Service made simple: The flexible spirit of Ōtahtahi Passport

PICTURED: Members at the St Albans Community centre making up orders for cheese rolls in July.

Offering a flexible, low-cost and community-driven approach to service, the Rotary Club of Ōtahtahi Passport is re-imagining what modern volunteering can look like.

As a young club, the Rotary Club of Ōtahtahi Passport, NZ, offers more: a more flexible, relaxed, affordable and less time-consuming model of volunteering to cater for its busy community members.

The club is a project focussed group of like-minded volunteers, who came together during the COVID pandemic. Because members couldn’t meet face to face, they held a low-key online meeting to celebrate the club becoming a part of Rotary International.

The club officially launched in March 2023 and formed a project group. After the first couple of meetings, the group agreed to dedicate its key causes to three areas of focus: mental health, maternal and child wellbeing, and the environment.

Members chose to meet fortnightly on Mondays at 7pm.

The model is very flexible,” said Past President Deb Gimblett. “If something isn’t working, with club members’ input, we change it. Our meetings are very informal and less time consuming. Members are encouraged to come when they can and do what they can.

“We have no home base premises. Instead, we meet in different venues around Christchurch such the McDonalds meeting rooms at Merivale, Joe’s Garage, Rollickin’ Gelato, Te Pae Christchurch Convention Centre and members’ homes. Our members love this model as it means we often have a change of scenery for our meet-ups.”

Once the decision to have no home base was made, it automatically ruled out collecting or swapping regalia such as club banners, cups and trophies, and members chose not to have a president’s chain or sergeant’s sessions.

PICTURED: Members setting up for a secondhand clothing fundraiser on Main North Road; The club helped out at the Easter Family evening at Tower Junction Bunnings in April, providing free sausages, Easter buns and Easter eggs.

Everyone is involved in decision making as this keeps members involved and aware of what is going on in the club,” said Deb. “There is no formal board as such.”

From the very beginning, members approached community groups and asked if they needed help, which helped build strong community relationships and still gives the club plenty to do within the community today.

They have formed relationships with Ray White and Harcourts real estates, Canterbury Refugee Centre, the local primary school, Aviva, Youth Hub, parents’ mental health support group Perinatal Wellbeing, Rotary Breast Milk Bank, Bunnings and Mitre10. They have recently connected with the Multicultural Centre, which has a dedicated facility for diverse ethnic groups in and around Christchurch.

As a new club with no finances, members raise funds by holding sausage sizzles, quiz nights and recently cheese rolls sales to provide funds for community projects. They have also landed a small lawn mowing job (via one of their members). The club’s most successful fundraiser, however, is the self-drive shed tour of Christchurch hobby sheds. Proceeds from the 2025 event were given to local organisations, with another shed tour planned for spring 2026.

From day one we have chosen to support The Rotary Foundation and have financially contributed every year,” Deb said.

“Although our club is young, we have a squad of passionate and dedicated members with a ‘can do’ approach to life. With our ample experience and skills combined, we aim to broaden our network. We plan to invest in focused marketing about who we are and what we do in our community.”

PICTURED: It was a case of many hands make light work when Ōtahtahi Passport Members joined Papanui RSA to tidy up their outside grounds in preparation for ANZAC day.