Hi Everyone,
The July Board meeting a full day meeting held in Wellington on
the 28th June.
From a financial perspective the final results for the 2014/15
year look like a Net Operating Surplus of $0.65 million, slightly
head of what was forecast and close to 90% of the original
budget. The Board is happy with this final result and the
fact that it has nearly doubled our total Membership Funds to
$1.372 million. Two years ago Membership Funds were only
$102,000 so it is very pleasing to see the progress from 2013/14
backed up. Of course we need to keep doing this for a few
more years yet to get us back to where we were pre-2010, so there
is no time to rest on our laurels. The full audited accounts
will be coming out to clubs in a few weeks' time (28th
August) so I haven't included the provisional accounts with this
update.
In what was a busy meeting, the main outcomes were:
- The Board spent most of its time on items with a strategic
focus, including:
- The SLSNZ Foundation. A draft Trust Deed was discussed in
depth along with the options for appointing Trustees. This
work will continue to progress over the next few weeks with the
intent of being close to establishment by the AGM in
September.
- SLSNZ Value Proposition. Draft thinking on this has been
developed and the Board discussed this in depth. An outline
of this will be incorporated in the 2015 Annual Report and clubs
will get the chance to comment on this and add their thoughts.
- SLSNZ 2014/15 Strategic Plan. Now that the 2014/15 year
is complete, the Board reviewed progress against what was said
would be done in the Strategic Plan. While there are still a
few tasks that will take a bit longer to complete than originally
expected, overall the Board was happy with progress being made by
the Management team, and look forward to a similar level of
activity and success in the coming year.
- SLSNZ 2015/16 Strategic Plan. The detailed version of
this plan to be used by Management for monitoring and reporting was
discussed by the Board as a final check now that the new financial
year has just started. Since the strategic direction as
signed off in February there have been a few additional tasks
identified and these will be incorporated into the plan.
- Water Safety Sector Plan. Progress on this and our
involvement was discussed. We remain firmly committed to the
Sector Plan and our Deputy Chair, Brent Warner has been nominated
by the Board to continue for another three years as the SLSNZ 'core
member' on the WSNZ Board.
- Strategic Plan for the Surf Life Saving Movement. The
draft of this was reviewed by the Board and feedback
provided. The next step will be circulating this to Clubs and
then a discussion at the Club Chairs Workshop at the AGM. I
am looking forward to the discussion and it is good to see the
progress being made. Thanks to all those who have contributed
so far, in particular the 2014 BP Leaders for Life group who
invested their energy into taking the high level ideas down to
concrete actions.
- 2015 SLSNZ
AGM. The upcoming AGM got plenty of airtime, with
discussion on what agenda items the Board is going to put
forward. We are required to propose the amounts for the Board
& Chairman's honoraria each year so it was agreed these should
be unchanged from the 2014/15 levels, as well as confirming the
Constitutional changes we will propose. The changes agreed to
put forward are:
- A small number of items to tidy up the drafting in the document
as suggested by Maria Clarke Lawyers following their 2014 review of
the Constitution.
- Changing the power to appoint the SLSNZ Auditor from the Board
to the AGM as recommended by the Audit & Risk Committee.
- Changing the term of Board members from two to three years with
a transition period to put this in place.
- Making reference to a new Regulation on Anti-Match Fixing that
is being required of all NSO's by Sport NZ.
The Board also discussed in a lot of detail whether a change to
the role of the Board Appointments Panel (BAP) was needed to take a
bigger role in succession planning for the Board. In the end it was
confirmed that Board itself should take on the primary
responsibility for its own succession planning and that there was
sufficient flexibility in the current wording of the Constitution
for the BAP to assist with this.
Also discussed was the idea of allowing proxy votes at the AGM to
count towards the quorum and/or reducing the quorum below 33% of
clubs. While it is a challenge getting clubs to travel to the
AGM, to retain the integrity of the democratic process it was
decided to instead work on other ways to get people along rather
than reduce the number of people who need to attend.
- SLSNZ Sports Hall of
Fame. The updated guidelines for operating the Hall of
Fame proposed by the National Honours and Awards Committee were
endorsed by the Board and can now be put into operation. The
last intake was in 2007 so there is a bit of catching up to
do.
- Membership Regulation
update. The recommended wording change from the
National Sport Committee to the clause which clarifies when a
competitive transfer can take place during the season was
endorsed
- DHL
Sponsorship. The extension of the DHL sponsorship for
a further three years was approved and the contract executed.
This is a very positive result and continues the longstanding
relationship with a great partner.
- National Event Venues
for 2016/17 and 2017/18. Following the closing of the
bid process of 30th June a panel has been working on
recommendations which have been endorsed by the National Sport
Committee. All these recommendations were approved by the
Board, and will be communicated to the wider membership in the near
future. There are still a few gaps in the programme that the
panel and NSC are working on completing in the next few months, but
the Board was pleased to see we now have most of the event venues
are in place for the next three years which gives everyone plenty
of time to plan ahead.
I would like to do a quick reminder for those that haven't
already done so, that clubs need to advise their delegates and any
agenda items for the 2015 AGM by Wednesday 19th
August - this is less than 2 weeks away now and there is no
flexibility in this date. Applications for the Presidency
also close on that date.
Our next Board meeting will be a conference call on
23rd August and then we take a break for the AGM and
meet again in October.
So that's it from me until my next update in a few weeks'
time.
Yours in surf,
Geoff Hamilton
Chairman
Surf Life Saving New
Zealand
