Regional Councillor's Report to the Region - August 2009

LIANZA Council met for a full day in Wellington on 11 August. This was the first face-to-face meeting of the 2009-2010 Council.

Key items that were discussed:

Governance Structure
· after analysis of survey results and Council discussion is was decided that there was not a clear mandate to implement all the changes in the discussion paper, significantly the changes to regional councillor roles and Te Ropu Whakahau representation.
· The following will be drafted as motions to be put at the AGM
o Formal adoption of the draft purpose statement
o Vice-President to be disestablished and a President-Elect role established.
o That the role of Treasurer be changed to that of a Council appointed Accountant/Financial Advisor

Institutional Membership/Fee Structure
While the FTE model was agreed as a fair way to establish fees, this needs more work on scenarios and modelling. A small group will be set up to carry on with this work.

Strategic Direction
Council continues to work on our key strategic goals of Advocacy and Membership Services. Regional Councillors will have two specific actions around membership & engagement to focus on for the coming two months.

In particular, I'll be focussing on going out to visit different parts of the region over the next couple of months. We'd like to know how we can get all the different regions that make up Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui more involved in LIANZA. Part of that will be looking at making sure we've got some great communications channels, so everyone knows what's going on in the region. Please contact me if you'd like me to come and visit you!

Professional Development Plan
Work on the 2010 plan is progressing. Please continue to feed ideas on possible CPD through to me or direct to Maree Kibblewhite.

Penny Carnaby - National Librarian
Penny joined us and discussed issues at the National Library. Over the next 18 months Penny will be "on the road" a lot. Would this be a chance to have her join us for a Regional meeting?

Other items of interest
Work on the redevelopment of LIANZA's online presence continues with the establishment of a small working group to drive this forward.

Please feel free to contact me if you've got any questions or feedback.

Laurinda