Greetings Club Chairs, Clubs and SLSNZ Life Members,
On behalf of the newly appointed SLSNZ Board, I am pleased to be
able to provide this monthly update following last Saturday's
Annual General Meeting. A quick summary from the AGM day
is:
- We had 39 clubs present in person, with one there by proxy and
three that voted electronically. While 43 clubs participating
is well ahead of the minimums we require, it was one less than last
year and still means there are 30 clubs (41%) who are not. It
would be nice to see this increase in future years and hopefully as
the news of the success of the format used this year spreads it
will encourage others to attend next year.
- I am delighted to announce that Neale Ames was unanimously
re-elected as our President at the AGM. Neale has done a
great job over the last year and we look forward to two more years
of his tours around the country visiting clubs. He has set
himself the target of visiting every single club during his tenure,
which will be no small feat!
- Also re-elected were board members Geoff Hamilton and Brent
Warner. This will give us good continuity and momentum as we
keep going down the path of turning the organisation around from
the challenges of 2010/11. Welcome back Geoff and Brent!
- The full Board is now eight people - Geoff Hamilton, Brent
Warner, Andrew Lancaster, Warwick Bell, Joe Pope, Trevor Taylor and
Graham Crombie and myself (Colin Weatherall). Our first meeting
will be on Sunday 20th October at which time we will
elect our Chairman, Deputy Chairman and committee members for
the coming year. For the intervening four weeks I have been
appointed the acting Chairman (but only for this
interim period). Profiles of Joe, Trevor and Graham have been
previously circulated and highlight the depth of experience they
will bring to the Board.
- Our Annual Report was also published in time for the AGM and is
available online on the SLSNZ website. There are a number of
tidy ups in the sports results which will be made and the
electronic version of the report amended.
- On the morning of the AGM, a strategy workshop for club Chairs
was held. This was a very worthwhile event and we will
certainly look to repeat it again next year. The outputs of
this will be shared with clubs and will be used as the basis for
the 2014/15 planning process . Thanks Paul Dalton for leading
discussions.
- The Awards of Excellence evening held at the Amora Hotel in
Wellington lived up to its name. It was great to see so many
people honoured for their years of commitment. A full list of
award winners will be communicated in due course but I do want to
mention the main recipients here:
- Gudsell Trophy - Mairangi Bay SLSC
- London Trophy - Kotuku SLSC
- NZLGB Lifeguard of the Year - Adam Fraser, Fitzroy SLSC
- DHL Volunteer of the Year - Mike Tames, Whangamata SLSC
- BP Surf Rescue of the Year - Sunset Beach Lifeguard
Service
- BP Media Award - Adrien Taylor for his story "What to do when
you're caught in a rip" shown on TV3.
- DHL Surf Official of the Year - Ross Merrett, Papamoa SLSC
- DHL International Sports Performance of the Year - NZ Black
Fins World Championship winning team
- DHL Coach of the Year - Scott Bartlett, Omanu Beach SLSC
- Instructor of the Year - David Pontin, Palmerston North
SLSC
- SLSNZ new Life Members - Marilyn Moffatt, Trish Reid and Geoff
Barry
- 50 Year Badges - Neale Ames (Otaki), Tony Butt (Muriwai), Paul
Carpinter (Taylors Mistake), Jan Lane (Taylors Mistake), Brett
Leask (Waimairi), Ian McCaw (Omanu), Elizabeth McDermott (Taylors
Mistake), Greg McClurg (Taylors Mistake), David McPhee (Brighton),
Suzanne Kalill McPhee (Brighton), Daryl Neate (Taylors Mistake),
Noel Saxton (Taylors Mistake), Lindsay Sneddon (South Brighton),
Ray Stoddart (Lyall Bay), Valda Walsh (East End).
- A draft set of Minutes is attached. They will be reviewed
at the coming Board meeting and finally approved at next year's
AGM.
In other news…………………
National Office Relocation
The last day in the old office in Cuba Street, Wellington will
be Friday 27 September, and everything should be fully
operational in the new office in Seaview, Lower Hutt on Monday
30th September. The new phone and address details are on the SLSNZ
website.
Staffing Update
There have been a number of changes in SLSNZ staff
recently. A summary of the changes and an updated
organisation chart has recently been circulated to all Clubs.
SLSNZ Financial Results
CEO Paul Dalton reports results for the first two months look
very healthy, with a YTD surplus of $1.895m mainly due to the early
receipt of revenues. Once the timing variances are removed
the underlying result is basically an 'on-budget' result, which is
good, but it is very early in the year and too soon to be making
any predictions. A copy of the summary reports is attached
for your information.
ILS
The biennial ILS World Drowning Prevention Conference is being
held in Potsdam, Germany on 20-22 October, in conjunction with a
number of ILS Commission meetings. SLSNZ will be represented
by volunteers Graeme Cullen and Angela Veric.
In addition to his official duties and attending the conference
Graeme will also deliver a short presentation as part of a workshop
on inflatable rescue craft (IRBs).
Lifesaving First Aid
Lifesaving First Aid has been able to provide participants with
NZQA credits via a special relationship with Coastguard Boating
Education. In looking at other ways to operate the business
it has become apparent that this relationship is not transferable,
which will put constraints on the options available. The
focus will now move to working with other NZQA accredited providers
who can use the IP that Lifesaving First Aid has available rather
than running courses ourselves.
As such, Lifesaving First Aid will no longer be taking new
bookings for courses after the end of September. The success
of the new approach will be reviewed over the balance of the
financial year. In the meantime updated information will be
provided to clubs on the full list of alternative providers who are
approved to deliver First Aid courses that fulfil the surf life
saving curriculum needs.
Insurance
Since the last communication with clubs there has been further
good news on the insurance front, with the SLSNZ brokers (AON)
being able to get a further reduction in the cost of premiums with
no reduction on the level of cover. As a result, SLSNZ will
be able to repeat the 2012/13 level of subsidy of 65% of clubs
premiums, up from the 62.5% last indicated. More information
will be coming out on this.
As reported at the Chairs workshop, SLS Northern Region has
signed up with another broker (JLT) and as such the 17 clubs in the
Northern Region are no longer in the National Scheme.
However, behind the scenes for this year at least, all the business
is being kept with the same insurance companies so we are able to
maintain the same 'bulk buying' deal that benefits all clubs.
SLSNR are very conscious that while they want independent
cover, they do not want to penalise clubs outside the Northern
Region. Over time, as more of the ten Auckland clubs are rebuilt
with a share of Council ownership this will create the opportunity
to have their property assets included in the Council insurance
scheme managed by JLT. So far Muriwai has been a beneficiary
of this arrangement since the rebuild of their clubhouse.
BP Sponsorship
At the Awards of Excellence dinner after the AGM, BP announced
that agreement in principle has been reached on a new four year
sponsorship deal which will take the relationship to its
50th year, which is an outstanding achievement. As
part of the new contract BP will:
- Increase the club fuel grants from $300 to $500 per year.
- Fund the annual Leadership Programme.
- Continue with the IRB giveaway promotion which this year say
two IRB's being donated to clubs.
Vulnerable Children's Bill
On a very different topic, we are monitoring a new bill being
proposed by MP Paula Bennett that could see mandatory police
vetting for any person involved with organisations working with
children. At the moment it is proposed that sport would be an
exception, but it is unclear if surf life saving would be
considered a sport. We will keep clubs advised as this
becomes more clear.
International Surf Rescue Challenge - Japan
Over the last week, we have been represented by our Open and
Development teams at the 2013 IRSC event in Onjuku, Japan.
There have been some outstanding individual performances and while
the competition format does not favour the NZ teams (for one there
is no pool component as in the World Championships) both teams have
still performed very well and came a close second to Australia
across the three days of competition. However, in the Moon
Cup exhibition event following the IRSC we were able to turn the
tables on the Australians and the Open team came away with a great
win. A big congratulations to the athletes and management
teams for all their results.
National Honours and Awards Committee
SLSNZ will shortly be calling for applications for the National
Honours & Awards committee. These applications will go to
the respective Regional Club Chairs committees for them to choose a
Regional representative for the SLSNZ Board to endorse.
The next update will come from our new Chairman following the
October 20th Board meeting. In the meantime best
wishes for the coming season launches around the country.
Cheers,
Colin Weatherall
Acting Chairman
Surf Life Saving New
Zealand
