Also check out our Upcoming Meetings
Thursday, 31 October 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: 'The Big Picture and Where We Fit' - Sara Templeton
City councillor Sara Templeton has recently announced she will stand for mayor in next year's local body elections. Sara is thecouncillor for the Heathcote ward, which covers our part of the city. Her key areas of interest are sustainability, climate change, and in enabling communities to connect and strengthen for longterm wellbeing and resilience. The title of her talk is `The Big Picture and Where We Fit’, looking at some of the key issues facing Christchurch and exploring how they relate to Sumner and the Bays area.Mini Speaker: Jim Roche.
Thursday, 26 September 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Tony Smith
Award-winning senior sports reporter Tony Smith, who has covered four Olympic Games, the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the 2021 World Cup finals and the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Rugby World Cups, as well as several All Blacks tours to Europe and Australia. He now specialises in rugby, rugby league and football for the Press.Mini Speaker: John Carter.
Thursday, 29 August 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Martin Fisher, senior lecturer at the University of Canterbury
Martin Fisher will explain the background to the Treaty of Waitangi that he says is incredibly important at our current political moment. Martin has worked in the Treaty of Waitangi claims process, as a researcher for the Office of Treaty Settlements and for the Waitangi Tribunal.Mini Speaker: Peter Hyland.
Thursday, 25 July 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Anke Richter
Anke will talk on looking inside cults. Anke is an international journalist based in Lyttelton who writes for the Listener, North&South, Stuff, RNZ and the German media. Over the last 10 years, she has investigated cults like Centrepoint and Gloriavale, which she covers in her book Cult Trip. Anke is also the convenor of the first cult awareness conference in New Zealand, Decult, in Christchurch in October.Mini Speaker: Phil Burghart.
Thursday, 27 June 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Douglas Chee
Douglas, who at the age of 75 completed the New York City Marathon last year – the biggest marathon in the world – despite being legally blind. He has run 60 half marathons. However, the New York marathon, with its 42km distance and travel to get there, was a much larger challenge that required a lot of training over nine months with his guide, Rosie Hay, an Air NZ flight attendant and daughter of Probus member Kevin Hay.Mini Speaker: Kipp Alexander.
Thursday, 30 May 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Gaye Sincock, retired prison officer
How does a petite female prison officer cope in an all-male prison? Gaye, who retired two years ago after serving for 30 years at Christchurch Men’s Prison, will tell us how she dealt with the challenges of her work and earned the respect of the inmates and staff by being firm but fair.Mini Speaker: Bill Cotton.
Thursday, 18 April 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Nick Ledgard
Nick will speak about the outstanding success of the Ashley-Rakahuri Rivercare Group in regenerating this beautiful section of braided river. Please note this meeting is a week earlier than usual this month to avoid a clash with Anzac Day.Mini Speaker: Chris Dawson.
Thursday, 28 March 2024 at 10 am (AGM)
Main Speaker: Tim Mills, CEO of the Canterbury Jockey Club
Have been at the forefront of New Zealand racing since 1854.Thursday, 29 February 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Ben Winters - Mussel farming in the Marlborough Sounds
Ben Winters' family run mussel farms in the Marlborough Sounds and Akaroa.Mini Speaker: Alan Truscott.
Thursday, 25 January 2024 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Brian Ashby, who is a very well-known sports commentator.
Brian has covered every Olympic Games since Sydney in 2000, both on the ground (2000, 2004, 2008) or as a member of the Games commentary team (2012, 2016), this alongside reporting on the Commonwealth Games. He is a proud Cantab who has seen the Crusaders and Canterbury NPC sides win more championship titles than the rest of the country combined. Besides covering rugby and the Olympics, Brian has been a champion of multisport covering the Coast-to-Coast, Ironman, cycling plus many other sporting events. Brian has recently retired from Newstalk ZB.Mini Speaker: Ken O'Rourke.
Thursday, 30 November 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Lucinda Diack, publisher and editor of Latitude Magazine.
Latitude Magazine has offices in Ashburton and north Canterbury and publishes every two months.Mini Speaker: Tony Lewis.
Thursday, 26 October 2023 at 10 am
Main Speakers are from the local Aerospace Industry.
Given the increasing importance of aerospace businesses to the Christchurch economy, this should be an interesting session. Organisations & Speaker names are:1. Aerospace New Zealand - Brydee Gibbins, Events & HR Coordinator
2. Oasis Orbital Systems - Mekdim Tesfaye, Co-Founder and Marketing Specialist at Aerospace New Zealand.
3. UC Aerospace Club - Rushil Gentejohann, President and Technical Coordinator at Aerospace New Zealand & Grayson Spittle, UC Aerospace Club.
Mini Speaker: Bruce Kivi
Thursday, 28 September 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Retired Army Brigadier Neville Reilly.
Neville's operational service included deployments to Bosnia, East Timor and Afghanistan. After his retirement, Neville was New Zealand’s ambassador to Afghanistan in 2010-2011, and then manager of Civil Defence at Environment Canterbury.Mini Speaker: David Turnbull
Thursday, 31 August 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Martin Hawes will speak on financial planning in retirement.
Sumner resident Martin Hawes is a financial author, conference speaker and TV and radio commentator. He was a financial adviser for 20 years but now concentrates on writing articles and books, speaking engagements and his work as a director of Lifetime Income.Mini Speaker: Phil Brodie
Thursday, 27 July 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Caroline Johnson from the Red Cross will give a presentation on their activities.
Mini Speaker: Bob Thayer.
Thursday, 29 June 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Mike Moore - rugby referee.
Mini Speaker: Peter Chiverton.
Thursday, 25 May 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Hannah Airey from the Lotus community well-being trust
Hannah will be speaking on the 5 ways to well-being and laughter wellness.Mini Speaker: Max Robertson.
Thursday, 27 April 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Petronella Spicer speaks of the challenges she faces as a blind person.
Mini Speaker: Don Hayes.
Thursday, 30 March 2023 at 10 am - AGM
Main Speaker: Linda White - Challenges and highlights of living and working in China
Linda White is a retired language support teacher who has worked in many countries. She will tell us what is was like living and working in China from 2006 to 2012. She says many people have negative ideas about China as a communist country, but she tried to keep an open mind and will talk about the challenges and highlights of her experience, the changes she saw and whether China is a threat to world order.Thursday, 23 February 2023 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Michael Singleton will address the plans to build an airport at Tarras.
Christchurch Airport project director Michael Singleton will talk about the plan to build an airport at Tarras, Central Otago. The proposal has prompted protests from the rural community and opposition from neighbouring airports. We anticipate a fascinating opportunity to hear the case for what Christchurch Airport says will be a sustainable, 21st-century international gateway that Central Otago can be proud of. Michael joined Christchurch International Airport in 2012 and has extensive experience in New Zealand and overseas on governance matters and industry issues.Mini Speaker: Tony Brooker.
Thursday, 24 November 2022 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Isobel Harrison, former Gloriavale resident.
Gloriavale has been in the media recently and this should be a fascinating opportunity to get some first hand information about life in this community.Mini speaker: Jens Christensen
Thursday, 27 October 2022 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Shane Fletcher, CEO of the Crusaders rugby franchise
Mini speaker: Bruce Chee
Thursday, 29 September 2022 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Mike Whitty, General Manager Supply Chain, Ravensdown
Mike will speak of the challenges the Ukraine crisis has caused to supplies of fertiliser and other products.Mini speaker: Serena McNaught, Barnardos NZ
Serena will outline the various roles they undertake in the community.Thursday, 25 August 2022 at 10 am
Main Speakers: Barbara Chapman & Dr Elisabeth Phillips
 |
Barbara Chapman, marketing communications manager at the Canterbury Medical Research Foundation, and cancer researcher Dr Elisabeth Phillips will talk about their work, in particular the promising recent discoveries that vitamin C may slow the progress of tumours. |
 |
Mini speaker: Dave Mateer
Thursday, 28 July 2022 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Helen Bickers - St. John
 |
Helen has worked a quarter of a century as a paramedic, including during the Christchurch earthquakes and terror attack and will talk about her work on the frontline for St John. She says she has delivered one baby and been to hundreds of deaths in her 25 years as a paramedic. She gives talks at jails and courses for drink drivers – anywhere she can do good to help people be safer on the roads – and received nationwide exposure as a Good Sort on TV1. See Helen also on TVNZ |
Mini speaker: David Brant
Thursday, 30 June 2022 at 10 am
Main Speaker: Paul Deavoll - Orion, GM Customer & Stakeholder.
Paul leads the Customer and Stakeholder team and is responsible for Orion’s external relationships including communications, stakeholder and customer relationships, and sustainability. With almost 20 years’ experience within the telecommunications sector, Paul has a sound appreciation for the difference infrastructure and technology can make for businesses and communities. Paul has a strong engagement with his local community. He is a Trustee of the Christchurch Foundation and President of Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce.
Mini Speaker: Dave Harley.
Thursday, 26 May 2022
Main Speaker: Graeme Anderson - Work and Income.
The main speaker is Graeme Anderson from work and income who is a senior care manager. He is going to speak on retirement issues as they relate to events which we all may face, such as retirement village funding limits, possible dementia funding, allowable funding that can be retained and still be eligible for various benefits etc.Mini Speaker: Ray King-Turner.
Ray will share with us the excellent address he gave on Anzac Day at the Sumner Anzac Day service.Thursday, 28 April 2022
Main Speakers: the Pathways Reintegration Team, Renee & Matiu
We will have two speakers from the Pathways Reintegration Team whose motto is helping people make a fresh start The Christchurch based prisoner reintegration programme supports men wanting to move away from harmful choices and start over. The results speak for themselves, men who work with Pathway Reintegration are 43% less likely to be reimprisoned after 12 months than men who do not . Pathway’s team of social workers provide a service that gets to the heart of the complex issues that lead to crime and replaces them with strategies for a new life.Thursday, 31 March 2022
Main Speaker: Phil Mauger
Christchurch mayoral aspirant Phil Mauger will talk about his background prior to being a city councilor and what he would like to achieve if elected. |
Profile: Phil Mauger is a successful businessman with strong community ties and a history of supporting community organisations. He is the current city councillor for Burwood. Prior to becoming a councillor, he led Maugers Contracting, a third-generation company specialising in building subdivisions, roads, sewers, drains, and water mains which his family has been operating in Christchurch since 1970. Phil has resigned from his company to focus on becoming Christchurch’s next Mayor. Phil is married to Chrissy and between them they have five children and eight grandchildren. The couple currently call Avonhead home. In his first year of being a city councillor, Phil came under the spotlight for digging a trench in Pages Road to solve a flooding problem that was a safety concern and had gone unfixed for 10 years. After seeing a young mum push her pram through the water, he decided to do something about it. Phil was fined for doing the trench work without a resource consent but was celebrated in the Burwood community for ‘getting stuff done’. Phil’s father Warner passed away at the end of 2020. Warner encouraged Phil to stand for council and months before he died, he said to Phil “You should have a crack at mayor.” – so he is. |
Mini Speaker: Ian Curry
 |
Ian will speak of his personal experiences of mining in Western Australia in the 1970’s. |
Thursday, 24 February 2022: AGM
Main Speaker: Carolyn Amyes, President of Federated Farmers, North Canterbury
 |
Carolyn is the president of Federated Farmers, North Canterbury, and will be the second main speaker. She has been working in the dairy industry for 12 years for the Camden Group, Synlait Farms and now Craigmore Farming. Along with husband Richard, who makes buffalo cheese, and son Fergus, they own a small farm in Whitecliffs, near the Rakaia River,where they run dairy beef cross. She was brought up on a small lifestyle block near Wellington and has qualifications from Victoria, Waikato and Lincoln universities. She has a love for farming and wants to see us continue to lead the way globally with our sustainable practices. |
 |
Induction of Life Members Roger France and Ross Gillespie |
Thursday, 25 November 2021
Main Speaker: Kim Dunstan, Stats NZ - New Zealand's changing population: facts and myths.
Abstract: The size, composition and geographic distribution of our population affects every area of society, both nationally and locally. This includes key sectors such as education, health, the labour force, housing, infrastructure and retirement. We'll look at our population - how it has changed and how it is likely to change in the future. In doing so, we'll explore a few population myths to separate fact from fiction. |
Bio: Kim Dunstan is a senior demographer with Stats NZ's Population Insights team. He has worked in the population area for over 30 years, including stints with the UK Office of National Statistics and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Particular areas of expertise include population projections, life tables, ethnic populations, international travel and migration, and communicating population statistics to a wide range of audiences. |
Mini Speaker: Terry Pryor
Terry was a tutor at Ara and his background is in the cooking field.Thursday, 28 October 2021
Mini Speaker: Hugh Conly - our newsletter co-editor.
Mini Speaker: Ian O'Connell - our newsletter editor and committee member.
Paul Halliwell (left) was inducted as new member into our club:
Thursday, 30 September 2021
Main Speaker: Dr Jan Wright - Chair of Te Manahuna Aoraki: Climate Change
Jan will talk about Climate Change, as well as her extensive work on environmental issues. Jan held the role of Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment from 2007 to 2017. She is rather overeducated (Her words! Ed) with an honours degree in Physics from Canterbury, a Master's degree in Energy and Resources from Berkeley in California, and a PhD in Public Policy from Harvard. She is also a Companion of the Royal Society and holds an honorary doctorate from Lincoln. Her varied career includes working as an independent policy and economic consultant for many different government agencies, and as a member of various Crown Entity Boards. In her politically independent role as Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan investigated many environmental issues, including the controversial pesticide 1080, water quality, sea level rise, and the plight of New Zealand's native birds. Jan is currently Chair of Te Manahuna Aoraki - a 310,000 hectare conservation project in the Canterbury high country.
Mini Speaker: Jim Begg - member since October 2020.
The August meeting was cancelled due to Covid lockdown
Thursday, 29 July 2021
Frank Coppens was inducted as new member into our club:
Main Speaker: Helen Beaumont - Christchurch City Council Head of Three Waters and Waste
Is our drinking water safe? We’ve had problems with well heads, the taste and smell of chemicals in the water and dead animals in the Akaroa reservoir. Helen will be speaking about water supply and the state of our City’s infrastructure.
 |
 |
Additional Main Speaker: Pamela Richardson
Pamela Richardson, of Akaroa, received the Insignia of a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to conservation and the community. Mrs Richardson has contributed to the Canterbury community for more than 20 years. She played an important role in the former Banks Peninsula District Council's Task Force for 10 years, co-ordinating rural landowners' responses to the district plan. She also helped establish the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust, which encourages rural landowners to protect areas of biodiversity. She was the first female President of the North Canterbury Federated Farmers and is the convenor of its Banks Peninsula branch. She was involved with the Canterbury Community Trust for many years, has been a trustee of the North Canterbury Rural Support Trust, and is an Akaroa-Wairewa Community Board member.Thursday, 24 June 2021
Main Speaker: Dr Greg Burrell - Meeting the needs of fish and people: dredging the Heathcote River.
Dr Greg Burrell is a freshwater scientist with over 20 years of professional experience in freshwater management, aquatic resource surveys, restoration, and applied research. Much of his earlier career focused on managing effects of wastewater discharges, mining, land development, and water abstraction, while more latterly the focus has broadened to include waterway restoration. Greg has worked in Hamilton and in Canada, but most of his career has been based in Christchurch. Greg is the owner of Instream Consulting in Christchurch.Mini-Talk: John Wiltschut - Part 2 - "From Silicon Valley to Christchurch".
Sharing the experience of 17 years in the California high-tech industry and retiring in New Zealand.John continues with the second part of his mini-talk which he started at the March meeting.Three new members were inducted into our club: David, Dave and Tony:
Thursday, 27 May 2021
Main Speaker: Stephen Roach - Habitat for Humanity: building foundations for a better life
Stephen is the General Manager for Habitat for Humanity in Christchurch and he will give us more insight in the history and current activities of this charitable organization. Habitat for Humanity Christchurch provide a range of local programmes aimed at building strength, stability and self-reliance through shelter.
Mini-Talk: Stig Eldred
Stig has recently returned from the U.S.A. and he will talk about his thoughts on Covid in the U.S. and the recent Election. As most members will know Stig is a very professional entertainer, and his subject is huge so this should be a lively presentation.Craig was inducted as a new member into our club:
Thursday, 29 April 2021
Three new members were inducted into our club: Simon, Peter and Noel:
Main Speaker: Kylie Phaup-Stephens - "Kiwi Birds Don't Fly"
Kylie will give a talk titled “Kiwi Birds Don’t Fly”. Over a decade ago now, she arrived back in New Zealand after the ultimate OE. She travelled 50,000 kilometres solo from the U.K to Christchurch on a cheap mountain bike and on a budget of just under 8 dollars a day. Starting in London and then Europe she traversed 23 countries in 20 months. Needless to say, there were some interesting incidents along the way which we look forward to hearing about. Europe was relatively straight forward but thing got trickier when she reached Iran, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and China. As well as difficult situations she had many positive experiences including incredible kindness by the New Zealand Army in Afghanistan who gave her milo and a hot shower.
Mini-Talk: Nish Mohun - Health and Disability Advocacy Service
Nish is the local advocate for the Nationwide Health and Disability Advocacy Service and volunteered to talk to us because she is concerned that not enough people are aware of the Service and of the help they can get if they need to make a complaint. The Ministry of Health runs this free service that operates independently from all health and disability service providers and agencies. It is designed to ensure that people with Health or Disability issues can get help if they need it. They provide individual support for any person having an issue with a health provider in any area of health. The Service is promoted on the Ministry’s website. The Service handles around 2700 complaints in a year with almost 100% closed in that time and 93% of the complainants were satisfied with the outcome. More information can be found at the Health and Disability Advocacy website.Thursday, 25 March 2021
Main Speaker: Dr Bryon Mann – “Climate Change is not man made ?”.
Bryon describes his talk as “controversial and educational and based on simple science and history”. He has degrees in Physics and Maths and qualifications in Chemistry, Geology, Astronomy and Philosophy and has studied climate for more than 20 years. His talk should provoke some interesting debate because he argues that Carbon Dioxide is not something to be concerned about.Some background information on this topic:NASA: Direct Observations Confirm that Humans are Throwing Earth’s Energy Budget off BalanceBBC: A brief history of the Earth's CO2
Mini-Talk: John Wiltschut - "From Rotterdam to Silicon Valley to Christchurch".
Sharing the experience of growing up in the Netherlands, enjoying 17 years in the California high-tech industry and retiring in New Zealand.
Dr Stuart Walley was our Main Speaker at the 25 February 2021 Meeting.
Stuart holds a Ph.D. in Geophysics and Geology, where he studied the response of coastlines to rapid changes in sea-level during the Devonian. Since then, his career focus has been on Exploration and Production, specifically in geophysical services, well services, advisory services, consultancy, technology development and sales and business management within the Energy Industry. He has considerable global experience having worked in the UK, Europe, Africa, Middle East, Indian Sub-Continent, and Asia Pacific and over the past 24 years has established a comprehensive understanding of the Energy business and E&P asset life cycle.
The 25 February 2021 meeting was also the AGM and an overview of planned activities was presented.
We meet every last Thursday of the month
(from February to November)
Return to the: Home page
This page is in the process of being updated for 2022
© 2024 Ferrymead Sumner Men's Probus Club
®