Hi Everyone,
As usual the Board did not hold a regular meeting in September
due to the SLSNZ AGM taking place. Thanks to another
impeccable performance from our President Neale Ames in chairing
the AGM, it ran very successfully, and thanks also to Napier
McFedries as Returning Officer and Brian Velvin and Denis Cooksley
as his very able Scrutineers.
The draft minutes are attached for your information. These
will be checked by the Board in October and then validated at the
next AGM in 2017. If anyone has any questions or picks up any
typo's in these please contact Paul Dalton on paul.dalton@surflifesaving.org.nz
The key decisions made were to retain the Board Honoraria at
2015/16 levels, retain the current SLSNZ auditors (Moore Stephens)
for the 2016/17 financial year and to elect the two recommended
Elected Candidates Colin Weatherall (for another term) and Kate
Barry-Piceno from Omanu SLSC. Kate is a clubbie and lawyer by
trade and brings a valuable skill set to the Board table and I'm
sure you will join me in welcoming her aboard. Prior to the
AGM the Board Appointments Panel had also re-appointed Trevor
Taylor for another term as an Independent Appointed Board Member
and Vanessa Winning as an Appointed Board member. Vanessa
brings previous charity management experience and a strong
marketing background to the Board table which will be very useful
also. Welcome too to Vanessa.
The full Board is therefore myself (Geoff Hamilton), Brent
Warner, Colin Weatherall, Joe Pope, Trevor Taylor, Graham Crombie,
Kate Barry-Piceno and Vanessa Winning.
Of course with two new Board members this meant that we were
saying goodbye to two of our board colleagues - and my personal
thanks goes to Rick Stolwerk and Todd Cations-Velvin for their
contribution over the last two years. Both Rick and Todd are
great assets to the surf life saving movement - they like to get
things done and will personally get in and make things
happen. I'm sure we will all continue to benefit from these
attributes in the years to come.
The meeting also approved the SLSNZ Annual Report and 2015/16
Financial Statement - and these are now available online on the
SLSNZ website for anyone who wants to read them.
On the morning of the AGM, a strategy workshop for club Chairs
was held. This was again a very worthwhile event and
discussed some key topics including future lifeguard capability,
coastal erosion, financial sustainability, health & safety and
the priorities for SLSNZ in 2017/18. The outputs from this
session will be circulated to clubs shortly.
The Awards of Excellence dinner held at the Heritage Hotel in
Auckland was again a great night. As always it was wonderful
to see so many people honoured for their years of commitment.
Congratulations to all the award winners, and in particular those
inducted into the Surf Sports Hall of Fame, our first induction
since 2007. It was also great to hear from the 2016 Black
Fins on some of their insights into what has made them the most
successful team in the history of the World Championship - being
the only team to have won the pool, beach and overall titles at the
same event.
Looking ahead, the next Board meeting will be held on
29th October, which is the usual time for the Board to
decide on the positions of Chair and Deputy Chair along with the
composition of the various Board committees.
I have however, decided to take a break from the demands of
being Chairman. At this time I intend to remain as a Board
member and I am very confident that my fellow Board members will be
able to continue to build on the good work we have started.
On a different topic, not associated with the AGM, also attached
are the regular SLSNZ Financial Reports for the first two months of
2016/17. These show a Net Operating Surplus of $0.758
million, which is $55,751 behind budget. This variance is all
due to timing variations, an explanation of these is in the
attached Financial Summary Dashboard. More relevant is the
latest forecast the full year Net Operating Surplus which is
slightly ahead of the budget at $405,436.
And that's it from me. As mentioned above, the next Board
meeting will be held in Wellington on Saturday 29th
October and there will be an update following that. So
until then……
Yours in surf,
Geoff Hamilton
Chairman
Surf Life Saving New Zealand
