Hi Everyone,
The December Board meeting was held in Wellington on Friday
16th December.
From a financial perspective the results for the five months to
30th November are a Net Operating Surplus of $3.55
million, which is $406,254 ahead of budget. This positive
variance is due to timing variations and is not indicative of the
full year situation. The full explanation of the variances is
in the Dashboard report.
In the latest forecast, the full year Net Operating Surplus is
$439k, slightly ahead of the $364k budget, but still vulnerable as
we still have quite a bit of budgeted grant income to secure and
the main period of expenditure before us, where and variations
(positive or negative) can have a material impact.
In terms of other items of note from the meeting:
- High Performance
Programme. The Board received and discussed in depth
the Black Fins Team Management Report from the Rescue 2016 campaign
and an independent report from Peter Fitzsimmons looking into the
best structures/ support that can be put in place for Rescue 2018
based on the learnings from the 2016 campaign. The Board
re-iterated it's support for the HP programme as part of the
overall Sport Strategy and agreed to work with the incoming HP Team
Management group to ensure expectations are aligned to available
resources and the required and appropriate support is
available. The 25% increase in High Performance Sport NZ
funding for the Black Fins (from $360,000 to $450,000) for Rescue
2018 was noted and was seen as a clear vote of confidence from
HPSNZ in the achievements of the Black Fins athletes and Team
Management.
The Board also congratulated the Black Fins team, Coach Jason
Pocock and athletes Max Beattie and Laura Quilter for their
respective nominations for the 2016 Hallberg Awards.
- Top 5 Strategic
Priorities. We discussed the 2016/17 Strategic Plan
and noted the breadth of activity being undertaken. This led
to a quite challenging discussion on what the Top 5 priority
activities are - no easy task when there are so many important and
inter-linked things going on. This will require a bit more
thinking but was a very useful exercise and one that will be
expanded in our 2017/18 Planning Workshop.
- Northern Region Board
to Board discussions. The Board noted the very
positive outcomes from the first Board to Board sub-group meeting
in November. The next meeting will take place at the end of
January and already has a full agenda.
- Board Succession
Planning. As part of the normal cycle ahead of the
AGM, the Board began discussions on the rotation plan for Board
appointments at the 2017 AGM. Current Board members up for
rotation in 2017 will be looking to make their personal decisions
on whether they will see re-election or re-appointment by February,
so that scale of the succession planning task can be identified as
early as possible. Our President Neale Ames indicated he
would not be looking for a further term as President so this is one
key role that we already know needs to be filled.
- Surf Life Saving
Culture. This is a topic the Board feel is worthy of
regular discussion, and it was raised at this meeting to give it
some initial exposure. The culture within the surf life
saving movement has some huge strengths, which need to be carefully
fostered, however there are also a number of areas which provide
opportunity for improvement. This will be a topic of
discussion for the February Board planning workshop.
- 2016/17
Audit. The Board was given feedback on the meeting
held with the SLSNZ auditors (Moore Stephens) to plan for the
2016/17 audit. As part of this work will be undertaken early
to ensure there is no repeat of the 'no opinion' comment on the
Financial Statements through removing any doubt that SLSNZ may need
to consolidate financial reporting with that of clubs.
- Honours and Awards
Committee. The Board was delighted to endorse the
regional recommendations to re-appoint Neale Ames (Central Region)
and Murray Wilson (Southern Region) to the National Honours &
Awards committee for further two year terms starting on 1 January
2017. A big thanks goes to them and the rest of the committee
for all the work they do.
- SLSNZ
Foundation. Now the Foundation has been fully
registered as an Incorporated Society and a Charity, the decision
was made to add Joe Pope as a Board member Trustee and Mr Peter
Fitzsimmons as an independent Trustee to bring the total number of
Trustees up to four. Board member Trevor Taylor, one of the
initial Trustees continues on as a Trustee, and Brent Warner takes
over as Trustee from Geoff Hamilton due to taking over the role of
SLSNZ Chairman.
- Health &
Safety. The Board reviewed the latest report on member
injuries and discussed Management feedback on actions that will
look to reduce the number of injuries at IRB training camps.
There had been very little change in the number of overall member
injuries since October, which was good to see.
- 2016/17 Sport
Plan. The Board noted the first iteration of this new
document, which is a good step forward in getting all the actions
going on in the sport area into a single document. There is a
lot going on, which only serves to highlight the importance of the
document, and we look forward to regular updates on progress.
As mentioned above, the next Board meeting will be held in
Wellington on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th
February, which is our annual Planning Workshop, with the focus on
signing off on the 2017/18 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,
Brent Warner
Chairman
Surf Life Saving New Zealand
