In Gear | Rotary in Southern New Zealand In Gear - Issue 3 | Page 36

S
OUR CLUB IN
ince we launched District 9980’s magazine In Gear, that
wonderful Waimate club and those dynamic Dunedin Next Rotary
Generationers have had the spotlight shone on them as part
of our regular feature, showcasing the fantastic attitudes and
impressive works among our southern clubs.
As I near the end of my district governor’s tenure, and the countdown to May’s
annual 9980 conference heats up, for this edition, I can’t go past my Rotary
stomping ground of the past 13 years, and the great, great folk who make the
Rotary Club of Wanaka something truly special.
When long-time Wanaka Rotarian Tony Brown invited me along to a meeting
shortly after I moved to town, I desperately wanted to say no … but he’d
extended such a warm, enthusiastic and kind welcome, that, frankly, I didn’t
have the heart to. Didn’t he see? I was too young, too female, too modern for
Rotary. As I sit here in 2017 as 9980’s district governor, apparently not.
The reality is, for my husband, Clayton Hope, and me, so special are our
clubmates to us, they’re like a second family. They share our values, loyalty,
sense of fun, our love of our community and a deep drive to “give back”
through meaningful humanitarian works, both in our own backyard and
further afield.
As Rotary internationally encourages us all to explore new ways to attract,
engage and inspire members, Wanaka is a bright beacon of hope. It’s not
so long ago that our club’s numbers were dwindling, and a very small group
was shouldering the lion’s share of the work. If you missed Tony’s piece in
the last In Gear on turning around a struggling club, it really is a must-read
– he has his finger so firmly on the membership pulse, Rotary International
recently officially recognised his contribution.