NATIONAL EXECUTIVE MEETING

CHRISTCHURCH, MARCH 4TH 5TH 2023

A few points of interest taken from the minutes of the meeting, compiled by Rob T

Next International Rally. Bids have been received from Nelson, Hawkes’ Bay, and Waikato.

Membership Statistics.

Currently 19.5% of the membership are under 59, 25.9% are over 60, 38.2% are over 70. 14.9% are over 80, and 1.04% are over 90. Total membership 8537 as at 23 Feb.2023.

Management Committee.

President Diane Quarrie advised the meeting of the 7 Management Committee positions to become vacant in August next. Those who are standing down are Diane herself; North Island Club Captain Kaaren Smylie; South Island Club Captain Alon Mayhew; Executive Member Tony Bartlett; and Speed Steward Tony Haycook. The position of Hon. Sec/Treasurer is already vacant and is proving to be a position difficult to fill. Committee member, George Kear, has been nominated for the position of President, this would mean a committee position becomes vacant.

National Office.

Committee member Murray Trounson briefed the meeting on procedure and process updates at National Office. The New Membership Application portal is now working well and will be followed by other changes to procedures as we become more attuned to the digital age. The efficiency of the two staff, Linda and Karen, manning the National Office was noted, they are taking on some of the Hon. Sec/Treasurer responsibilities in the absence of a National Sec/Treasurer. [As your current Branch Sec/Treasure, my experience when needing to make contact with either of the two ladies has been 101%]

NZTA and FOMC.

12-month WOF. Very slow progress is being made on this subject. [We may get a better idea of the progress this possible change in regulation is making with Harry Duynhoven, as President of the FOMC, speaking at our April N & N.]

Incorporated Societies Act 2022.

Workshops at the AGM discussed Governance and Board Structure. As I understand, the Governance Structure of the VCC of NZ does not meet the requirements of the new Act. The structure of the executive has had various options proposed, the responses of the positive feedback received will be compiled and forwarded to Branches. A partial rewrite of the National Constitution will be necessary, which will be followed by any ‘tweaking’ to our Branch Constitution. The Branch will be required to renew its registration under the 2022 Act., though there is a very generous timeline to do this.

Rob Thomson

Hello Folks, well April looks to be a bit quieter, than March on the local scene with last month’s Maunga Moana Rally the main event on the Branch Calendar. Next month is our A G M so please give some thought to going on committee and giving some of our long serving members a break. Nomination forms for committee positions are at the back of this newsletter.

At this month’s committee meeting we discussed reactivating some Branch runs that had been neglected of late, for example the Brick and Breakfast runs. If any member would like to step up and organise either of these, they can be assured that any committee member can provide the information they might require to do this. Also discussed was the holding of Daffodil Day this year. Due to adverse weather generally in August, an alternative event, to be held in summer, was suggested, a Vintage event at the Wind Wand being one possibility.

This year in June, our usual End of Rego run to the Stratford Mountain House will be on Sunday the 25th, more info on this will be upcoming in future newsletters.

This month, on Tuesday 11, some of our members managed to get along to the Historic Speedway meeting in Fitzroy. We were addressed by a rep from Waka Kotahi, Caleb Perry, who spoke about the ongoing Mount Messenger Bypass project. This will be one of the biggest highway improvement projects in Taranaki for some time. It is planned to happen over the next four years and will involve the construction of approximately, 6.1 km of roadway, two bridges, 235 metres of tunnel under the mountain and the moving of about one million tonnes of fill.

If you have driven north recently, you will have seen the aerial cableway that is already in use. This will be used to move up to 20 tonne pieces of machinery onto the worksite and enable the removal of fill from the worksite.

To protect the native wildlife and environment there will be up to 250 km of traps and bait stations laid out to remove predators from the bush surrounds and supported by D O C, hunters will be used to remove wild pigs and goats from the area. There are over one hundred significant native trees to be removed, each of these will be replaced with 200 seedlings, and there will be 120,000 plants used to enhance the roadside environment.

The workforce to carry out this project will create about 74 new jobs, worth about 4 million dollars in salaries.

An information centre has been set up at the site and the public are welcome to visit this , located in the big shed near the road side, where you will be able to see the latest progress and ask any questions you may have.

For more information on this project go to – nzta.govt.nz/tearaoteata

Jim Logan