Presidents Corner

July 2021

With the onset of Matariki, so too, we have a new beginning for our RSA. Matariki marks the new year for Maori, and as such with our recent AGM, we welcome a new committee for the 2021-2022 financial year. As I mentioned in my Presidents report, we can look back to the last term with confidence and say “well done, we did ok”. We had a few highlights which we should be proud of. However, with a new committee, we also farewelled some hard working committee members who should be proud of those achievements. We farewelled, Pania Hetet, Kath Caton and Louise Mitchell. We thank you for standing and making a difference for your RSA with a forever eye looking to the future. You have left a huge gap that our new members to the committee, I’m sure, will fill and accept the challenges that is before them. To Rangi Anderson, Kararaina Beckett and Mark Butler, we welcome you to the fold and look forward to an exciting new tomorrow with you. To Kevin Gilbert and Paul Backler, we welcome back some experienced heads as we start to shape an exciting future for us all.

On Sunday 4th July your committee were inducted into their roles and responsibilities as committee members. Information packs were given out and spelt out what they can expect to be involved in. As your President, transparency was very important as a stepping stone to unifying this committee and I’m hopeful that I have achieved that. So your committee now has a learners license as such to drive. Their skills vary at this time and remain untested, however I’m confident that with time and experience, I’m sure you will see some amazing driving skills as they guide and shape an exciting tomorrow.

Our first monthly hui is coming up soon and I’m hoping that we will be able to provide to you, our members, a look ahead for the next quarter in detail and then in outline following that as we head into spring then summer. The look ahead I am talking about here is Governance mahi and a lead in to strategic planning, not neccessarily the day to day activities that already exists within. This newsletter is dependant on those groups of interest that are part of the fabric of this RSA to advise our members what is happening. I’m talking about our adjuncts, upcoming entertainment, reminders of our raffle nights, our Saturday gardening group, our Malay vets that gather on Saturday, Cookies Kitchen etc etc. Tania is the point of contact for this newsletter and also our facebook site. She has only recently taken on this responsibility and is still finding herself in this area, so please support her as we endeavor to get things right for you our members. If you have any queries regards the newsletter or facebook, please see Tania.

With winter hanging around for a little while, please stay warm as best you can. One of the things I have come to understand is that we don’t know if your RSA can be helpful to you if you don’t ask, so please ask. If we can be helpful we will, if we can’t then we will find out who can.

Hei manaakitana

Victor Hape

President