Dear Delegates, our Guests and Tauranga Sport Fishing Club
Once again we are at our AGM and it is good to see so many clubs involved in the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council. Each year when I come to an AGM I am impressed with the commitment and passion our clubs have and with your support and direction we will continue to grow and be a strong effective Council. It is very pleasing to note that our numbers of club members have grown considerably.
I have been privileged to have a committed board to work with and thank you to all the Board and Delegates for their hard work both individually and collectively. Our delegates enable us to have an insight into the problems, issues and improvements needed. I must take the time to thank Dave Lockwood for his hard work and support. Dave has now left his position with us, taking up a role with Lifesavers Foundation and we wish him all the best in his new endeavours. Thank you Dave for your support during my term as President and for offering to come to the AGM and be our Secretary for this weekend. Our new Administrator/Secretary is Helen Pastor. Helen was employed in August and unfortunately had a commitment in Adelaide this weekend prior to getting this position, so has been unable to join us. Helen will endeavour to contact you all over the next few weeks to touch base and hopefully get to know the workings of our organisation.
The communications sub-committee led by Bob Gutsell have been working together to develop a new website. This needed to be a modern, interactive and easy to follow webpage that would enable visitors to it to find what they are looking for, and to withdraw information more effectively than they have in the past. We are well on the way to having stage one of this project up and running very soon. Bob to talk to this later in this AGM.
Hiwi the Kiwi has been very busy this year. During the year we obtained three grants from Maritime New Zealand, MPI, and Water Safety NZ. With the support of these grants Hiwi the Kiwi has been able to take their show to decile 1 schools in Auckland, bring the message of water safety and fishing for the future to those children who may not otherwise have been able to have this information in a fun and musical way. The teachers and children have been very enthuastic and love Mark and Chris’s programme. Thank you Mark and Chris de Lacy for your commitment and passion for this project.
Our Nationals this year were very successful despite the terrible weather and although it was hard fishing we had a better than expected response and some good fish landed. Well done. We are continuing to look at ways to make the result process run smoothly and will again use our club recorders to enter their catch records where possible. The systems and programme has been improved and we are looking forward to develop this for 2018.
The Fisheries Management Protection Team has been working to ensure our processes are proactive and effective. Proving to us again that this team is a valuable part of the NZ Sport Fishing Council. Thank you to Peter Campbell and your team. The Legasea team are growing from strength to strength and have increased their team. They are actively working on fish care and fishing management so that fishing is available to all. Peter Campbell will give a full report later in this session.
Last, but not least, a big thank you to Tauranga Sport Fishing Club for all the hardwork and commitment by taking on the hosting of this AGM. It is not an easy task and we all appreciate the effort involved in running such a successful AGM. Many thanks.
Phil Appleyard