Welcome to the start of our 2026 Cromwell Rotary year. January started with a very successful Annual 4WD Trip and those who I have been talking to that participated said they really enjoyed it. Big thank you to Gordon Stewart and his team for organising this as I know that some drivers keep it booked in the dairies each year, so they don’t miss out.
Next, was our annual and very popular Book Sale raising $15000, the turnout at times kept our cashiers busy. Big thanks to Pam Broadhead and her team over the three days. Our next Book Sale will be at Kings Birthday weekend.
Congratulations to our President Elect Jonathan Usher on receiving the Kings Service Medal for services to the community.
Our changeover date has been set for Wednesday the 10th of June. Please mark this in your calendar - details will follow.
Lastly on a sad note I would like to acknowledge the recent passing of one of our Cromwell Rotary family Jean Morgan. Not only was Jean a member of the Cromwell Rotary Club since 2001 Jean was President and Secretary of our club for many years and was well-respected Past District Secretary from 2012-2022. Jean was always willing to offer support with warmth and generosity to our members. Jean will be sorely missed. Our sincere condolences to Jean’s husband Keith, sons Carl, Neil and their families.
On Monday February 2nd both the primary schools started for the year. Both schools sent me photos of some of their gorgeous new entrants proudly holding their new book bags. We have supplied both schools with enough bags for the new entrants due to start this year. Thanks to Paper Plus Cromwell and The Outfitters ( printing) for their support with this project
New Entrants from the schools proudly displaying their Rotary Book Bags
Meri Murphy was our guest speaker on Monday 26th January. Originally from the United States, Meri now calls Cromwell home - but she is rarely in one place for long.
After a distinguished career as a clinical and prison psychologist, Meri embraced a 'retired nomad' lifestyle that according to Google AI, has taken her to 35 countries across Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Her solo adventures have been so significant that they were even featured in Lonely Planet’s Women Travel Solo book. Meri shared her tales from the road and the lessons learned from a life of intrepid exploration. Meri was accompanied by her partner Douglas MacLachlan who she met on a bus during one of her journeys and a friend Bob Flax.
This year’s Cromwell Rotary summer book sale opened a little before 3pm on Friday afternoon to let people in out of the rain and goodness me did people come on in. It was the largest crowd ever seen at opening time of our sales!!
The queues stretched all the way along the room at times over the first hour, as the cashiers and helpers had their heads down and their calculators working overtime to process the purchases. Whew!!!
But that rush hour contributed fabulously to the amazing total of $15,000 that was donated by the generous members of our community and the enthusiastic visitors to town over the 3-day sale. A huge thank you to everyone who came and bought. This record setting summer book sale fundraiser will create opportunities for many people in our community.
During the sale, we remembered our friend and fellow Rotarian Jean Morgan who had passed away just before the sale. A small table with a photo and memory book gave people who knew her well the opportunity to write to Keith and the family. Jean and Keith have tirelessly given quiet service over many years to the benefit of people from all walks of life, in both our community and across the district.
Sincere thanks to the hardworking book sale committee members and all Rotarians who helped set up and manage the sale during the weekend. And thank you also to R&R Hire Ltd for providing containers for book storage and to Freeway Orchard and staff who open and close the container daily for people to leave their book donations. And thank you to Cromwell Bowling Club for their fantastic venue for our book sales
A note of thanks to Jennie for the tribute to Jean on 26th January and to all members of the extended Rotary family for the cards, messages and offers of support.
Jean and I have been together for more than 60 years, with her filling the roles of Wife, Mother, Grandma, lover and friend. I will miss her for a long, long time to come. We greatly appreciate the support of our two sons and their families of whom we are very proud. But of course, Jean’s 25 years in New Zealand has touched the lives of many beyond the family.
We knew that Jean’s days were numbered, but the timing was always an unknown. Jean had been a resident of Golden View Care in Cromwell since October 2024, but in practice wasable to come home after breakfast most days until returning after dinner for overnight nursing care. It was the support network that enabled us to enjoy around 18 months of quality time with Jean that we hadn’t expected. Rotarians have been a large part of that support network, thank you.
Local students at Cromwell Primary School and Goldfields Primary School are now safer and more visible during their travels and trips, thanks to a recent delivery of new high-visibility safety vests.
Cromwell Primary requested new vests to enable their students to be more visible when on Outdoor Education trips. Goldfields will use their vests to help their bus students be more visible when travelling to and from school. Both schools have growing rolls and are adding the new vests to their existing collections.
I wish to acknowledge the generous support of Otago Motor Club Trust who, once again provided a large percentage of the funds required for the purchasing and printing of the vests.
Tania
Cromwell Primary and Goldfields students model the new, highly-visible vests
On Monday 8th of December the club had the privilege of hosting Greg Delaney, the current Cromwell Lion’s President, as our speaker. Greg started by getting a feel for the audience’s experience of AI technology. The level of experience ranged from none to regular users, a response which Greg assessed as normal. A little background to the emergence of the now invasive tool provided a perspective to a technology which has been evolving for many years but only became a serious reality with technology developments achieved by Google in 2017. Greg promoted AI tools as a facility available to all, with free versions of AI apps available and the opportunity to use voice communications, avoiding the need to be a proficient keyboard user.
Of the AI apps generally available, Greg’s preference was ChatGPT which he used to demonstrate the process with several scenarios. During the presentation Greg had a number of key messages to help new users in particular.
Speak your mind, it doesn’t matter if your input is ‘messy’. The app won’t be offended if you interrupt. The more information you give, the better quality the result is likely to be. You can ‘turn the tables’ and ask what the app needs to know to answer your question. When you first start using an AI app it is likely to ask if you want to share your information to help develop its database – the safe option is to say NO.
The depth of interest in the topic was confirmed by the volume of questions to wrap up the evening’s presentation.
