Rotary For­um has a ques­tion to ask.

We have a rare oppor­tun­ity: Wel­ling­ton is what we make it and you can be part of shap­ing it.

Now in its second suc­cess­ful year, this highly top­ic­al com­munity for­um asks; what kind of city and region do we want? How should com­munity views be expressed in loc­al gov­ern­ment? What are the ini­ti­at­ives by busi­ness and com­munit­ies that will help Wel­ling­ton become the place we want to live and work in? What can you do to influ­ence it?

This is your chance to hear a top line up of speak­ers and, just as import­antly, to make your own point with a ques­tion or two.

But inter­est­ingly enough, if you’d like to go along, it’s on a work day, AND it’ll cost you $55. So if you’re not in a flex­ible job, and if you can­’t spare a week’s gro­cery money, then no shap­ing the city for you! Appar­ently extra funds raised will go to St John’s Ambu­lance which is a good cause, but lower­ing the price or hav­ing staggered pri­cing in order to ensure a more diverse rep­res­ent­a­tion would be a much bet­ter idea, we think

I think it could be an inter­est­ing day (although I sus­pect it might be frus­trat­ing as hell) but I have to work. So in lieu of a lengthy dis­cus­sion about the actu­al issues being raised on the day, here’s the way the trite ‘ista con­ver­sa­tion about it went. 

A: (men­tion­ing it) Every single thing about this makes me recoil

B: (won’t be going) but I sug­gest that this is likely to be a fairly influ­en­tial gath­er­ing in terms of set­ting opin­ion in a cer­tain sec­tor of soci­ety – it would be good to steer the con­sensus the right way.

Me: It’s $55 to go along. That right there is a clear sign that our com­munity is not for every­one to enjoy

C: Even I am not white enough or male enough for that crowd.

D: Much the same way Trav­is Bickle longed for a “real rain” to come and “wash all this scum off the streets”.. those rotary guys really want an earth­quake too.

A:  I can­’t do it because [redac­ted] but I’d really like someone to push back on that ‘we’ in the title.

E: rotary is weird – there is the whole elit­ist white guy thing – but then they do loads of char­ity work

D: Yeah, they’re noth­ing if not aware of their own hege­mon­ic power struc­tures.