From the President

September 2021

Katie Haggath, with long brown hair, smiling, and wearing red lipstick and a black floral top

There’s a lot of important stuff in this newsletter, so I’ll keep this ‘From the President’ short and sweet.

First and most important...

Remember to take care of yourself, no matter the alert level

We don’t know yet whether lockdown will persist or not. We could be in level 4 for a while longer, or we could start dropping levels incrementally.

Whatever the country’s health experts decide, remember to put yourself on the priority list, right up there next to ‘whānau’ and ‘friends’, and slightly above ‘work’.

ConferenceLite is going ahead in November

ConferenceLite, our first one-day, NZ-only, mini-conference is on its way to Christchurch! We’ll have a Covid-tracer QR code and hand sanitising stations, but if for any reason we cannot hold a conference in person, we’ll hold it as a virtual conference instead.

You can find the details under Everything you need to know about ConferenceLite in this newsletter, but the basics are:

  • Date: Sunday 7 November. Conference dinner Saturday 6 November (details TBC)
  • Time: 9am start. Coffee and tea 8:30am
  • Location: Ara Institute of Canterbury Ltd, City Campus, Christchurch

AGM deferred until 7 November

Normally, we’d hold our AGM in October, but under the current circumstances we’ve decided to play it safe and hold off until 7 November. We’ll hold the AGM over lunch at ConferenceLite. You can also attend the AGM virtually.

Read the AGM notice

The board is proposing a couple of changes to the TechCommNZ Constitution this year, particularly around the structure of the board, and we need your vote. Be sure to read the remit notice.

We’re also looking once again for new board members. If you’re interested, but not sure what’s required of a board member, here’s the basic breakdown:

Responsibilities:

  • Work together towards our 5-year strategy:
    • Every board member has a ‘buddy’ to guide new board members and support existing board members
    • Support and guide your ‘buddy’ in their activities where requested or it appears necessary.
  • Attend meetings and discuss / vote on matters discussed by the board:
    • Three meetings per year in-person, flights paid for by TechCommNZ
    • All other meetings via Zoom

Time:

  • You can expect to contribute around 20 hours per month to board activities if you are an active member – less than an hour extra per workday!
  • Monthly board meeting, except January

Rewards:

We’d like to think contributing to this awesome organisation and its members is reward in itself, but as well as that:

  • It looks really good on your CV
  • Experience running an organisation
  • Travel opportunities and the chance to represent TechCommNZ at events around NZ
  • Have your say in how TechCommNZ is run

Email thesecretary@techcomm.nz to express your interest.

And that’s it from me for now!