Hi Everyone,
The March Board meeting was the first 'normal' Board meeting of
the year, following the Planning Workshop in February - and
co-incided with the IRB Nationals at Whangamata. It was a
good opportunity for the Board members to watch the racing and
catch up with participants and supporters. We also learned
IRB engines can run, albeit roughly, on diesel, but that is another
story!! The main items discussed at the meeting were:
- The Board spent quite a bit of time on the financial results
for the 8 months to 28 February - a copy of the summary reports as
usual are attached for clubs information. The YTD results
remain healthy with a $1.7m Operating Surplus, which after taking
account of timing variances is still broadly on track for this time
of year. The next few months have higher levels of
expenditure, and less revenue, both of which are well planned,
meaning the full year Operating Surplus will be approximately $1m
before Capex and Revaluations. Out of this surplus we have to
fund $565,000 of capital expenditure for which grant income has
been received, so the amount of "free cash" we get to keep in the
bank at the end of the year is around $450,000. The latest
forecast, taking account of YTD results and updated projections has
slipped back a bit to an Operating Surplus of $984,000 so we still
have some work to get the Forecast result back up to the budgeted
level.
- In anticipation of a Net Operating Surplus at our around
budgeted levels, the Board believes the time has now come to use
this positive result to deal with a few items remaining in the
Balance sheet from the 2010 Centenary or earlier. In
preparation for the annual audit, the Board has asked for a review
of the net realisable value of all inventory, but specifically
stocks of toy IRB's (holding value of approximately $62,000),
Centenary books ($67,000), promotional soft toys ($10,000) and the
loan to the Lifesaving First Aid business ($230,000) which has now
ceased operating courses. The final decision, and the actual
value of any potential write-downs will occur closer to year
end. Obviously this will reduce the reported Net profit for
the year, but will have no impact on the cash reserves. Once
the merchandise items are written down the items will still stay in
stock until a good use can be found for them, or they are
eventually sold for a realistic price.
- The Board approved an update to the National Honours and Award
Regulation - which was just tidying up a few clauses to be in line
with the timeframes now in place for the selection of the Committee
and remove a clause which has not been enforced which limited clubs
to one life membership nomination per year per club. It is
worth noting that the deadline for clubs to get their nominations
in for National Service Awards is 30th June
2014 - so please make sure this is not overlooked and our
members get the recognition they deserve!
- An update was provided by Brent Warner, the SLSNZ delegate on
the Water Safety NZ Board, following the first meeting of the new
Board. This identified a significant piece of work to
contribute to in terms of a sector wide Drowning Prevention
Strategy - and it is great to see this work is now getting
underway. Water Safety NZ remains one of our key strategic
partners, and we will continue to keep closely involved with these
changes.
- The timetable for the next SLSNZ AGM was discussed. While
it won't be formally announced until May, Saturday 20th
September will be the date, which is our normal timing, and it will
again be held at the Amora Hotel in Wellington. Please note
this also happens to be the Election day. The day will follow
a similar format to the day as took place in 2013, starting with a
Club Chairs Strategy Workshop in the morning until mid-afternoon,
followed by the AGM and then the annual 'Awards of Excellence'
evening. Work will now begin on putting in place the Board
Appointments Panel and generating topics for the Club Chairs
workshop.
- Progress was noted on the project to replace the PAM
database. Decisions on timing are being worked on, and once
finalised there will be communications out to clubs so there is
plenty of warning on the various steps in the process and
milestones. Training and testing are two key aspects of this
project that clubs will need to be involved with.
- The cost of insurance premiums for 2014/15 was discussed, and
while the early indications are that the rates of increase have
slowed, Management will be working on getting a clear steer from
the insurers to assist clubs with their budgeting for next
year.
- The Blue Sky Sport Review was also discussed - and the focus
put on finalising the terms of reference for this piece of work and
ensuring there is a consultation process that will capture all the
input required.
- Health and Safety was another area of considerable
discussion. The Board has been closely monitoring the number
of injuries at recent sports events - and the IRB Nationals did
stand out as an event that had a disproportionate number of
injuries, particularly lower leg injuries to crewmen while heading
out over the waves and when jumping out of the boat at speed to run
to the finish line. The event review will need to analyse
this quite closely as there may need to be changes made to the
rules to 'protect people from themselves'! While taking the
role of a 'nanny state' is not something SLSNZ wants to do, the
current approach in society to Health & Safety will force us
this way if we can't get this rate on injury down. In the
lifeguarding space, SLSNZ has just started a project to review our
Health & Safety performance against current legislation and the
recently released draft Health & Safety Reform Act. An
independent consultant is being used for this work and will
encompass an assessment of club compliance. A strategy will
be developed from the findings of the study and shared with
clubs. This is an area that will get a lot of attention in
the next 12 months.
Overall the meeting was
very useful and confirmed there are a lot of positive things going
on! The Board will next meet (via a conference call) on
Monday 28th April. So until my next
update…
Yours in
surf,
Geoff Hamilton
Chairman
Surf Life Saving New Zealand
