New member Beth Stitley was inducted to Dunedin Central last week. Here she is photographed at the induction with our president.
Dunedin NRG Charters!
Last week the NRG officially chartered in style with a Mexican Casino night. Here are a few pics of the night including some of the Dunedin Central crew, Susanah Walker- the NRG President and our DC Janice Hughes!
Dunedin Central President Derek King, NRG President Susanah Walker and District Governor Janice Hughes.
Last Week's Guest Speaker
Bill Currie from ‘Powerhouse Wind’ spoke to the club last Tuesday night. He outlined the process of a ‘smart grid’ for power generation and also demonstrated through an interesting PowerPoint and display, his prototype wind generator. His product has a single blade which makes for a quieter and more efficient wind flow. It was interesting to hear that he tracks his machines on line to check their performance. Currently he has machines in Otago, Southland and several in the Marlborough Sounds. Up until recently he was involved in a pilot manufacturing scheme in conjunction with Otago Polytechnic but unfortunately funding was withdrawn and this relationship was halted.
Bill summarised his position with his wind turbine project by telling us that he has the tooling, he’s got the product, he’s fixed in many NZ sites and now he’s exploring the export opportunity.
A wind turbine from his company retails at about $20,000. Overall, this was a fascinating talk about a local company success.
Next week's speaker is Lynley Hood
Award-winning author Lynley Hood is a Dunedin-based scientist, independent scholar and writer. She was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, in 1942 and moved to Dunedin in 1961, where she has lived, more or less continuously, ever since. After obtaining an M.Sc in Physiology from the University of Otago, Lynley worked in medical research before becoming a parent and freelance writer.
Lynley's publications include four books, one stage play, several book chapters and scores of magazine articles. Her first book (Sylvia! The Biography of Sylvia Ashton-Warner) won the 1989 Wattie Book Award and the PEN Best First Book of Prose Award, and was Talking Book of the Year in 1990. Her third book (Minnie Dean: Her Life and Crimes) was short-listed for the 1995 New Zealand Book Awards. The radio version of her stage play (The Baby Farmer) won a special commendation at the 1997 New Zealand Radio Awards. Lynley's fourth book (A City Possessed: the Christchurch Civic Creche case) won the Montana Medal for non-fiction and the Readers' Choice Award at the 2002 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, and also the 2002 New Zealand Skeptics Bravo Award. In 2003, Lynley was awarded a Doctorate of Literature (examined, not honourary) by the University of Otago for "published contributions of special excellence in literary, social and historical knowledge". In 2011 Lynley was a resident writer in the University of Iowa International Writing Program.
Lynley has served as national vice-president and local secretary of PEN (NZ), organised the Wordstruck literary festival, established the Dunedin Writers' Walk and contributed to literary festivals in New Zealand and overseas. She held the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago in 1991.
Thought for the week
“A year from now, you may wish you had started today”
Remember: It’s your responsibility to arrange a substitute if unable to fulfil your duty.