MAY 2025

Toni's Message 
​What a month it’s been since the last newsletter. So much going on, where to start?
Dee and I laid a wreath at the Anzac Day service in Hāwera on behalf of our club. It was a chilly start but the weather was otherwise fine. It’s wonderful that the ceremony, not only at Hāwera, but at locations right across our motu were all so well attended across generations. I have to say that I really did enjoy my hot coffee at SomeDay Café afterwards to warm myself up with.

The BPW New Zealand AGM and Conference was held on the 3 rd and 4 th May in Auckland. So may highlights across the weekend. The first day was open to BPW members only with the BPW AGM followed by the BPW awards dinner. The second day was open to all women and was jam-packed with inspiration speakers in plenary and break out sessions. I wish I could have been everywhere, all at once, to hear everything!

We had a great presence at the AGM. Anita Scott, Vivien Johnston, and I were the club delegates.
Rebecca Treeby attended in her capacity as vice president of BPW New Zealand. Rebecca was voted back onto the BPW NZ executive again, now serving as 1 st vice-president. Congrats Rebecca. This is a testament to her dedication and the high regard in which she is held by the BPW community.
Helen Cook attended, she assisted Angela McLeod and learnt the ropes of the Parliamentarian role, which is crucial for ensuring the smooth conduct of the AGM and adherence to procedural rules.
Our club delegates followed our club members guidance on voting on the resolutions. All resolutions passed, but I can assure you that there was healthy debate on the nuances of the resolution we had issues with. Our club seconded the resolution Resourcing of Primary Health Care in Rural Areas, and this passed unanimously. During one of the breaks, I met Diana O’Brian. Diana was the first BPW Hawera president back when our club was first established back in 1986, so I couldn’t miss a photo opportunity with her.

Following on from the AGM was the Awards Dinner. So excited to have received the Carolyn Savage Club President's Award. What an honour to be recognised nationally. Our club also received the BPW Community Achievement award for the Pink Ribbon Breakfast and Fundraiser that we ran last year. But best of all we won the Club of the Year award. This really shows we are a fantastic group of women achieving fantastic things! I am so proud to have gotten the opportunity to represent you all at the awards dinner.
Day Two was full of inspirational speakers, we will have to put together a session on the main highlights from each of the attendees. I would highly recommend to all members to take advantage of these types of networking and development events BPW put on. You always get so much out of them.

May is Pink Ribbon month. Our committee is not organising a breakfast this year, but we are going to fundraise for Pink Ribbon in May at our May dinner meeting. If you are in a position to do so, please support this great cause. You can bring your donation to our May dinner, or deposit it into our account with the reference “Pink” and will ensure all proceeds go directly to Pink Ribbon. Also, any business owners that would like to participate by sponsoring or donating to our Pink Ribbon fundraiser please let us know – Dee can send an invoice.
Along this theme we are going to have a very special speaker at our dinner on the 19th of May, our own Te Aroha Hohaia. Te Aroha is going to talk about her own breast cancer journey – from the importance of breast screening through to her surgery and progress on recovery. Please bring your friends along to this one and support Pink Ribbon with your donations.

As you are probably aware we give little gift packs to visitors to our club dinners, that contain information about BPW and our club, as well as a few little treats, and promotional items such as pens, pads etc from our club members. We are currently short of items for the gift bags, so if you have something you want added in to the gift bags to promote your business, please bring it along to a dinner meeting or pass on to a member of our committee. Can be something as simple as your business card, attached to a chocolate bar.

Reminder, if you are on Facebook and do not currently follow our page, I recommend you do so, you’ll find us easily at BPW Hāwera. We will be posting more information and content on our Facebook page to supplement our monthly newsletter, our monthly meetings, and our Web Site content.

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