First new NZYF Club for 2011

It’s going to be a lot easier for Young Farmers living in South Taranaki to join a New Zealand Young Farmers Club when the new Alton Club has its first official meeting on February 15th.

Daniel Joho, an engineer in the Graduate Programme at Fonterra, along with a group of around 10 friends are the driving forces behind the new club. Daniel’s motivation behind starting the Alton Club is to make it a little easier to get meetings.

“Basically we were talking about Young Farmers at the Alton Tavern one night and the boys were all keen to join so we thought why not start one up right here instead of heading to another Club.”

Daniel, based in Hawera, said that previously they would have had to drive for over half an hour to the closest Club; for those further south that drive could have been over an hour to attend other Taranaki Clubs.

“It will be much closer for people from the likes of Waverley and Patea to come to meetings now as well.”

The meeting will be held at the Alton Tavern, February 15th at 7.30. Amanda Murray, the Lower North Field Officer for NZYF, stresses that anyone that has an interest in agriculture is welcome to come along.

“There’s absolutely no obligation for you to join on the night, just come have a look and see what you think. If it’s your sort of thing then we would love for you to join us.”

Amanda, only in her fourth week at NZYF, is looking forward to helping start up her first Club and getting the NZYF message out there.

“I’m pretty excited about helping to start up the first new Club for the year especially because we’ve got a great bunch of people who are keen to start the Alton Club; so there’s a good base there already.”

“I hope everyone gets a positive experience out of attending this first meeting and leave wanting to come back! Joining a NZYF Club is an awesome opportunity to not only be part of a social group and have a bit of fun with new and old mates; but it’s also an excellent opportunity for personal development and to gain leadership skills.”