Hi Everyone,
The December Board meeting was held in Wellington on Sunday
13th December.
From a financial perspective the results for the five months to
30th November are a Net Operating Surplus of $1.82
million, which is $582,500 ahead of budget. This positive
variance is 60% due to income being invoiced earlier than budgeted
and 40% to costs being incurred later than budgeted, i.e. all
timing variations and is not indicative of the full year
situation. The full explanation of the variances is in the
Dashboard report. With the Regional Lifeguard programme about
to roll out around the country we now see some significant months
of expenditure that quickly reduce the level of Surplus.
In the latest forecast the full year Net Operating Surplus has
slipped back to $127k. We are now $224k less than budget,
driven by the NZLGB grant being $200,000 less than budgeted and one
short term sponsorship contract being $100,000 less than budgeted
with a few wins along the way offsetting this. The budgets
have been deliberately set to be challenging in order to
aggressively continue to rebuild reserves, so some knockbacks have
to be expected. At the latest forecast levels the amount of
surplus cash being generated is in line with last year, however the
pressure is on to make sure we don't slip too much further.
See the attached normal monthly report for details.
In terms of other items of note from the meeting
- Commercial
Progress. The Board spent a good amount of time with
the SLSNZ Commercial Manager and Business Development Manager going
over the general progress being made and in particular the
challenge of replacing State Insurance as the Principal
Partner. While progress is being made, it is not an easy
market and it's also not easy to dictate the speed that discussions
can take place. This work will remain the top priority for
the rest of this financial year, and the Board will also need to
consider some temporary 'belt-tightening' contingencies in the
event that replacing this income takes us beyond June.
- The SLSNZ
Foundation. The nearly final version of the Trust Deed
was presented to the Board and should now be ready to bring to life
early in 2016.
- Honours and Awards
Committee. The Board was delighted to endorse the
regional recommendations to re-appoint Neil Reid (Northern Region)
and Sheryl McLay (Eastern Region) to the National Honours &
Awards committee for further two year terms starting on 1 January
2016. A big thanks goes to them and the rest of the committee
for all the work they do.
- The Board discussed recommendations from the National
Lifesaving Committee on the 400m swim time and the National Sport
Committee on high visibility vests, and there will be further
discussions with both committees on these items.
- Health &
Safety. The Board reviewed the latest report on member
injuries and discussed some recent incidents. While it is
still early in the year, there is a similar pattern of injuries to
last year developing so clubs should take time to make sure they
have the necessary prevention measures in place (e.g. risk
assessments) and supervision to keep their members safe.
- IRB Event
Venues: The Board approved Waihi Beach SLSC as the
venue for the 2016/17 BP Surf Rescue North Island IRB Championships
and the 2017/18 BP Surf Rescue New Zealand IRB Championships.
The next Board meeting will be held in Wellington on Friday
19th and Saturday 20th February, which is our
annual Planning Workshop, with the focus on signing off on the
2016/17 Strategic Plan and budget.
So that's it from me - it continues to be a very busy time!
Best wishes to everyone out on patrol (and those behind the
scenes) over remainder of the holiday season - I hope you have had
some time to relax with your families over this hectic
time.
So until my next update……
Yours in surf,
Geoff Hamilton
Chairman
Surf Life Saving New
Zealand
