Speakers 2021

February 2021 Guest Speaker: Dr Ian Smith

"Living with Volcanoes"
On graduating with a degree in geology from Victoria University of Wellington, Ian Smith took up a job as volcanologist at the Central Volcanological Observatory in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. This was followed by a research fellowship at the University of Toronto in Canada studying some of the oldest volcanic rocks on the planet and their role in the formation of the Earth’s early crust. In 1980 Ian took up a teaching position at the University of Auckland where he remained until retirement.

The study of volcanoes and their eruptions has taken on renewed significance over the last 40 years as major eruptions around the world have impacted communities and disrupted patterns of human activity.

In parallel with that, there has been an extraordinary development of techniques focused on understanding of how volcanoes work and how the potentially dangerous impact of their eruptions can be mitigated. Ian’s research has focused on volcanoes of the ’Pacific rim of fire’ particularly the southwest Pacific islands and New Zealand.

March 2021 Guest Speaker: Sheryl Coyle

Title: India

Presentation by Zoom webinar from PowerPoint, with images of her India family connections. Sheryl covered in her talk, living conditions, family life, arranged and love marriages, transportation, life and customs, religion and tourism.

April 2021 Guest Speaker: Alison Jones

Title: This Pakeha life, an unsettled memoir

Professor Alison Jones speaking on her recent book “This Pakeha life, an unsettled memoir” which has received rave reviews and is about making sense of being Pakeha in our relationship with Maori.

May 2021 Guest Speaker: Dr Richard Hursthouse

Title: Accelerating Conservation Outcomes

Richard is a semi-retired GP after working at Browns Bay Medical Centre for 35 years. He is passionate about the environment and has been working as a volunteer in conservation for more than 30 years. Richard cut his conservation teeth on the Campbells Bay School Community Forest, moving on to become chair of Centennial Park Bush Society about 18 years ago. He was chair of the Forest & Bird North Shore Branch for 8 years and is now on the national Forest and Bird board. Richard was one of the founders of Pest Free Kaipatiki and now chairs Restore Hibiscus & Bays. He is also working with EcoNet to set up improved IT tools for conservation. More Info >

Simon Paton of NZTA Talk on the Norther Highway Project

June 2021 Simon Paton

The Northern Corridor Motorway Improvement project

Simon Paton, Principal Project Manager and Grace Doughty, Community Engagement Manager will present on the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Due for completion in late 2022, the project will provide better links for Northern Motorway (SH1) travellers in Auckland and improve transport options on the North Shore for public transport, freight, cars as well as those travelling on foot or by bike. In addition to 6km of state highway upgrades and 7km of shared user paths, the team were also involved in the relocation of three community facilities. Find out more about the project and see some of the latest aerial shots from site.
More Info >

July 2021 Dr Winifred Murray

"Restorative Justice"

This talk outlines the principles, purpose and practise of Restorative Justice and describe the process that participants go through to achieve the restoration of relationship that occurs.
A description of a selection of the Restorative Justice conferences Dr Winifred Murray has co-facilitated demonstrated the outcomes achieved for the Victims, Offenders, Support Persons and their communities.
Dr Winifred Murray is an experienced teacher, facilitator, relationship counsellor, professional supervisor, a passionate restorative justice practitioner. She has assisted in training restorative justice facilitators, in developing national restorative justice training resources and practice standards.

August 2021 Guest Speaker: Peter Kammler

Electric Cars - Truly environmentally friendly or not?

The truth is, an environmentally friendly car would be difficult to find. At best, there are various degrees of unfriendliness. Peter Kammler has a diploma in engineering, and he has worked at the engine development division of Mercedes-Benz.

Peter will give a quick historic view of the automobile’s propulsion systems. He will explain why the internal combustion engine (gasoline or diesel) has dominated our road transport for one hundred years, and why this dominance is now coming to an end. Then, to help make decisions about the environmental footprint of a car, he will explain where exactly the energy goes. This includes both the fuel consumption and, not to forget, the energy needed to build the car. Electric cars have merits but, unfortunately, even with our high proportion of electricity from renewable sources the electric car is not as environmentally harmless as one might assume.

Guy Slocum -7 September 2021 - Talk about his experiences as a pilot in the Cold War.

Guy developed a passion for flying at a very early age. As soon as he could, he joined the Air Cadets and rose to become the Cadet Leader of his Squadron. At 16, he acquired his glider pilots license which was paid for by winning a Government award.
Shortly thereafter, he won a British Government flying scholarship which entitled him to undergo a flying course for the private pilot’s license at government expense.
The week after he gained his private pilot’s license he joined the Royal Air Force as a fast jet fighter pilot. During his time in this role, he operated at the height of the Cold War – chasing Soviet intruders and telling us of some of those experiences. Further information >

Margaret Gane U3A Auckland Network President

Margaret Gane President of U3A Network, Auckland - 7 October 2021

Margaret will give brief talk about how U3A works in both New Zealand and Worldwide followed by a presentation of the "Village of Eyem in Derbyshire and how it coped with the Great Plague of 1666.

Stephen Hoadley - 2 Nov 2021 Topic: Geopolitics of Pandemics

The topic includes some history, politics in the USA, Europe & WTO, and an assessment of how Covid might alter the balance of power globally. There will be time for Q &A about how we doing in New Zealand.

Dr. Stephen Hoadley is an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Auckland. He gained a doctorate in political science in California and taught at universities in St Louis, Hong Kong and Kobe before settling in New Zealand in 1972. Foreign and security policies of New Zealand, Asia, the United States and Middle East, the politics of trade and International human rights institutions are areas of current research.

Presentations by 3 Special Interest groups via Zoom December 2021

Creative Audio Visual Group
Archaeology Group
Ukulele Group

2021 Guest Speakers