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Central
Zone meeting 1st August Palmerton North
SPARC / Drug
Free NZ
As
part of the August Central Zone meeting, it was decided to invite
Tony Burgess (Northern Zone President) who spoke about joining SPARC
and Drug Free New Zealand, with the National President (Simon Bishop) and Max Wheatley (National PRO) also in attendance.
Simon
had arrived at the Palmerston Nth Airport around 9.30 am and was
taken back to the RSA, while Tony had decided to drive from Auckland
with his family and visit relations along the way, making it a long
day. 
Simon, Elizabeth, Tony and Max
We
had lunch before the meeting, with a few people arriving early to
have a chat with Simon and Tony, which worked well. We started the meeting at 1pm with over 50 people in attendance.
I
feel that the information is starting to get around, with quite a few
from the Wellington clubs not attending, as some were at the AGM in
Queenstown and have since had a meeting where other local clubs in
their area were invited to come and listen to the information they
had at hand on this subject.
I
get the feeling that having listened to Tony, some people who were
against the idea, have changed their minds. The biggest problem has
always been the lack of information going back to club members, as it
most certainly has been discussed at central zone level on more than
one on occasion.
Tony
presented an excellent program with lots of questions being asked
from the floor. I think most members are coming to accept the
reasoning as to why we would like to join, with one or two clubs
still against joining Drug Free NZ. They don’t seem to mind joining
SPARC but that’s it. At all times Tony answered his questions
based on the information he had collated and we cannot expect any
more then that.
Andy
Cockroft (past NZFWDA president) also attended the meeting and spoke
about some of his reservations. With open discussion, it was felt
that these could be attended to and would have to be at national
level. His reservations must be covered as part of the documentation
that will be put together in the process of joining SPARC / DFNZ
(should the vote be in favour).
Tony
is sending his presentation via email to Gail Osman, the CZ PRO, who
will then make sure that all CZ clubs get a copy. This must then be
presented to all club members and discussed in its entirety, only
after that can each club vote with, I hope, true clarity on
this subject. He discussed two options to vote, one being at the
next AGM in Palmerston North 2010 or by postal vote; this has yet to
be discussed at national level.
After
the meeting, a few of us took Simon around to the Kingsgate Hotel to
show him where the next national AGM / Conference will be in 2010.
Elizabeth
Dawson, CZ President
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