"Don't go to sleep, Dear," said my wife when I told her who was speaking that night. Fat chance: Mark's action- and ideas-packed speech left everyone gasping for breath just trying to keep up.
Outside Rotary, Mark, after 38 years in the military, is responsible for all the security at NZ airports and normally has a staff of hundreds. But in these strange times, he is looking after security in MIQ. Within Rotary, he is our 101st District Governor, and may well be the antepenultimate one at that.
He gave us an affirmation of the continuing need for Rotary, "We have never been needed more but to do more we need to grow...and we all need to think differently,"
He complemented our club on our balance of sense of community and service and urged us to look forward to another century of service (100 years of Rotary in NZ coming up). He explained Rotary International's need to complete its current campaigns of world-wide polio vaccinations and the provisioning of a million masks and packets of wipes. Mark then went on to float the idea of a reorganisation of clubs, with a new emphasis on area rather than district, where area clubs would be encouraged to act together and District would assist with administration, especially for the smaller clubs. Similarly Rotary New Zealand would no longer be seen as an adjunct to Australia but as a full partner in Rotary Pacific.
His audience was left exhausted but definitely awake and energised.
(Can you spot the deliberate mistake?)
