Special General Meeting Outcome
NZMA Special General Meeting held on 6th August 2016, Hotel Novotel,
Ellerslie, Auckland @ 5:00 p.m.
Minutes SGM Meeting (Aug 2016) and updated MoU (August 2016) Website
The purpose of this meeting was to vote on whether NZMA Centres agree to accept the MoU between ANZ & NZMA re: Sharing of Membership, whereby all ANZ Competitive members will be accepted as NZMA Competitive Members, without having to pay an additional fee. The current membership statistics between the two groups as at July 9th were as follows;
- 549 current NZMA members.
- 1204 Active Competitive ANZ members who will be 30+ as at 31 December 2016. Of these 169 are also currently NZMA members.
- 759 Active Social ANZ members who will be 30+ as at 31 December 2016. Of these 15 are also currently NZMA members.
This means there are potentially over 1000 ANZ Competitive members and over 700 ANZ Social members, who previously have been excluded from competing in NZMA, OMA & WMA organised events, who will now be eligible to start going to these events.
All Centres (except Man/Wang) had delegates at the meeting and all Centres present voted to accept the MoU (except WBOP).
The MoU is to take affect as from 1st September 2016, in line with the NZMA financial year.
The NEW membership fee structure that was outlined in an e-mail to all Centres prior to the meeting was as follows:
| Group | NZMA Fees | ANZ Fees | |
|---|---|---|---|
| NZMA Competitive Member | $60.00 | $0.00 | Fees retained by NZMA |
| NZMA Social Member | $45.00 | $0.00 | Fees retained by NZMA |
| NZMA Volunteer | $0.00 | $0.00 | Fees retained by NZMA |
| ANZ Competitive Members | $0.00 | $60.00 | Fees retained by ANZ |
| **ANZ Social Members | $30.00 | Fees retained by ANZ |
** ANZ Social Members will need to be a Competitive Member of either ANZ or NZMA to compete at SI, NI, NZMA, OMA or WMA Championship events.
It was suggested by Stewart Foster that we were not following our current Constitution re: Membership (Item 7, Clause 7.1) and that we should NOT be setting our fees until the Constitution is up-dated.
This would have prevented us from implementing the MoU until after the March 2017 AGM, which I considered unacceptable given the time and effort put in so far. The reason for having the SGM in August and gaining approval now was to avoid ANZ Club Masters athletes from having to pay a second registration as from 1st September, i.e. the beginning of the new financial year for NZMA. The ANZ financial year starts at 1st April.
Our Constitution states the following:
There shall be the following categories of membership:
7.1 Full Membership:
Open to every person who –
(a) Meets the age criteria demanded by the World Association of Masters Athletes; and
(b) Has been accepted as a member of his / her local Centre, and shall be accepted as a member upon:
(c) Payment of such fees as may be determined by the Association; and
(d) Verification of age eligibility by birth certificate or such other evidence as may be accepted by the Centre; and
(e) Completion of such application form as may be prescribed from time to time by the Association. Such application shall be lodged with the Secretary of the local Centre.
After a lengthy discussion the new fee structure was approved. Having accepted the new fee / membership structure, the NZMA Board would undertake to update the NZMA Constitution & By-laws accordingly, with all changes to be approved at our next NZMA AGM in March 2017.
The issue that Stewart raised was around Clause 7.1b re: Local Centre Membership.
To qualify as a NZMA member re: OMA & WMA rules, there must be only one governing body for masters within a country, i.e. NZMA. All masters intending to compete in OMA & WMA events must belong to that organization. The MoU accepts ANZ Competitive Members, of appropriate age, as being NZMA members. As such NZMA have set a $0 fee for this group, for reasons already explained.
The question was asked, ‘How can ANZ Club Athletes be members of a local master’s Centre, if they do not pay a local master’s Centre fee?’ Under the new fee structure only NZMA members will be required to pay a local Master’s Centre fee (as determined by each Centre).
To ensure clause 7.1b is adhered to at a local Master’s Centre level, I request that all Centres at your up-coming AGMs acknowledge that the MoU has been accepted and set your TWO Centre fees accordingly as follows:
- ANZ Competitive Masters Member’s Local Centre fee = $0.00 (in line with what NZMA is doing)
- Masters Local Centre fee = ???? (To be decided Centre by Centre)
Regarding Clause 7.1e; As conveyor of the NZMA database, I will be obtaining information from ANZ as to who are current ANZ Competitive members and passing this information on to Centre Registration Secretaries. NZMA is happy to accept that these athletes have filled out an appropriate application form via ANZ. Our non-club members will continue to register via the local masters Centres as per previous years.
Vetline Magazine:
Due to the cost of short run digitally printed Vetline magazines, it was decided the all NZMA members will continue to receive Vetline as part of their subscription as per previous years. This will ensure the printed run quantity remains high enough to keep the unit price down. We are also looking at increasing the advertising content of the magazine to help cover costs.
However, as we have no control over setting the ANZ fees, all ANZ members will be required to purchase a four issue subscription at a cost of $25.00. Please note that this will only start as from 1st January 2017, as all current members of NZMA (including ANZ club members) will receive the October issue of Vetline as per previous years.
I acknowledge that change can be unsettling and there will a few procedural issues to sort out. The overwhelming feedback I have had is that ‘it’s about time’ this happened…together we can make this work. The challenge now is to encourage more ANZ Competitive members to come to our events!!
Regards,
Andrew Stark
(NZMA President)