Thanks to all the Club Chairs who took the time out to participate in the recent round of Club Chairs meetings around the country. As always, it’s good to sit down with people face-to-face and talk about what’s going on and finding out, behind the statistics, how the season has been.

Health and Safety has been the topic that has created the most discussion in these meetings, as clubs start to get to terms with the new legislation or, indeed, the obligations under the old legislation that perhaps were never really top of mind. It is important to understand that whether your clubs is a PCBU (with people getting paid) or a ‘Volunteer Association’ (where they don’t), the club still has a duty of care to any workers (including volunteers), club members and to the public.  It has been good to see clubs starting to focus on the areas they see as their biggest risks, including ATVs/Quads, IRBs (especially those that still have right foot straps for the crewman), their clubhouse environment, training sessions (formal and informal) and getting gear to and from the beach. Every member has a role to play here, so it’s important there are robust ways of getting people the information they need to understand and reduce risks.

While I am still crunching the final numbers for the 2015/16 season, so far the reports show 272 members had to be treated for first aid during the year, of which 49 were referred to a doctor and 14 taken off to hospital. This is over 15% of our total first aid treatments in the season; quite a significant share given the number of beachgoers over the summer. With a bit more focus, it would be nice to see this drop off considerably next season.

From a SLSNZ perspective, we are rapidly closing in on June 30, which signals the end of our financial year and the start of 2016/17. For those that are interested, the Strategic Plan for the organisation for 2016/17 and the following two years is now up on our website for any feedback or comment. The general direction remains as it has over the last few years - with the focus on stability, providing ongoing support to clubs and rebuilding the capital base of the organisation back to the pre-2010 levels. The added focus this year continues on replacing the sponsorship income that we will lose when the six-year State Insurance sponsorship ends in June. It will be an exciting year ahead and I look forward to what it will bring.

Finally from me - another reminder that the deadline for National Honours and Awards nominations close on June 30- so it’s time for clubs to make sure all those tireless workers get their due recognition.

Cheers,
Paul Dalton

Awards of Excellence ceremonies

This year’s regional ceremonies kicked-off with the Otago-Southland Awards of Excellence on April 9. Congratulations to all the winners. This weekend will see the Capital Coast and Hawke’s Bay ceremonies taking place and we wish all the finalists the best of luck. Next up will be the Canterbury awards on June 11 followed by the Northern Region (June 25), Gisborne (July 1), Taranaki (July 9) and BOP/Coromandel (July 23). Keep an eye out on our website for more news and information about our finalists and award winners.

2016 AGM

We have now confirmed the date and location for the 2016 Strategy Workshop and Annual General Meeting, which will be Saturday September 24 at the Heritage Hotel in Auckland. Click here for more information.

State partnership

Our partnership with Principal Partner State is coming to an end next month. State has been a wonderful partner over the past six years and we’d like to thank them for their contribution to Surf Life Saving in New Zealand. While we have recently announced new partnerships, we’re still working towards securing a new major partner and we’ll update you as soon as we have any news on this.

SLSNZ vacancies

Surf Life Saving New Zealand is currently looking to fill two positions; Finance Manager and Fundraising Manager. Click here for the full position descriptions and application information.

End of season stats

We are happy to report that the data for the 2015/2016 season is looking substantially healthier. Thank you to all the clubs who have made this a priority. We hope to release the finalised patrol stats within the next couple of weeks. If any clubs do have any patrol stats or incident forms still to go into PAM, please let us know ASAP, so this can be fast-tracked.

PAM update

We would like to thank you all for your patience while we changed systems. This has been successful but not without our fair share of problems and challenges. The way that the club administrators and staff have dealt with this and helped us along the way has been fantastic. Click here to read the latest PAM newsletter.

Kiwi Karma

Planning a holiday or business trip? Please book via the online accommodation website Kiwi Karma. At no extra cost to you, Surf Life Saving will receive a 5% donation to the value of your booking. Check out their website when booking your next trip and make sure you select SLSNZ as your charity to support!

New partnership with Wood Group Training

We're pleased to announce a new partnership with Wood Group Training that will see the Taranaki-based company offering free First Aid training courses to lifeguards nationwide! The agreement was formally signed last week by our CEO Paul Dalton and Wood Group Training General Manager Kerry Martyn. 

Find out all the key event dates across the organisation including the regional, lifesaving and sporting spaces. 

New Waikanae clubhouse

The new Waikanae Surf Life Saving Club was officially opened on May 7. Read more and see some photos in the Gisborne Herald.

Administrator wanted

Spencer Park SLSC is looking for an administrator to help with the day-to-day running of the club. Applications close on June 3. Click here for more information. 

BP Rescue of the Month

It is with great pleasure that we congratulate the following clubs on winning the BP Rescue of the Month Awards for April.

Northern/national: Muriwai
Eastern: Hot Water Beach
Central: Waimarama
Southern: no nominations

Click here to view the citations. This now concludes the BP Rescue of the Month awards for the 2015/16 season. Congratulations to all of our winners.

BP Leaders for Life

We're pleased to announce the successful BP Leaders for Life candidates for 2016! This year, all of the 18 candidates will take part in three workshops in Wellington. They will be held from June 11-12, July 9-10 and August 20-22. 

Black Fins

Congratulations to the 12 athletes that have been named in the New Zealand team to compete at the 2016 Lifesaving World Championships in September. Known as the Black Fins, the team includes captain Andy McMillan (St Clair), Chris Dawson and Cory Taylor (Midway), Paul Cracroft-Wilson (Fitzroy), Steven Kent (Titahi Bay), Max Beattie and Devon Halligan (Omanu), Danielle McKenzie (Mairangi Bay), Laura Quilter (Wainui), Natalie Peat (Papamoa), Olivia Eaton (Mount Maunganui) and Samantha Lee (Lyall Bay). Click here to view the full announcement.

The team went into their first training camp the day after the announcement and they had no idea what as in store for them; a team-building adventure race that started North of Auckland at 5.45am and finished in the city at 5.30pm.

Over the coming weeks, the Black Fins will have a series of camps and workshops, including a pool session on the Gold Coast, as they prepare for Rescue 2016 which kicks-off in just over 100 days!

They also welcome Sam Mayhew as team doctor. He takes over from previous team doctor Caroline Stuart who has stepped down after five years' service to the High Performance programme, which included winning two world championship titles.

Rescue 2016 Fun Facts

• The Beach Flags, Sprints and Relays will be run on the road adjacent to the beach. Event organisers are building two massive “sands pits” which will be around 40cm deep for the events.  
• This year’s beach and ocean venues will be separated by a 2.5 hour drive… which will make planning and logistics for the teams a little more challenging!

Junior Black Fins

The excitement is building for the Junior Black Fins as they head into a three day team camp in Auckland today. It is the first time the team has gathered since being named last month. They will be put through some team building exercise as well as physical training. The pool athletes will be fortunate enough to train with some Black Fins while the beach athletes will get to work with triple world beach flags champion Morgan Foster.

Keep an eye out on the High Performance Facebook page for photos and updates from the camp and to follow our teams’ journey to Rescue 2016.

If you or any of your club mates have been doing some interesting things lately please let us know! It’s great to share with other members and recognise what our clubbies are up to. Click here to email us.