Internal Documentation Change, and Comings and Goings

This month I would like to bring you all up to date with an important internal document change process, some changes to the Friends’ Committee, and remind you of an important piece of member research on which we are seeking your assistance.

Revising the Constitution of the Friends of Te Papa

As a result of the enactment of the Incorporated Societies Act (2022), which replaced the Incorporated Societies Act (1908), regulations came into force in October 2023 requiring each of the 23,000 incorporated societies in New Zealand (including the Friends of Te Papa) to re-register under the new Act by 5 April 2026. Any incorporated society that does not re-register by 5 April 2026 will cease to exist.

Re-registration requires that the constitution of each incorporated society must now include the information set out in section 26 of the new Act. Whilst many of these requirements already exist in our current constitution, a number of new requirements do not. As a result, the Friends’ constitution requires a revision to bring it up to date with the new legislative requirements.

It is important to note that this legislatively-driven revision and rewrite of our constitution does not set out to fundamentally change the identity, purpose or modus operandi of the Friends – in effect it is more of a cosmetic exercise intended simply to align our operating model and rules with the new requirements. Our current constitution is already based on a set of enabling and fairly generally expressed guidelines and provisions – this will continue to be the case under the revised model.

The Friends’ honorary solicitors Duncan Cotterill have assisted in the preparation of the revised constitution, and we are now working through the internal approval stages for the new document.

Any changes to the Friends’ constitution are required to be approved at a general meeting of the Friends, and accordingly the revised constitution which aligns with the new requirements will be put to the 2025 Annual General Meeting for approval. This timing will enable us to complete our re-registration process by the required date of April 2026.

Committee Comings and Goings

During the course of the current committee year, we have welcomed two new committee members:

Trevor Jeffries: Trevor, who joined us with effect from the 2024 AGM, has an extensive and varied working background, predominantly in the education sector. He has been Principal of a number of primary schools and has been involved in numerous innovative leadership programmes as well as managing large building projects. In addition, he has chaired two body corporates and is an Ambassador for the Gillies McIndoe research institute. Trevor is a member of the Membership Sub-Committee.
Elizabeth Goodwin: Elizabeth, who joined the committee in November 2024, is a trained journalist with a passion for developing ways to inform and include people. Having previously held a number of leadership roles in NGOs and government, she currently sits on two NGO boards and is the founder of a project that aims to support parents of disabled children. In 2022 she was appointed to be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in recognition of her services to education. Elizabeth has become a member of the Marketing and Communications sub-committee.

And we are about to farewell one established committee member:

Dan Laufer: Dan, who joined the committee in July 2023, is currently Associate Professor of the School of Marketing and International Business at Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka. He has been a strongly contributing member of the Friends’ committee, being part of the Communications and Marketing sub-committee. Dan has recently been appointed to the role of Professor and Head of the School of Communication Studies at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and will be leaving the Friends’ committee when he moves to Auckland at the end of December 2024.

We welcome both Trevor and Elizabeth to their new roles with the Friends, and thank Dan for his contribution and wish him well for the future.

Upcoming Membership Survey

The Friends’ committee is focused on understanding the desires and expectations of our membership in order that we may deliver the most relevant and attractive programme of events and topics to you. However, as we have been working on the basis of a number of potentially outdated presumptions and past best practices that may (or may not) remain entirely appropriate to our members’ current needs.

The last Friends’ satisfaction survey was conducted in 2011 and it is now clearly time to update our understanding to align with current membership realities. We are seeking your valuable feedback to this survey to help us to ensure that our membership offering remains an attractive proposition to you.

Accordingly we will shortly be releasing a member survey aimed at updating and better understanding your expectations as members of the Friends. We look forward to receiving your views!

And as this is the last President’s column for 2024 I would like, on behalf of the whole committee of the Friends of Te Papa, to wish you all a very merry Christmas and happy and safe New Year. I hope that you will take the opportunity to rest, relax and recharge your batteries over the summer period.