The Governors Message
Welcome to The Zonta Heartbeat. I do hope you enjoyed the last one, and I know this one has helpful information for you too.
Zonta, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! That’s right, we’ve turned 103 this November… so a heartfelt congratulations to everyone! Thank you so much for making this possible! This month is yours to celebrate!
It’s been an exciting and hectic four months since I began this journey as Governor with you all and it’s incredible how much we’ve accomplished in this biennium so far. I personally want to thank you all for your efforts in fundraising, service, advocacy, awards and club unity, all while displaying our Zonta Spirit.
It can be difficult to think of ourselves and our wonderful club friendships at times, as we are so busy looking after the charities and other busy life needs. However they are extremely important, so please celebrate yourselves and each other! We are all working towards a common goal that we must all remain focused on. There is so much going on in the world. A world in which women and girls require our assistance more than ever – but make sure you look after each other along the way too.
It’s been great to catch up with the D16 Committee Chairs & our Board a couple of times on Zoom over the last four months. Keeping in touch with many is a big part of what I want for this biennium we are in.
What have we been achieving “behind the scenes”?
- Online forms for Reports for Presidents and Area Directors.
- District Project for 2022-2024
- Website update
- 17th Zonta D16 Christchurch Conference 2023 organising
- Zoom Meetings for your District Board & Committee Chairs
- Thank you for all you are doing around the District.
- Zonta Says No!
Every Member Every November – NOVEMBER 8th 2022
In honor of Zonta’s 103rd birthday, we invite all Zontians to commit their personal support for Zonta by making an individual gift directly to the Foundation during the month of November. Every donation to the Foundation helps support Zonta’s projects and programs that build a better world for women and girls.
Give a gift of empowerment today!
You will recognise this campaign from the past Biennium. We ask that you give something as small or as large as you wish to the Foundation. Remember it is in $USD on the website when you give – we would like to thank you very much.
When you have Donated – we’d love you to share this Badge on your personal Social Media Pages – and when your Club donates – you can say your Club has donated too. How will you receive these?
Instead of sending it out to each member by email. We will have them on the Zonta District 16 Facebook and Instagram Pages. For you to CLICK ON, HOLD DOWN and SAVE PHOTO. Then you can post on your own page. If you have trouble doing this – then please email Kay at secretaryd16@zonta.org.nz
17th Zonta D16 Conference 2023
Remember to SAVE the DATE
Christchurch
22nd – 24th September 2023
When do you fly/drive in?
We are organising optional activities for you if you wish, on Friday afternoon.
Surprise fun on Friday evening
more exciting updates on this to come, but book it in your calendars.
The conference is Saturday
all day with a fabulous guest speaker(s) and a program to engage all ages in Zonta.
Saturday evening
A night to celebrate with your Zonta friends and partners.
Sunday morning
We continue the programme. Please don’t fly home until later in the afternoon to avoid missing anything.
Registrations open next year.
Stay tuned for more information.
Membership Growth
It is extremely important that you empower each other. Some of your clubs will have new Presidents, new Secretaries, etc, this can be daunting being in the driver’s seat for the first time. Or perhaps a member has taken this up again with smaller club member numbers, be grateful for this, and maybe you can see if you could too – Remember – It is not the difference that you or I can make on our own, but rather the difference that we can make together. #alwaysbettertogether
Also please know – to bring visitors along your clubs must be healthy, to have a healthy club, you need to look after each other. A club that plays together, stays together as they say. What fun things do you do in your club? How is your ZONTA SPIRIT? We all get a little tired at all stages of our life in Zonta, we have other commitments, families, friends, jobs, hobbies, relaxing, and more to do. However, think back to when you first joined Zonta. For the greater cause of helping women and girls. That need is there more than ever. So be kind to yourself. Be kind to others. Let’s keep making this a Better World for Women and Girls.
Zonta Says No! to Violence against Women
As you know – we have the 16 Days of Activism just around the corner.
25th November – 10th December.
We ask you all to post and wear Orange as much as you can during this time and don’t keep this a secret. As they call it at Zonta International – let us “Orange the world”. Please take as many photos as you can and send them to us with a caption. We need others to understand what the photos are, so please be clear with your descriptions/captions.
This is a fabulous opportunity for us to be in front of the World to say it is NOT OK for this to be happening in our own communities or around the World.
If you have buildings lit up – please get photos.
If you have shoes painted Orange in front of prominent places, please get photos.
If you have Advocacy Events – Please get photos.
And please send to…
Rebecca Bullen our ZSN Chair rebeccakbullen@gmail.com
And to our Social Media/PR Chair nicolastonezonta@gmail.com
District Project
Firstly the District Board and I would like to say thank you for the 7 applications for the District Project. We voted on the two chosen Charities Sweet Louise and also Grandparents Raising Grandchildren. However, we can’t go without saying that we did appreciate the number of applications that were brought forward. It would be wonderful if we could help the whole world with everything that came in front of us. Unfortunately, this isn’t possible – but we can make a difference with who has been chosen. Therefore it is with great pleasure that I can talk about the District Project being GRG (Grandparents Raising Grandchildren) for another Biennium. GRG is delighted of course to hear this.
Working with GRG has been excellent. They are very accommodating and welcoming to anything we may need. I’ve been talking with them about ways we can engage them with Clubs that are not fortunate enough to have a GRG representative in their neighbourhood. But as you can imagine that isn’t possible with all the charities we help from time to time to always have someone in your own towns/cities. GRG has said that they could possibly do with Zonta D16 to help with their coffee groups. Watch this space as we find out more for you. If your club feels a little disengaged with the District 16 chosen charity, we’d love to hear so we can help.
New Members
Remember when you were new in Zonta, you are a little nervous and it’s all brand new. The best thing we can do is make a new member feel welcome.
How do we do this? They get a welcome letter from D16 and get emails from Zonta International. If you haven’t registered a new member for a few weeks or dare we say it a few months, they will feel pretty unwelcome. So do make a massive effort to please. Do you remember what it was like to be a new member? It’s exciting but scary too. In Zonta – we have a system to make the new Zonta member feel as welcome as possible, not only from a District level but also from Zonta International. You may have them in your system of checking in with them, making sure they know what’s happening when and how. But for the actual D16 and ZI, we need to have them registered straight away. Why you may ask? It is so they feel engaged and connected. We send them a welcome letter from D16, they hear from ZI on their mailing lists and we do our best to make them feel welcome. If you don’t register them straight away and leave it for weeks or months (as some have) then that new member never feels so welcome. So what is the procedure?
Your Club Secretary needs to Register them online on the ZI website. And the invoice to ZI and D16 needs to be paid.
This is why you email the D16 Treasurer, Jenny Philipson; the Secretary, Kay Collingwood then she can send a welcome letter from us all in D16, and Jen McKinlay-Birkin our D16 Lt Governor can also make them feel welcome and know who is new in our District.
Kakahu Aroha
We thought it would be wonderful for you all to know the story of our Kakahu that the Zonta Governor wears in honour.
I recently interviewed Ranui Ngariumu ONZM. She is the weaver of our Kakahu. The name is called Kakahu Aroha, this is named for Zonta, with the love that we give to our community.
The diamond pattern along the bottom weaving – the red is the bark and the black was the mud to get close to our Zonta colours as could be done.
The Diamonds are representing you, our Zonta members, protected by the small teeth along the top and the bottom of the diamonds, they are called – Niho, shape (triangles) representing the Taniwha (the Taniwha can be for good, not just for bad) which are protecting Zonta (the diamonds).
The feathers on the Kakahu are pheasant feathers that were sourced from the North Island.
She designed and then was the weaver of this beautiful kakahu which has been sourced from the land itself by Ranui, completely from scratch.
It is called a Kakahu, not a Korowai. What is the difference you may ask? This is named after what it is made from.
For example, if it was a Korowai it would have the tassels all over the garment because it has them only at each end/side, it is called a Kakahu. Another example is if it was made of Kiwi feathers it could be called a Kakahu Kiwi.
All have equal prestige and are to be worn as often as possible. You are welcome to touch it when you see me or future Governors wear it. Ranui said it is to be seen and loved. We must wear it, wear it, wear it! Ranui said to take it to Area Meetings so you all can see it and touch it.
It is not to be worn while eating – only due to keeping it clean – as it can not be cleaned as other clothes can, the not eating in it has nothing to do with a cultural respect reason. And yes it can be sat in.
I hope you have enjoyed hearing about it. When I wore it for the first time at the Governors Changeover Dinner, I was quite overwhelmed. It is extremely special, and now knowing all of this information, I felt you would all like to hear this too. So it is not just special to myself, but to have me wear it with pride for our whole District to enjoy.
Website Update
We have the website well underway with the content gathering as you read this. Whilst we wanted to have this done by now (as you know), you can imagine these things do take longer to coordinate the content, than expected. So thank you for your patience as we pull this all together. And I thank those that I have engaged to help with this large project. We will advise you all when it is live. In the meantime, remember that ZI have a fabulous website, and anything you need will be there, please do ask your Area Director and Presidents for help – it is their pleasure to help you.
We have taken the Presidents & Area Director reports to being ONLINE and not Word Documents ready for the D16 Board Meeting on Nov 19th. And we plan to roll out the Committee Chairs to be online for the next D16 Board meeting in February. This is exciting to get Zonta D16 to a much smoother way to fill out and collate information, making their roles about supporting you, the members and not the paperwork! I thank the Presidents & A.D.’s for embracing this new change.
Thank You
Many hands make light work!
I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you. Your Club Newsletters contain a wealth of information about what you are doing. And I am extremely grateful. Mana and Wellington Clubs, for example, are currently collaborating on projects. Wheat Bags in Auckland South, the famous Zoks in Ashburton, Shortbread for Zonta Christchurch-North, Rotorua and Metropolitan Dunedin Clubs have both walked with Kate & Libby as they walk the length of NZ raising awareness for Ripple effects of sexual abuse (REOSA) and Christchurch South held their 31st Annual Sports Awards celebrating Gender Equality and the amazing Sports achievements at High School. They had Twenty-three schools enter with 314 attending this year’s awards evening.
A HUGE thank you to those of you around the country that got behind this Canterbury Zonta Club-driven fundraiser. Whangarei doing a fabulous visual walk too and Hamilton organising with their local GRG club to do a walk there too. This year $11,000 was raised – we thank you all. We know GRG will be so grateful for all you did to support us.
Just to mention a few of you. Well done! The D16 Board and I are proud of you all.
#alwaysbettertogether
A community for Zonta International’s global membership!
Connect with fellow Zonta members around the world, engage in meaningful discussions on the most pressing gender equity issues globally and locally, and stay up to date on the latest Zonta news and member resources all in one place.