Kia Ora Everyone – after a short break we are back!
Rowing Season Commencement Welcome back to another great season of rowing ahead! The Onslow College rowing season officially kicks off with the LTR programme, details below. If you are undecided about returning to rowing, then you are welcome to come to these sessions to reassess your desire to return or not. If you are still playing winter sport, then remember to complete your winter sports commitments before using the LTR days for commencing rowing training but if you can fit in both then that would be beneficial. There will be some sessions where you may help train new LTR recruits and sessions where you will do your own crew training. Your coach will keep in contact with you as well. WRC also has an official start of season opening:
LTR and spring training for existing rowers begins Friday 10th August with the following schedule:
LTR / Spring Training Camp
LTR Promotion at School If you know students interested in rowing at school, then please spread the word. We need to get a good intake of new novice rowers to keep the programme viable and cost effective. Apart from the fact that it is a great sport to learn many skills beneficial for both on and off the water, being a fantastic environment for teamwork and friendships and keeping super fit for winter sports trials! Please encourage others to come along and try out the LTR programme. All year groups welcome and the first 2 weeks are free.
If anyone is talking to the Ako classes or other students, then show them our rowing video and direct them to the website for more info. https://ocrowingclub.weebly.com/about.html Season Calendar on the website The season calendar is on the website - to start planning your family holidays around rowing! https://ocrowingclub.weebly.com/regattas--camps.html Second Hand Uniform Sales / Swap If you have rowing uniform items that you want to sell / gift / swap, then you can advertise on the website here: https://ocrowingclub.weebly.com/uniform.html Give your details to Stephanie. We will direct new Novices to this page, if they want to pick up cheaper uniform items. Book fair By now you should have received leaflets and posters to distribute in your neighbourhood and workplace. We really need all our members to get behind the book fair as it is our only fundraiser and is vital for reimbursing our coaches and supporting club activities which makes the overall cost to the rowers cheaper. The Book fair will be on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th August at the Wharewaka AGM heads-up Our AGM will be early October – if you are interested in a role on the parent committee we have several vacancies coming up and would love to hear from you! Give me a call if you want to hear more Olwyn 021300504. Information from WRC about the new constitution The following information was sent out in the WRC club newsletter and the club have asked us to dedistribute it to members to ensure everyone gets it: Below is the article written in the July newsletter regarding the draft Constitution and By-Laws Welcome to the July newsletter. This month I thought that we should highlight the main areas of change in the proposed Constitution and By Laws so that members are prepared to vote at the AGM on the 12th August. Although the work has been a little “dry”, it is most important that the Club improves its governance structure and processes. Good governance is always a work in progress. The concept of “good practice” develops over time and by reviewing our Constitution for the first time in many years, we are bring the Club into line with expected changes in legislation and promoting effective governance. Sport NZ has commissioned advice for sporting clubs around New Zealand so that they are aware of the changes in the proposed new Incorporated Societies Act. The summary states; · The process has begun to replace the 107 year old Incorporated Societies Act Key changes proposed · Basic duties for “committee members” more akin to directors' obligations under the Companies Act 1993, that will be expressly set out in the new legislation · More specificity around managing conflicts of interest · Dispute process to be built into constitutions · Must have a constitution not just “rules” Last month, we distributed the draft to members (via the newsletter and email) and received some feedback and queries from members. It is great to know that people are taking an interest in the work we are doing and have taken the time to read through the document. The feedback was important and has resulted in a few minor changes to a new draft of the Constitution and By-Laws which are now available. You will receive a separate email to this newsletter with a revised draft either directly or through your school representative on the Committee, or, a link will be posted on your club Facebook page. The drafts are also available for all members on our refreshed website under the “Documents and Policies tab” on the right menu bar. We found that Mailchimp, our newsletter distributor, ended up sending the June newsletter to many of your spam or junk folders due to the attachment, so we are trying not to have this happen again this month. It would pay to add WRC as a “safe” contact so that you don’t have the problem going forward. As mentioned previously, the new Constitution will enact a Board going forward with a number of responsibilities not solely related to strategy. Effectively the Board will be charged with providing for the Clubs long term success, fulfilment of its purpose and enabling the Committee to realise its objectives. We believe that this is the most appropriate way forward for the Club and has worked well having a designated group specifically dedicated to the “strategic big picture” over the past two years. The Wellington Rowing Committee will still be formed at the AGM. The Committee is entrusted with ensuring the vitality of the Club, its competitive achievements, school program success, Masters engagement and community involvement. The Committee also manages the Club’s operations, facilities, finances and social programs. There will remain 6 officers of the Club who will sit on the Committee. The Captain, Vice Captain, President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. Their roles are stated in the redrafted Bylaws. Along with those six members there will be not less than 3 further members on the Committee (there may be more). We would expect a representative from each school to be available to sit on the Committee for example. There is a change to the term of the officers to bring them into line with best practice and to make them consistent with the time of representation on the proposed Board. Previously there was a term limit for the President of 3 years but no limit for the other officers of the Club. The new draft states a term of two years on election with all officers able to offer themselves for re-election for one further subsequent two year term before having to stand down. This would be the case for all 6 officers. The amendment in the term allows for continuity of leadership but also means that rotating the positions on a regular basis allows for a refresh of Club leadership. This amendment in term is recommended best practice. It puts us in line for example with the WRA and their 2 year rotation of Board representatives. This year, for the initial transition, it has been noted that the President, Vice Captain and Secretary would have an initial term of one year before re-election due to the fact that we do not want to put ourselves in a position of having all 6 officers rotating off the Committee at the same time. The Club Captain and President would both sit on the Board. Voting rights have been clarified in the new document. There has been wording put around school membership voting for under 18 rowers. Each active member is eligible to have one vote. We had clarified that either the school member may vote or their parent may vote on their behalf but only one vote per member will be counted. Previously there has been confusion around proxies. These are not allowed under the current Constitution. The new Constitution will enable electronic voting (via email), should a member not be able to get to the AGM. When the AGM notice is distributed, there will be a form attached to show the resolutions being voted on. A member who is not able to make the meeting must return the form with all the information required by the stated deadline (5 days prior to the AGM) for their vote to be eligible. The Secretary will ratify the members eligibility and then the vote will be counted against each resolution. We believe this a more equitable way forward even though it will generate more work for the Secretary around the AGM process. Our accounts reviewer has requested a specific objective of the club to be added as follows… 3.1 (d) To recognise our responsibility in the maintenance of our Heritage one status building which is meant to be retained to advance the purposes of the WRC This has been included since the original draft and draws to our attention our ongoing obligation to the building. We have also reinserted into the draft By-Laws that amendments that are made to the By-Laws are to be ratified at the next general meeting. This had been missed in error. There are a few other minor changes and new insertions around the number of days required to give notice if you wish to be considered for an Officer or for a Board member role etc. I would encourage you to take the time to have a look through both documents. The drafts have been made possible as the result of huge input from many of the current Committee members alongside Tony Hasseds excellent guidance around “governance best practice”. I would recommend that the new draft Constitution and By-Laws be ratified at the upcoming AGM on the 12th August 2018.
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AuthorStephanie Clark President of OCRC. Archives
November 2023
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