Board Report: December 2015
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