INTERVIEW
The interview: Ngaire Kelaher, ASIS NZ Chapter Chair The new ASIS NZ Chapter Chair talks with Chief Editor Nicholas Dynon about what the chapter will be getting up to in 2020 and why it’s worth looking a little closer at the benefits of ASIS International Board Certifications.
ND: What’s the focus for ASIS NZ in 2020?
Ngaire Kelaher is Chairperson of the ASIS International NZ Chapter (previously Chapter Deputy Chair and Secretary), and she is a Security Risk and Training Consultant at RISQ New Zealand. Involved in security since 1995, Ngaire is a former deputy director of Training at the NZSA. She holds the PSP and CPP ASIS International Board Certifications.
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NK: Definitely to grow membership, and apart from memberships, it’s about getting people excited about the ASIS Board Certifications. That started last year. Which led to successes that included David Withers getting his APP and Devin [Louw], Rehan [du Toit] and Johan [ Janse van Resnburg] getting their CPPs, which is major! So, we’re looking to tailgate this with momentum to get everyone else on board as well. But the main thing for me personally is reminding people what the benefits of membership are. I think along the way people have forgotten what the benefits are of being an ASIS International member as well as being a Chapter member as well as the certifications. I want to find out why members that didn’t renew their membership last year or the year before didn’t and ask them personally, because maybe whatever the issue was back then doesn’t exist anymore. I’d like to get them back into the fold. It’s not just about getting new people, but about finding out why we’ve lost people too. ND: What’s the level of membership like at the moment? NK: Last year’s membership list totalled 51 chapter members out of about 100 ASIS International members who reside here in New Zealand. A lot of membership subscription renewals have come in recently but of course we won’t get a full picture for another month after people settle in for the new year. But it’s promising. People are renewing, which is
great, because we didn’t have this much uptake this time last year. Maybe it’s because we sent out the reminders earlier? Maybe it’s because we made the registration process a little bit simpler – you just have to click on a link and it comes up in a pre-populated email. You just fill out your bits and pieces, send it through, and we send you back an invoice and you can pay however you like. When we get confirmation that the invoice is paid, we send you an electronic welcome pack reminding you of all the benefits so you can see what your money’s going towards, and your login details to the member’s only part of the website. You can then click to receive your pdf chapter membership certificate. ND: What currently are the benefits of membership? NK: It’s not just the networking. A lot of people think that this only benefits people in Auckland and Wellington, but networking doesn’t need to be in person, it can be virtual as well. Last year we would look to get a speaker for a traditional chapter meeting, hopefully get sponsorship that would allow that same speaker to go down to Wellington and replicate the same session, but that hasn’t always worked, and it heavily relies on sponsorship. So why not make the most of technology? If we can get sponsorship, great, but we don’t want sponsorship to hold up having meetings or networking opportunities. If we can’t get sponsorship we’d be asking members to pay just a $25 breakfast fee. Alternatively, if we can do it for free because there’s no breakfast
February / March 2020
