By NZISM Master account
17/07/2024
This week we will send out notice of NZISM’s annual general meeting on 18 September. The AGM will be both in person in Wellington and available online. We hope you will attend. The AGM this year will be significant; we will ask members to make decisions on changes to NZISM’s governance structures, changes to eligibility for the President and Board roles, and to vote on a change to membership fees.
The new Incorporated Societies Act 2022 requires us to ensure that the way in which we run NZISM is compatible with the requirements of the new law. We have until 2026 to get a new constitution signed off by the Government or be deregistered. This is also an opportunity to look at what’s working well and what could be improved in our governance structures.
The Board and SLT have created a subcommittee that has been hard at work to ensure that NZISM meets these deadlines. We are seeking members' endorsement in principle of the planned direction of travel and we will then bring a new constitution for endorsement to a Special General Meeting (SGM) in April 2025.
The Board and Senior Leadership team recommend a series of key changes:
Along with helping us meet our legal obligations, our intention is that these changes will help us make better decisions faster and be more nimble as an organisation at all levels. Our goal is to make these processes easier to follow and participate in as members, too.
We would welcome your thoughts and feedback on these changes.
We are also asking members to vote now on new election processes to select NZISM’s next President and replacements for two retiring Board members. Robyn Bennett, Mike Cosman and Grant Nicholson have each reached their term limits under the Rules and we plan to hold elections to replace them at the SGM in April.
The Board and SLT recommend some changes to voting eligibility and processes ahead of the SGM:
Again, we would welcome your thoughts and feedback. If you are considering putting your name forward when we call for nominations in early 2025, please drop us a line and we can answer your questions and put you in touch with Robyn or one of the other Board members as appropriate.
Last, but by no means least, we intend to put forward a case for possible membership fee increase at the AGM. NZISM members last voted to raise fees to their current levels at the 2018 AGM and we have been in a high inflationary environment for much of the intervening six years.
NZISM provides great services on a lean budget. However our view is now that the current fees hamper our abilities to provide more exceptional member services. We want to upgrade our digital offering to be better, easier to use and more secure. We want to deliver even more great content to you locally and nationally. We want to build our profile as your voice. All of these things need investment.
We will come to you closer to the AGM with a detailed proposal; I wanted to note that this discussion is likely to happen and to ask you to get involved.
Look out for the AGM notices shortly and let us know what you think. And come along to the AGM. We’d love to see you and hear from you.
Ngā mihi
Jeff Sissons
CEO, NZISM
You are welcome to contact me at ceo@nzism.org
Thank you for joining the Women in Safety Excellence (WISE) network.
We hold various online and face-to-face events throughout the year and if one occurs near you, we would love to meet you in person.
LinkedIn - Please make sure you join our LinkedIn group to stay connected and on top of our planned webinars and events. We encourage you to post anything in the WISE group page that you think other network members would find useful or inspiring. Please don't be shy. The more we reach out, the more we connect with each other, and the more we can help each other on our journeys.
We might send you the occasional email but our web page on the NZISM website is always the best place to go for an overview of what's coming up in the WISE calendar.
Best wishes,
Margaret van Schaik
WISE Chair