Allen Horrell

Vocation:

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems – IT, Steel Distribution

Year Joined:

2006 Ryde, 2003 Avonhead

Phone:

0406 360 204

Email:

ahorrell@optusnet.com.au

Biography:

For the last 20 years I have been implementing and supporting ERP systems for a variety of employers. I was headhunted from Christchurch for a position in Bluescope Steel's Business Information Services division in late 2005, and now work from their Head Office in Alexandria.

For the last couple of decades or so, I have been implementing and supporting ERP systems for a variety of employers. I was headhunted from Christchurch for a position in Bluescope Steel’s Business Information Services division and now work from their Head Office in Alexandria.

Since immigrating to Sydney, my wife started teaching piano as well as working as an Archivist in the King’s School Museum. She is now a receptionist at Fleet Plus.

My daughter Anna has sung in the Sydney Opera House, with her school choir and acted in a musical at the Sydney Entertainment Centre, again with her school troupe and she recently came third in the Parramatta Art Show with her oil painting.

David, my son, works at Mr Liquor and was an Army Cadet at Timor Barracks.  His ambition is to be a helicopter pilot in the ADF.  Both children are servers at Parramatta Cathedral, where Bernadette and I are also Readers and Eucharistic Ministers.

I married Bernadette in January 1989, having met her at a Rotaract Champagne Breakfast – she was impressed that I brought French Champagne, while everyone else had cheap carbonated swill. She was doing weight training at the time and boasted she could lift 80Kg.

I made the mistake of saying “I weigh 80kg – I bet you can’t lift me!” When this slip of a girl lifted me off the deck, I could see all my mates were about to enjoy a laugh at my expense, so bent down and kissed her. She got such a surprise she let me go. We still tell our children their mother “picked me up at a party and dropped me the same day!”

I joined Rotaract in the mid 1980s and community service has been a constant ever since. When I turned 30 I was kicked out of Rotaract for being too old, no-one invited me to join Rotary, so I joined Jaycees instead. Junior Chamber is a personal development organization that teaches meeting procedures, public speaking and debating. I was President of North Christchurch Chapter. When I turned 40 I was expelled from Jaycees, and for a couple of years I was not involved in community groups apart from my parish church. We moved to Auckland for three years, and arriving back in Christchurch I decided to approach the nearest Rotary Club with a view to joining.

Why I joined Rotary: To meet new people, and to serve the community.  Rotary membership serves as a filter – you can be sure your average Rotarian is a more community spirited person than the average person you might meet elsewhere, and that gives you a shared basis for forming new friendships.  My first act after settling into my new home in Ryde was to approach the Rotary Club of Ryde with a letter of introduction from the Board of Avonhead Rotary.  I had already been doing make-ups there during my initial temporary assignment at BlueScope while still a member of Avonhead Club, and through my wife (who was Nanny for Nick Greiner's children in the 1980s, and had been in Ryde Rotaract with Ross' daughter Regina), I already knew PP. Ross Rocca, so Ryde Rotary was an obvious choice.

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