Dear Friends,

Dante Auckland AGM – President's Report

Cari amici e soci della Dante Auckland,

Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us for our 2026 Annual General Meeting.

This has truly been a year of change and new beginnings for our Society. After many years in our historic rooms, we moved into our new home at the Freemans Bay Community Centre.

This move marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Società Dante Alighieri Auckland.

It took months of planning, organising, packing, and decluttering. There were moments of chaos along the way! But thanks to the dedication of our committee and volunteers, we made it happen. This has given us a space that will allow more flexibility and more opportunities to grow our activities and bring our community together. At the same time, we are aware that the move has increased our fixed costs, and we remain mindful of managing these responsibly.

I would like to sincerely thank all the committee members who helped to make this move possible. In particular, thank you to Valeria Santillo, Luca Manghi and Riccardo Lucignani, as well as the many volunteers who supported us before, during and after the move. A special thank you also goes to our students for their patience while we adjusted to our new space.

Despite the challenges of relocating, we continued to offer a rich programme of activities.

Our CineDante film series brought several screenings, followed by engaging discussions.

Our monthly Cantastorie sessions continued to be a wonderful opportunity for families to come together. These mornings allow children and parents to reconnect with their Italian background through stories, play and conversation in Italian. 

Dedicated to the children was also our Festa di Pasqua, another lovely occasion to share the Italian traditions with the youngest in our community.

Our Colazione gatherings also continued, together with activities such as the Italian Quizzone and special guest speakers, including Federica Bressan, who presented her book Nel cuore della Tuscia.

In October, we celebrated the Italian Language Week under the theme Italophony – A Language Beyond Borders. Thanks to Professor Bernadette Luciano, Barbara Martelli and Elia Bressanello, a rich programme of talks, screenings and events was organised at the University of Auckland, finishing with the beautiful All Vivaldi Concert and Aperitivo.

We ended the year with a joyful Festa di Natale, which also marked the official opening of our new space. It was lovely to welcome members and friends to celebrate together, with live music from the Auckland Mandolinata Orchestra, games for the bambini and families, panettone and other Italian treats, and the photographic exhibition Italians of Auckland by Francesca Brugnoli.

As always, we began the year with our popular Intensive Course, which welcomed more than 50 students for a five-day immersive experience in Italian language and culture.

None of this would be possible without the support of our members, students, and volunteers. I am pleased to say that the Society is in a stronger financial position compared to previous years and has achieved a positive result for the year. Our Treasurer, Lynne Webb, will shortly present the financial report in more detail. Because of this positive position, the committee is pleased to confirm that membership fees will remain the same for the coming year.

I would also like to thank our committee members and teachers. 

In particular, I would like to acknowledge Valeria Santillo, who has decided to step down from the committee after many years of dedicated service, including her time as Treasurer. We are very grateful for her contribution and are pleased to offer her an honorary membership.

Fiorella Tomasi is also stepping down from the Committee as she prepares to move back to Italy. Fiorella spent a long time managing our playgroup, where her energy and creativity were both inspiring and contagious. Her generosity and always going above and beyond will be greatly missed. We wish her all the very best in this new chapter.

At the same time, we are also delighted to welcome back Martina Depentor to the committee. Martina has been part of our Society for many years, and we are very happy to have her supporting us again — both from Auckland when she is here and from Treviso when she is in Italy.

Finally, a very special thank you to Lynne Webb, who stepped into the role of Treasurer last year. Her expertise and dedication have been invaluable. Under her guidance, our Society was formally re-registered under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 on 2 December 2025 — an important achievement for our organization.

As we look ahead, the committee remains committed to offering a lively and meaningful programme that promotes and celebrates Italian language and culture in Auckland.

Grazie a tutti for your continued support, enthusiasm, and for being part of our community.

Flavia Berucci
President
Società Dante Alighieri Auckland

Dear Friends,

It is time to renew your Dante membership. At the last AGM, held on 2 March 2024, the committee has decided that there will be no changes on membership fees for 2024.
We would like to invite all current members to renew their membership, this can be done online with a bank transfer to Società Dante Alighieri BNZ a/c 020192-0309263-00 with the reference "LASTNAME/MSHIP”.
Language students can also pay by eftpos when they attend classes.

President Report

Cari amici e soci Dante Auckland,

Welcome to our 2024 AGM and thank you all for being here today. 

It has been a privilege for me to spend this past year as the President of Dante Alighieri Society of Auckland.

Having been part of the Committee for the last ten years, I have been very much involved in all the activities of the Society and throughout these years, I have witnessed the genuine affection of our members and students, who continue to support our community and school. 

First and foremost, I extend my gratitude to all of them. I personally experienced the kindness of our members and students when our school’s rooms were affected by flooding last year. Many of them came forward to help cleaning up the rooms. We are deeply thankful for your assistance in that occasion and for your ongoing support.

I also extend my thanks to all our committee members and teachers who with tenacity and passion run the school and its numerous activities. 

This year will see the departure of Kerri Fergusson from our Committee. Kerri has been a valued member for several years. Always ready to lend a hand, embracing any challenges with a fun and proactive attitude. We have all loved working with Kerri, and we wish her the very best for her new exciting commitments in Hamilton and Wellington. 

In 2023 our Committee has been involved in the promotion of the FIFA Women World Cup where we have been appointed as ‘Community Champion’. We engaged with the Italian community to support the tournament and promoted it across our social media platforms. The Tournament and the Multicultural Fan Engagement program was an outstanding success, bringing joy and excitement to all involved.

We welcome more and more of these international events in Aotearoa.

Additionally, we continued our ‘Cantastorie’ appointments for Italian children on the last Sunday of each month implementing it with special workshops dedicated to the ‘Teatro d’Ombre’.

Thanks to the support of the Sede Centrale della Società Dante Alighieri of Rome, we organised a festa for the Italian families and children at the end of the workshop. We were amazed by the success of the event and delighted to see how many Italian families are living in Auckland.

To all of them, we would like to renew our warm invitation to join us. We value your input, and we would like to explore new ways for sharing our cultural heritage. Our doors are open! Families and children have always been very dear to the Dante Auckland, and we believe that there can be many more opportunities for us to grow together. 

Our beloved Colazione continued throughout the year featuring many interesting talks dedicated to Italian Arts and Literature. I would like to acknowledge Matteo Telara’s commitment and dedication for organising the majority of these talks. We have also recently introduced a ‘books exchange’ during our Colazione events which has proven to be very popular and is a lovely way to catchup and share a few chats in Italian.

Although we missed The Festival Italiano this year, we look forward to welcoming it back soon. In the meantime, our Mercatino di Natale was a great success, we enjoyed the festive atmosphere and all the delicious products on offer. The perfect way to close the year. 

From the financial point of view, the Society did slightly better compared to 2022 but unfortunately did not break even as our treasurer, Valeria Santillo, will explain shortly.

Nevertheless, for 2024 we remain committed to expand our opportunities of getting together through new events and activities. We hope to count on the involvement and the support of all our members and I am pleased to communicate that our membership fees will remain unchanged for 2024.

Grazie a tutti,

Flavia Berucci  

President

Società Dante Alighieri Auckland

• Sir John Kirwan, President
• Flavia Berucci, Vice President
• Kelly McKinnon, Secretary
• Rhonda Graham, Treasurer
• Cav. Sandra Fresia, School Director
• Alessandra Zecchini, Italian Festival Director
• Newsletter Editor: Stefania Perrotta
• Martina Depentor, Luca Manghi, Jackie Shearman, Fiorella Tomasi Kirwan, Joanna Walsh, Matteo Telara, Kelly McKinnon, Alessandra Di Marco

Grazie for supporting Società Dante Alighieri Auckland, and remember that with your Dante Card you can get discounts with our Business Friends of Dante in New Zealand, and in many museums, hotels and tourist attractions in Italy (click here to see the main ones) and worldwide.