Welcome back to our many travellers—it was great to see so many return last night. We were saddened to hear about Charles French and thank members for sharing their updates.

 

It was also lovely to see Bernie Harvey-Burdon back at our meeting, and she expressed her gratitude for the support she’s received.

 

We farewell Brian Fitzgerald, who has resigned from the Club. In his letter, Brian thanked members and spoke warmly of his time with Alexandra Rotary. We will miss his positivity and willingness to be involved, and we wish him all the best.

 

On a brighter note, we warmly welcome Bidi Sharland as a new member. Bidi has already joined us for two meetings, and we look forward to her formal induction soon.

 

 

 

 

The guest this year is New Zealand’s leading standup comedian and magician Brendan Dooley.

 

Brendan is returning from the Edinburgh Festival in the UK to be part of this night. Brendan does not just fill a speaking slot; it starts from when people arrive. If attending, you will be entertained and well fed.  

 

The evening tomorrow night is as in the past with a dinner, guest speaker and charity auction, with a silent auction running in the background.

 

The proceeds always go back into the community. This year, the charity of choice is Dunstan Hospital.

 

 

Brendan is one of the most versatile touring performers today whether he is delivering a high impact stage show or keynote speech, bringing an audience together and maintaining the energy as a MC or creating memories with any guests in an intimate setting.

 

Every performance is customised for the audience, needs and goals. No matter whether the event is big or small, the perfect performance is created for a particular audience. Brendon also creates solutions if there is a special message to be delivered on stage.

 

Described by The Press as “A New Generation of Talent Already Snapping the Heels of Established Acts” he combines his skillset of world-class and never before seen magic with quick wit comedy, insane mind-reading, cheeky pickpocketing and plenty of audience participation to create the ultimate entertainment experience that has made him an audience favourite worldwide!

 

Brendan constantly travels appearing at events as a featured performer, MC or speaker at corporate events, conferences, festivals, private events and on touring production shows with his appearances occurring throughout New Zealand, Australia, Asia and the USA.

 

Most recently Brendan was headlining at the prestigious “World Famous Magic Castle” in Hollywood, California which is the No. 1 place to see the best magicians in the world, with a highly acclaimed 30 show run. This was completed at the age of only 22 making him one of their youngest ever headliners.

 

Along with hundreds of live appearances under his belt his other credits include being nominated for “Variety Artist of the Year” and being awarded as “NZ’s Top Comedy Magician” being the youngest ever recipient for the award. He has also been cast for the past 3 years in the prestigious touring show “World Festival of Magic” which has brought the world’s top magicians to NZ and Australia for the past 30 years making it the longest running show of its kind in the world.

 

With Brendan’s support and expertise from hundreds of events large and small worldwide, he knows what it takes to give an audience the best possible experience so they can sit back and know that any group in the audience is in the best possible hands.

(Supplied by Murray Wham)

 

Dion grew up in Southland and left school at an early age to go farming but picked up on shearing which became a passion for him and has never looked back.

 

He bought Snow Quin's business for $2750.00 being the price of the van which had to be pushed started. It appears that when buying a shearing business, it is usual to pay 10% of the annual sales which in this case was $2750.00.

Dion and his Swiss wife Gabriela bought a number of businesses in Central Otago and the North Island and at one stage employed 150 staff.

 

Dion was active and successful at shearing competitions throughout the country.

He also worked in Australia, Europe and more recently in Korea. He was asked to Korea as the farmers there had purchased 300 NZ sheep but didn't know how to shear them. Dion spent 8 days training them which was well received by the farmers who picked up the skills very quickly.

 

He credits his wife Gabriela on her ability to run the business as he spent time organising the staff.

 

Dion was and still is passionate about shearing but also cared for his staff as well as his customers.

 

Dion sold the business in January of this year but is still involved in training up and coming shearers as well as others in related organisations.

 

Dion was very much down to earth and entertaining in his presentation speaking without notes.

 

 

Keith’s focus as DG for 2025-26 follows:

 

Here is a summary of Keith’s presentation to Alexandra Rotary. Any mistakes here are those of the bulletin editor!

 

Keith started off by acknowledging both Paul Checketts and Rhys Jenkins for their impressive work for the District, Paul in finance and Rhys in Youth affairs. Both receiving PHF’s at the recent District Governor changeover function in Timaru.

 

Keith joined Rotary in 2008, was president for the years 2016-17 and was Assistant Governor Central Lakes 2022-24.

 

Keith has had a long career with the New Zealand Fire Service.

 

Keith’s philosophy when it comes to organisations is ‘bottom up not top down’.

 

Keith is particularly concerned about the falling membership in Rotary. He said that currently nine Rotarians per month resign. However, Central Otago/lakes are an exception to this.

Rotary membership though is a problem everywhere and society needs service clubs.

Attracting younger generations should be a priority, clubs need to be more flexible and that work/life balance is such an important consideration for members, perhaps especially for new members.

 

Club culture needs to be examined with more balance and inclusivity for members. We need to be more welcoming, more friendly and that meaningfulness and impact need to be uppermost. A contribution to what matters in our communities is also important. We also need to welcome new members and to show the new members opportunities for development and to develop pathways for this to happen.

 

In short, we need to meet the aspirations of the younger generations and to give new members, in fact all members, meaningful roles in the club.

 

We must promote Rotary more than we do at present. Employ club surveys to suss out ideas. We need to think earnestly about future ‘companion’ clubs, these are other clubs that we can work with to bring about larger projects.

 

District 9999 has a growing ‘Rotary Team’ to help clubs facilitate activities.