News briefs: Board byelection, museum director moves on, potluck Christmas, forestry talk

Richard Thompson gives a talk about his sustainable forestry business, MacBlack Timber, at the Green Drinks meeting tonight.

Board byelection
No one has put their hand up yet to fill the vacant seat on the Whanganui Rural Community Board, Whanganui District Council electoral officer Noeline Moosman says.

In October's local body elections there was only one nomination - David Wells - for two vacancies in the board's Whanganui subdivision, meaning a byelection is needed to fill the other vacancy.

Nominations opened on November 25 and close at midday on Monday, December 23.

Byelection voting would close on February 18. The Whanganui subdivision represents the board's biggest area in the north of the Whanganui District. The other subdivisions are Kaitoke and Kai Iwi.

Dorfman moves on
Former Whanganui Regional Museum director Eric Dorfman has a new job. Dorfman left Whanganui in 2015 to take up a job as director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Powdermill Nature Reserve in Pennsylvania.

He will leave that job in January to become director of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

Sustainable forestry
Richard Thompson gives a talk about his sustainable forestry business, MacBlack Timber, at the Green Drinks meeting tonight. It starts at 5.30pm in a room at Stellar Restaurant & Bar in Victoria Ave, Whanganui.

Holiday art project Young artists aged 9-plus are invited to a week-long workshop in January, funded by Whanganui Creative Communities. It will be at the Whanganui Resource Recovery Centre from 10.30am to 2.30pm, every day from January 6-10.

The facilitator will be Esther Topfer and the aim will be to make murals for the centre's fence. To register, ring Esther on 022 523 4987.

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The Multicultural Council of Rangitikei-Whanganui is having its monthly potluck dinner on December 13

Potluck Christmas
The Multicultural Council of Rangitikei-Whanganui is having its monthly potluck dinner on December 13. It's at 137 Anzac Pde, starting at 6pm. The theme is wellness. Attendees are asked to dress "Christmassy" and bring a gift worth no more than $5.