AGM

The 52nd Annual General Meeting took place at the clubrooms on Monday 23rd February.

The meeting was well attended and commendably brief.

The following business was conducted:

• the Minutes of the 51st AGM held on 26th February 2025 were accepted
• the President's Report was accepted
• the Treasurer's Report was accepted
• a motion to increase subscriptions by $5.00 for the financial year beginning 1 January 2027 was passed
• John McCormick was re-appointed as the Club's Financial Reviewer for the financial year ending 31 December 2026
• Hugh Wolfensohn was appointed as the Club's Honorary Solicitor for 2026

The following officers and Committee were elected for 2026:

• President - Hugh Wolfensohn 
• Secretary - Rae Lutman
• Treasurer - Margaret Gordon
• Committee (in alphabetical order):
• Jo Anson
• Nicky Bradley
• Graham Cheater
• Murray Lobb
• Fiona McDonald-Bates
• Derek Snelling
• Judi Vernau

Hugh acknowledged with appreciation the contributions to the Committee of Helen Walker and Chris Farrow (both of whom were stepping down), and made a presentation to Chris on behalf of the Committee to mark his departure from the Committee after many years' service.

Finally, and with great pleasure, Hugh moved that Vicky Young be awarded Life Membership of the Club - motion carried by acclamation.  Congratulations Vicky!

Treasurer's Annual Report 2025

Margaret Gordon's Treasurer's Report for the 2026 Annual General Meeting:

President's Annual Report 2025

My Annual Report for the 2026 Annual General Meeting:

Membership Survey

The Committee has recently approved a Membership Survey to gather information about the Club and to gain a better understanding of members' views and concerns. The results will be used to assist the Committee in its forward planning and to improve the day-to-day running of the Club.

The survey can be found here.

It is entirely voluntary and can be anonymous if you so wish. The results will be aggregated and no individual responses will be identified.

Please complete the survey: it should only take about 5-10 minutes of your time.

Notice of AGM and Nominations for 2026 Committee

As we close for the year, the last task for the Committee is to notify all members that the next Annual General Meeting will be held at 4.30pm on Monday 23rd February 2026 at the Club rooms.

Our Constitution requires the four longest serving members of the Committee to retire at the AGM and - if they so wish - to seek re-election. Those Committee members are Graham Cheater, Chris Farrow, Rae Lutman (Secretary) and Margaret Gordon (Treasurer). I'm sorry to report that Chris had decided that the time has come for him to stand down, but I'm pleased to say that Graham, Rae and Margaret have all agreed to seek re-election. 

Additionally, I regret to report that Helen Walker has resigned from the Committee.

Although replacements for both Chris and Helen have already been identified, the Constitution still requires the Committee to call for nominations to fill the positions which will technically become vacant. These nominations must be received by the Secretary by 19th January 2026. You may nominate yourself or (with their agreement) another member. No special form is required: an email to Rae at waikanaebridge@gmail.com is sufficient.

That's all from me for 2025, except to wish you a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2026.

I look forward to seeing you all back at the Club in the New Year.

Photographs and Privacy

At its meeting on 18th November the Committee formally endorsed a new Annex to the Privacy Bylaw which deals with the issue of photography.

The updated Bylaw - including the Annex - can be found here. If you have any questions please contact the Club's Privacy Officer, Nicky Bradley, in the first instance: she will be happy to assist.

Bylaws and Policies

At its meeting yesterday (11th August) the Committee approved a series of Bylaws and Policies as follows:

Bylaws

• Dispute Resolution
• Financial Management
• Health and Safety
• Privacy
• Life Membership
• Sensitive Expenditure and Gifts
• Zero Tolerance

Policies

• Bullying
• Temperature and Ventilation (updated)

These have been posted to our website (go to "Policies and Bylaws" under "How We Work" or click here).  They may also be accessed by following the above links.

The Committee also agreed to establish a Policy Review Working Group which will be convened on an "as required" basis to periodically review and where necessary amend or update all the Club's bylaws and policies.

The Role of the Recorder

Our Recorder is Graeme Norman.

Contact Graeme to discuss in confidence any problems at the club that are hard to resolve.  Graeme’s email address is candgnorman@hotmail.com.

The Recorder’s role and duties are detailed on the Club website under “How we Work”.  For those who might like to know more, detailed information concerning the role of the Recorder is available on the Club website here and on the NZBridge website here.

Assistant Secretary

I'm delighted to be able to announce that Nicky Bradley has agreed to take up the newly-established position of Assistant Club Secretary.

In this capacity, Nicky will initially have the following responsibilities:

• Deputising for the Club Secretary as required
• Acting as secondary contact person (subject to Committee approval)
• Acting as Registrar (looking after both the membership and interest registers required by the Act and our Constitution)
• Managing our membership records
• Privacy Officer
• Coordinating production of the Programme Book

Additional functions may be added over time by agreement with the Secretary (and where appropriate, the Committee).

Re-Registration

Following a full morning's work by our redoubtable Secretary, I am delighted to announce that not only has our application to re-register the club under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 been successfully submitted but that it has also been approved.

A copy of the updated Certificate of Incorporation is shown below.

Our new Constitution is now therefore in full force and effect: until the website can be updated a copy is available here.

New Committee

The membership of the new Committee is as follows:

Hugh Wolfensohn (President)
Rae Lutman (Secretary)
Margaret Gordon (Treasurer)
Graham Cheater
Derek Snelling
Chris Farrow
Helen Walker
Nicky Bradley
Jo Anson
Fiona McDonald-Bates

My sincere thanks to all for either agreeing to continue on the Committee or to join it, and also to the four members of the previous Committee who have stepped down:

Ady Dale
Viv Gray
Stephanie Cheeseman
Eileen Queree

all of whom have kindly agreed to continue with some or all of their existing tasks (which is greatly appreciated).

Annual Plan and Budget

Subject to the Committee's approval I expect we will soon be publishing an annual plan and budget.  Watch this space!