Hi Everyone,
Below is a quick summary of the November Board meeting - held in
Wellington on Sunday 17th November. Following the last
meeting where a number of key decisions were made on Board
structures, this meeting was more of a 'business as usual'
session.
The financial results for the 4 months to October were presented
- copies of the summary reports will be made available as usual to
clubs (attached). The YTD results remain healthy with a $2.15m
Operating Surplus, which after taking account of timing variances
is still on track for a full year Operating Surplus of $1.05m
before Capex and Revaluations. Out of this surplus we have to
fund $556,000 of capital expenditure for which grant income has
been received, so the forecast cash surplus at the end of the year
is around $500,000.
In terms of other agenda items covered at the meeting,
the following are worth commenting on:
- The Board asked Management to provide clubs on a twice yearly
basis the 'Balanced Scorecard' being used to measure the health of
the SLSNZ business and overall Surf Life Saving movement. The
scorecards set out a number of Key Performance Indicators that are
being monitored.
- The Board noted the latest progress in getting alignment
between Club Constitutions and the SLSNZ Constitution, which is a
requirement of membership of SLSNZ. After two years and
multiple extensions to the deadline there are still a number of
clubs not through the process and a revised deadline was agreed to
enable those clubs one last chance to tidy up the paperwork.
There will be direct communication coming out to those clubs
affected and SLSNZ or SLSNR will provide assistance where required
to get clubs across the line.
- Risk management also got a good discussion - with an update to
the SLSNZ risk register to be provided to the Board at its February
meeting. We are in the 'risk' business and with increasing
expectations on us for risk management (with health & safety
just being one area), the Board will be spending more time on this
in the future.
- Also in relation to the February Board meeting, it was decided
to bring the Planning Day forward from its traditional May date to
the February Board meeting in order to get more alignment with the
overall planning process, which is now underway for 2014/15, with
the outputs of the AGM Club Chairs workshop in September and
feedback from the Regional Club Chairs meetings being integrated
with thoughts from Management to develop strategies and budgets for
the February meeting.
- The Board also undertook to develop a 'charter' document - to
describe how the Board itself will operate - which is a common best
practice approach these days.
- Also noted by the Board was the release of club funding
agreements for the 2013/14 year, the release of the draft Member
Protection Regulation and Guidelines to clubs and the relocation of
the SLSNZ Commercial Manager to be based in Auckland rather than in
Wellington, the latter to be closer to our major commercial
partners and to assist optimising the win/win opportunities with
SLSNR.
- Satisfaction was also expressed with the imminent release of
the Event Safety Manual and the start of the process to train Event
Safety Officers. The Board is particularly keen to get this
out and in use this season.
- Discussion took place on the position SLSNZ has to fill on the
Water Safety NZ Board - and a decision on this will be made
in the next few weeks.
- The topic of re-establishing a SLSNZ Foundation was also given
attention - and will be given a more thorough airing in
February. Discussions have been held with parties who can
provide the 'behind the scenes' support, but there is a lot of work
to do to ensure the market-facing structures are ready. This
has been a subject of discussion for a number of years now and the
Board is keen to see progress made.
Overall, this was a productive meeting and with a number of key
activities due to be completed in the next few weeks the Board will
have a lot to discuss at its next session which is being held on
Sunday 15th December by teleconference . So until my
next update……..
Yours in surf,
Geoff Hamilton
Chairman
Surf Life Saving New
Zealand