Fellow Boys Club director, Jonny Love, is playing at South Bar in Dunedin tonight. Dunedin is where it all began for Jonny back in 2002 when he enrolled in the University of Otago. Jonny later graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and played Rugby for the Otago University Rugby Football Club before deciding to pursue a professional career in music.
It has been 8 years since I started my Bachelor of Commerce at the University of Otago back in 2002, I have since finished this degree, a Masters of Entrepreneurship, and now I have only the last 10 week module of the Otago MBA to go before I embark on my 540 business research & report project.
Our last finance lecture with Dr. Robin Grieves was one of the most memorable yet. Robin invited our class to his beautiful house in Company Bay where he prepared us an enjoyable lunch. As you can see the views from Robin’s house were amazing, and weather perfect!
Gareth Morgan (Sam Morgan’s father) gave an interesting presentation at the Dunedin Town Hall last night with proceeds going to the Otago Community Hospice. This presentation was a lot different to what I thought was going to happen, as it had quite a sales pitch to it with a lot older audience.
Gareth Morgan Investments is a New Zealand owned and operated business which specialised in the management of Kiwi’s wealth for more than a decade, now currently managing over $1b in Private Portfolios, Superannuation and KiwiSaver schemes.
The reason that I was inspired to go to this presentation is because I have always been interested in Gareth’s discussions about New Zealander’s bad habit of property investment. As property is a keen area of interest of mine I wanted to hear his arguments first hand. As I thought, Gareth’s key argument centered around residential investment properties which is a little different to the Student Investment market that I follow. The difference being that there is a shortage of Student flats in close proximity to the University of Otago so students will be always forced to pay a premium, in comparison to standard residential investments that are unable to command such premiums as a greater range exists.
Drawing on the very same traditions for inspiration that has influenced Highlanders Rugby we have proposed that our Stadium seating block be named after the most famous of Scottish Regiments the Black Watch. Last night at the Robbie Burns a ballot was draw for the first seats to be picked in the new stadium amongst our Lounge Membership group. I was extremely fortunate this night to be standing next to Professor John Burke whose number was called first. Not knowing what seat to choose John asked me to help him whereby I got to select the two best seats in the entire stadium for both him AND me! So you may say that I had first pick of the 31,184 seats available at the new Forsyth Barr Stadium at the University Plaza, and of course I chose the best ones to go with our Lounge Membership package!
It all began in 1725 when General Wade, as leader of the King’s Army in Scotland, set up six companies of the Highland “Watch”, dressed in what was to become known as The Black Watch tartan; inadvertently he created one of the world’s greatest and most enduring military brands.
In 1739 George II amalgamated these companies that had performed with such distinction to form a single infantry regiment which became known as ‘The Black Watch’.
The regiment spent the next 266 years fighting for King, Queen and country from its first great battle at Fontenoy in Flanders in 1745 to Fallujah in Iraq in 2005. Along the way The Black Watch collected an incredible 164 battle honours, 14 VC’s and a reputation that places the regiment in a category of its own.
This month All Stor (Christchurch), All Safe (Wellington), Ezi Stor (Palmerston North), and Ezy Stor (Dunedin) completed a combine website under the domain storage.co.nz. This joint venture has made the range of website features like storage calculators, online booking systems, and easy updated specials more affordable for smaller operations to justify. As each company offers a comparable service in different regions it has made it possible for us to work together efficiently without causing any competition issues. Eventually our operations will run closer together to allow customers to receive a similar secure service and relative storage product offerings in most major cities across the country as well as the ability to have their goods moved between locations when moving. As our local operations grow and more centers are acquired our collaboration will hopefully give us a competitive edge over our competition.
This is the final week for the Otago University Rugby Football Club’s 125th Jubilee preparations. Queens Birthday weekend was chosen for the clubs big day over the 12th of June All Blacks v France test as the club didn’t want to compete with this major Dunedin event. The 125th Jubilee sub-committee was late to get off the ground with festivity organising but has put in a huge effort to date leaving only the finishing touches to be completed this week.
Media liaison David Tapp has done an excellent job with ensuring that the entire country was canvased to avoid any chance of people missing out on registering for this Jubilee. This weekends Otago Daily Times back page feature titled: “Who’s who of NZ rugby in varsity dream teams” is a good example of David’s work combined with fellow sub-committee member Rex Thomson, Hugh Tohill, and Iain Gallaway’s selection skills.
Luke Herlihy and I (and a few other Otago MBA classmates) were going to give it our best shot at presenting the gains to students if OUSA was in support of the construction of the new Stadium at Awatea Street when quorum count was called and the meeting was closed as there were only 136 at the meeting when 196 (1% of student population) was required.
THAT OUSA rescind motion 26/07. “THAT OUSA does not support the construction of the new stadium in Awatea Street”
THAT OUSA rescind motion 27/07. “THAT OUSA does NOT support the construction of the new stadium in Awatea Street if it (or related development) either:
- Contributes to fee increases, or
- Negatively affects OUSA’s ownership or control of UNIPOL”
THAT OUSA actively establish a positive working relationship with the Carisbrook Stadium Trust for the betterment of students and the wider community.
THAT OUSA supports the construction of the new stadium in Awatea Street.
SGM’s are a way in which students can have their say in what they want from their University experience and how things can be improved for their betterment. The problem is though that as the University’s role has grown and technology improved the system in which OUSA is run has not. This system may have worked when the student role was 4000, 1% of this would have meant 40 people. Now that the role is up to close to 20,0o0 people, 200 people are required! This makes the logistics of coordinating the meeting considerably more difficult.
What I believe Edwin Darlow, OUSA President, is looking to instigate is an online voting system whereby all students have the ability to listen to motions via video feed and then after deliberation cast their vote. This would be a far better system as ‘all’ students would have the opportunity to have their say.
Our new Dunedin based web based Start-up group The Distiller made this years nominees for the Outstanding Industry Initiative category at the PwC New Zealand Hi-Tech Awards. This has been a monumentious achievement for a group that has only been in existence for no more than six months!
The Distiller is approximately 5 weeks into its 12 weeks sprint whereby the start-ups within our walls make huge steps toward producing a prototype of their web application. A big ‘thank you’ needs to go to the team at the University of Otago’s Centre for Innovation, in particular Steve Bodmer. If it were not for this support we have received from Steve The Distiller would not be where it is today, nor would we have been able to enjoy the National Awards evening in Chrischurch live in person, along with many other industry greats!