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December 2015 Newsletter

143

Dear Members & Friends of the Timaru Branch

            Annie & Alyssa
Annie & Alyssa

As we near the Festive Season and the Year of the Sheep draws to a close I wish to send you greetings  on behalf of your committee.  Thank you for your interest and support during the year. We have been fortunate to have several interesting speakers and our meetings have been well attended.

It has been great to have Timaru’s Mandarin Language Assistants at our meetings.  Annie addressed one of our meetings and her comments on her experiences in Timaru were enlightening. Sadly we farewelled Annie during the year and Alyssa has also recently returned to China.  Sunny Shan remains at the Confucius Resource Centre at Aoraki Polytechnic and is currently running workshops on Chinese language and crafts.

Delegation with Branch Members
Delegation with Branch Members

 

The visit to Timaru in early December of the Delegation from the Shanghai  Peoples Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries was a highlight for our branch. We are fortunate that they were able to fit Timaru in to their brief time in NZ.  Thank you Ann and Richard for hosting the lunch at your home and Sunny for arranging the visit to the Polytechnic. At the afternoon tea at the District Council Chambers the delegation and our members received a very warm welcome from Councillor Tony Brien. We are hoping that this may be the start of becoming more involved in Sister City affairs.

I wish to thank the members of our committee for their contribution toward the smooth running of our branch. A great group of people who are a pleasure to work with. Also thanks to Ann White who attends National Executive as Chair of their Tours Committee. This is a very demanding task which Ann copes with well. She is to lead a tour to China in October and plans to step down from the Tours Committee at the end of next year.

Your committee has already given some thought to speakers at our meetings next year.  Our first gathering will be our Chinese New Year Banquet at the Golden Palace Restaurant on Sunday 7th February. Tickets cost $25 and are available from the restaurant or Cecilia Davis  phone 688-8920. We hope you will join us to welcome in the Year of the Monkey.

I look forward to seeing you at our meetings next year.

                      Derek Hughes,  President, Timaru Branch