracy at work - people discuss issues or opportunities, share ideas and ideas emerge for policy work. 
 
The topics have arisen in discussion with people in the electorate.  We've done them in education and they've been quite lively so far.  People can just listen or contribute and I try and get as many people involved as possible.  Feel free to share. 
 
Below that is some information about me for your membership (which I've also attached) if you wanted some basic information to send round. 
 
Kind regards and thanks again. 
Shirin