News & Events
Luncheon and Social
Tuesday 31st January 2012
Members and guests are invited to attend. Reservations for luncheon must be made to Margaret Harvey phone 352-4950 not later than than 6pm on Thursday 25th of January 2012. Margaret's email
Note: On arrival, you are requested to pay for your meal in advance. Those who are late in registering will have to order their own meal on the day. There is also a $2 raffle
Main Speaker - Nil, instead members will be displaying what they have created, produce or achieved using their computer. Please contact Barbara Blowes if you wish to display your wares, achievements or even sell samples.
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Christmas Luncheon and Social
Tuesday 29th. November 2012
85 members and friends enjoy a wonderful occasion in the Cashmere Clubs convention hall.
Main Speaker - Colin Patterson
After a life time in farming, Colin recently retired from his farm at Ellesmere due to a bout of ill health. Encouraged by his family he finally put pen to paper and recorded the poems he had been "writing in his head" since boyhood. "These revolve around the land, and reflect the glory, hardships, the flora, fauna and people 
associated with the land and their influence on a farmer's life. "So successful was this project that again with family encouragement, he was entered for the New Zealand Poet of the Year Awards and won.
Colin is a passionate ecologist and is at present engaged in the clean up of Lake Ellesmere. He has created and continues to create walking tracks on his old farm with access to hides-outs and to restore the natural vegetation to the area.
Colin is a great entertainer and enjoys reciting his poems that tell his story of the colourful farming life of yester year. He now lives with his wife at Leeston.
The photo on the right show Colin making his grand entrance. The other photos are of members and guests.
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Those present included our youngest member Olivia Ralph (Who is disabled) along with her mother Karen and one of our oldest members Brian who was celebrating his 91st birthday. Photographs courtesy of Margaret Hatton.
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Tuesday 25th. October
The Guest Speakers were Alan and Patricia Clease who left the UK in the late sixties to take up a new life in New Zealand. They both worked for the BBC in London and Glasgow for a number of years and shared some of their experiences with us.
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Tuesday 27th. September
The Guest Speaker was Gerald Edmunds of ACC. His presentation was on Falls Prevention. ACC statistics tell us that one in three people aged over 65 years and one in two people aged over 80 years will experience a fall in the next 12 moths. We know that falls are not a natural cause of ageing, so many of them can be prevented. The presentation works through a number of changes that people can address to make themselves safer and to prevent falls in future. All participants will receive a "Standing up to Falls" book from ACC which covers the majority of the discussions in the presentation.
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Tuesday 23rd. August
The Guest Speaker were Babs Sutherland, Fundraising Co-ordinator and Jenny Parker Telecare Representative put on a excellent presentation about St Johns, how they are funded, what programmes that are available to the community, and their medical alarm service. Everyone present learnt much about their organisation.
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The July meeting was cancelled due to heavy snow.
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Tuesday 28th June
The Guest Speaker was Karolin Potter - Her subject was "Human Rights" She has worked at the Human Rights Commission in Christchurch for 12 years.
Prior to this she was a schoolteacher, a trade unionist and worked for local MPs in
Christchurch. She was initially employed in the Race Relations Office before it
amalgamated with the Human Rights Commission in 2000 and has been an
educator in the Commission since. Issues that come before the Commission can be
as small as the meaning of the word Pakeha, to remuneration for caregivers,
accessible public transport, discrimination against people who are transgender, and
retirement age.
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Annual General Meeting was held
Tuesday 24th May
Once again we had a very good attendence with 57 members present. Barbara Blowes was elected president for her ninth time - Two life memberships were awarded, for detail see the "History Page" - Following the AGM, Robin Harrington gave a talk on iPad and then gave us a preview of the Apple Macintosh Operating System "Lion"
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Tuesday 22nd, Febuary 2011
Guest Speaker was to be Gerald Edmunds of ACC. This did not happen. The earthquake changed everything. The evacuation of the premises proceeded very quickly. No one was hurt. We drew the raffles in the car park and then everyone attempted to get home. The traffic was bumper to bumper in most areas and the speed was slower than walking pace. It took anything from 3 to 7 hours traveling time for members returning home. Because there was no power in the city, many intersections were grid-locked.
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Tuesday 25th, January 2011
A display of items 'Made on Mac' by members was laid out on tables so that everyone present could view their work. There are a lot of talented people in our Society. The sixty members and guest were probably amazed at what they saw. The committee is seriously considering having a similar meeting in January 2012
Ross Glubb gave a small inroductionary demonstration on iPads.
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Xmas Luncheon & 10th Anniversary Celebrations was held at the Papanui Club on Tuesday 23rd November
Over 100 members attended the longer that usual function. Guest speakers included Grant Sidaway (Seniornet Federation), Gary Day (Actor/Artist) and Steve Scott (Magnum Mac).
It was great to see some of the foundation members present. Kathy Whittaker (1st Secretary) and Gerry Constable (1st Treasurer) were presented with certificates of Merit for services rendered to SeniorNet Mac. A third member who was unable to be present was Sally Tripp our first Chairman. She receive her certificate three days later at the Annual Tutors & Helper BBQ.
Members received a copy of "The First Ten Years" written and produced by Allan Rutherford. For more details and photographs click on 10th Aniversary
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Tuesday 26th,October 2010
Guest speaker was David Coster, Minister of Cashmere Presbyterian church. Winton born, he began working life as a grave digger. He was with Westpac prior going to university for six years and this was followed by study overseas before he commenced his ministry.
He has a wonderful collection of stories of experiences in the administration of his duties to share with us. David will give us an insight into the complexities and humour that occur in those serious occasions in life when we are “'matched' and eventually 'dispatched.
Tuesday 28th, September 2010
Guest Speaker John Dayish a director of UNICEF New Zealand, visited the Solomon's earlier this year year where UNICEF is rebuilding 100 schools and improving the education system as part of the UNICEF's 'Child Friendly Schools' programme which has now been accepted as the new national standard.
Tuesday 24th, August 2010
Guest Speaker Professor Simon Pollard - is Curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the Canterbury Museum and Adjunct Professor in Science Communication in the College of Science at the University of Canterbury. He is an award-winning natural history writer and photographer who specialises in spiders, but is easily distracted by cemeteries. Simon travels widely and has lectured on memorial art around the world. He i also the editor of 'Dear Alison', which includes a diary his great uncle wrote to his four year old niece while he was a prisoner of war in Germany during WW2.
From coffins lashed to the side of a cliff to million dollar mausoleums, to a coffin carved as an effigy of a leek, the dead are remembered in countless ways. His talk was a look at memorial art from around the world, as well as Simon's great uncle's legacy, his wartime diary recently published in 'Dear Alison".
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Tuesday 27th, July 2010
Guest Speaker was Mark Lander - He is a painter, ceramicist and paper maker from Oxford, North Canterbury. He works with materials harvested from his immediate environment, including flax which is handmade into paper on a large scale for installation work in galleries, and natural volcanic clays which are ground and formulated as tempera paint or glazes. Mark and his wife Yvette run a private gallery in the front part of their home, which is in an old hotel.
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Tuesday 22nd, June 2010
Guest Speaker was Ben Harris - a Microbiologist and Registered Medical Laboratory Scientist who is also General Manager of Southern Community Laboratories gave a most interesting address called "Fascinating Microbes" love them or loathe them, we need them for our very survival. They recycle waste, manufacture food and yes, cause illness but also protect us from illness. Small, but not stupid - they regularly communicate amongst themselves. What can we learn from them.
A Service Merit Award for long service & expertise to our society was awarded to
Margaret Harvey (A Foundation Member) for outstanding service as Treasurer and reservation clerk
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May's Luncheon & AGM
Our Annual General Meeting - Barbara Blowes give a full report of the past year's events and activities. She stated membership had now reach a record 450 members. Officers for 2010-11 are as follows
Patron - Murray Wood (Re-elected)
President - Barbara Blowes (Re-elected)
Vice President - Allan Rutherford (Re-elected)
Treasurer - Margaret Harvey (Re-elected)
Secretary - Shona Pettengill
Five Committee Members
Graeme Bee (Re-elected)
Brian Henderson (Re-elected)
Robin Harrington
Rod Lewis (Re-elected)
Eugene McNeill (Re-elected)
Service Merit Awards for long service & expertise to our society were awarded to
Dick Mapp for support to the committee and Betty (his devoted partner) for services rendered as door keeper and driver over the last eight years
Barbara Blowes for services as President since 2002 which are appreciated by all members
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Tuesday 27th, April 2010
Guest Speaker was Craig Saunders, Owner and Managing Director of Digital Fusion Ltd. Craig is world famous in the FileMaker community for applying some classic Kiwi ingenuity to invent a way to significantly enhance the user face tools available within FileMaker. (Incidently, SeniorNet Mac's data base was created with a FileMaker application.
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Tuesday 22nd, March 2010
Guest Speaker was Lydia Hemingway the Fundraising Manager for the Ronald MacDonald house Trust. Lydia outlined what her trust did in the community
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Tuesday 23rd, February 2010
Guest Speaker was Fiona Brooker who spoke on Digital Scrapbooking. Much interest was generated from Fiona's talk that a further wookshop may be created to catered for members to continue on this subject
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Tutors & Helpers BBQ November 2009
Each year a free BBQ is put on by the committee for all the Tutors and helpers who have contribute their free time and effort to the running of SeniorNet Mac during the year.
Tucker time
Some of our helpers and tutors relaxing after a good feed
Below is our current committee
Back Row - Eugene McNeill, Rod Lewis, Brian Henderson, Allan Rutherford
Front Row - Mara McCormick, Lorelie Kennedy, Barbara Blowes, Margaret Harvey
Insert - Graeme Bee
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Christmas Luncheon & Social November 2009
This year's Guest Speaker was Ken Ellis who has recently retired from working in New Zealand Radio and Television. He spoke of his life in the industry and he entertain those present with the many hilarious marketing and advertising ploys used on Radio
Ken Ellis delivering his talk to some of the eighty plus attendees
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October's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speaker was Joe Brizzell - He has been involved in all aspects of voluntary work with Orana Wildlife Park over a period of 10 years, including shuttle guiding, walking group guiding, training, tour buses, cruise groups, talks to various organisations and at present is specialising in NZ fauna.
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September's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speakers were Brent Selwyn and Fleur McDonald from Papanui firm of Harman's Lawyers. They dealt with the issues surrounding the ownership of assets and how this can affect the eligibility for a residential care subsidy. They also talked about the Enduring Powers of Attorneys and Wills
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August's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speaker was Wendy-Anne Gee, an opera singer who performed in Dunedin, Wellington and London. She had also performed in New Zealand, London, Africa and Bahrain.
She spoke on topics of music appreciation and healing power of music and laughter. Discussion with her, included music for health and well-being: Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Emotional, with choices ranging from Nat King Cole to Mozart. She spoke on choosing music for one's own funeral.....
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July's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speaker was Gilbert Wealleans a well know local photographer for local papers. He is also versed in fashion, fine art, modeling, classical figure and wedding photography.
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June's Luncheon & Social
SeniorNet Committee member Rod Lewis talk to us about his visit to India
last year. He, his wife Carole and daughter Nereid spent three weeks touring the very colourful state of Rajasthan, staying in fabulous old palaces and forts, then two weeks in the Himalayan foothills trekking with a team of porters and a guide.
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May's Luncheon & AGM
Our Annual General Meeting - A record 60 members were in attendance to hear Barbara Blowes give a full report of the past year's events and activities. Membership rose again this year by 9% to a record 419 members. Officers for 2009-10 are as follows
Patron - Murray Wood (Re-elected)
President - Barbara Blowes (Re-elected)
Vice President - Allan Rutherford (Re-elected)
Treasurer - Margaret Harvey (Re-elected)
Secretary - Mara McCormick (Re-elected)
Five Committee Members
Graeme Bee (Re-elected)
Brian Henderson (Re-elected)
Lorelie Kennedy
Rod Lewis (Re-elected)
Eugene McNeill
The following received Service Merit Awards (for long service & expertise to our society. They are
Joe Adams - For designing and production of advertisements and for producing promotional articles for newspapers at a moments notice when required.
David Eddy - For managing our Workshops since our societies's conception and for the many hours given to tutoring workshops. One area David has been prominent, in is scanning.
Ian Hoskin - For management of our Tutors since our societies's conception. Arranging, finding, locating people to undertake tutoring courses and workshops is an important position and we are indebted to Ian the the work he is doing in this position.
Betty Mapp - For arranging each month's Guest speaker for our monthly socials. Also for the packaging and posting of our two monthly Info letter. Betty and Dick her husband can always be found near the door at our social functions meeting & greeting members and their guests as well selling our raffle tickets.
Shirley Schmidli - Shirley is our Editor and has been for the last 5-6 years. Shirley not only researched and wrote the articles but also helps Austin Hadler print off the necessary copies on our laser computer. Earlier this year we decided to have our Info Letters printed commercially
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April's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speaker was Grant Sidaway from Wellington.
Grant is the Federation Senior Net’s General Organizer and
is a dynamic speaker. Grant has been the prime motivator behind the establishment of every Senior Net Society in New Zealand, starting in Wellington in 1992 with Telecom’s support.
Grant's subject was “Its a Mobile World”
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March's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speaker was Leah Matena from the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
Leah gave an informative presentation on the problems their trust encounters and explained their policy for victims and justice reform.
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The Seventy 7 Restaurant & Bar on the corner of Wilson's Road & Steven's Street (Opposite Jade Stadium)
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February's Luncheon & Social
Guest Speaker was our own member Thérèse Marsh who was in Arras, northern France recently, and visited "the Wellington Quarry dug by New Zealand tunnellers during WW1. This underground network, an unparalleled structure in the entire history of the British army, stretched over 12 miles. Twenty-four thousand soldiers lived
there,preparing for the most surprising and successful attack on the German army in April 1917, The Battle of Arras. Rediscovered in 1996, some of these tunnels were opened to the public in 2007.With hundred of artifacts, memorabilia and personal 
notes found there, we are able to retrace the amazing daily life of thousands of Commonwealth soldiers and realize the magnificent work performed by the New Zealand sappers expert in the art of digging large tunnels.
Left is a view of some of the 55 members who enjoy our social meeting