Yesterday it was officially notified that Surfing New Zealand will hold a Special General Meeting to vote upon the new DRAFT of their constitution. See notice hereTime: 10am 29th August 2009, Raglan Sunset Motel, 7 Bankart St, Raglan
Purpose - In legal terms the resolution and business to be moved and considered at the SGM will be “To rescind the existing constitution and to adopt the proposed constitution enclosed with the Notice of the SGM”.
Amongst a number of changes to the constitution the clause 2.2 from 'Objectives' will be removed.
2.2 To support and promote Environmental concerns and issues affecting surfing, especially relating to water quality, the coastal environment and access to the coast.
My concern, naturally, is the removal of the objective to support and promote environmental concerns.
I have also included in the screen shot above the original clause 2.2, 2.3, and the proposed 2.6 which reads the same as current 2.3. But if 2.2 is removed, then it would appear that not only would SNZ not show concern, support or act for the preservation of the future of surf breaks and environmental issues affecting surfing in NZ, but they will have no obligation to support and co-operate with any other society involved in protecting our surfing environment as SNZ would no longer have environmental concerns as an objective.Such other societies would include:
- Save the Waves coalition
- International Surfing Association & NGB's
- Surfrider Foundation
- Surfers Environmental Advocacy
- Surfbreak Protection Society
- Surfing Australias constitution -clause (y)
This time frame scarcely give clubs and members to have a meeting to decide on their stance. A two thirds vote to carry any proposed change is required. Please get together with your local club and discuss these issues, and make a show or submission to the meeting on the 29th of August, Organisations and boardriders clubs should confirm your attendance of this Special General meeting by the 24th of August to Greg Townsend.
Screen shot above from surfing NZ website.
What happened to the environmental concern and passion of these guys?
What would the late Jonathan McCarthy think, who is still up on the SNZ website as Environmental Officer?
How would this dropped clause encourage clubs at a local level to campaign for issues related to environmental and health related issues affecting surf breaks and surfing if the governing NZ body does not support them?
PLEASE - DISCUSS - ACT - INFORM OTHERSLeft Screen Shot of a comparison table added 16th Aug09 which was received in the mail, lists the other changes to the constitution with added comments :
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7 comments:
Surely all surfers throughout the country should object to the removal of the current objective which supports and promotes environmental concerns. This is your playground and should be a high priority to keep it protected. Do SNZ actually understand what the hell they are doing?
SNZ prove once again that like most so called pro-surfers they don't give a shit about anything but getting something for nothing and their plan to ditch caring for where surfing happens at our breaks is so self centered SNZ should get no more money from sparc.
i for one shall be writing SPARC a letter!
Fuck you Surfing New Zealand your an embarrassment to Surfers.
Very nice shots Nic.like most so called pro-surfers they don't give response to anything
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Very impressive blog. I liked it.
As an older surfer on medication for high blood pressure, my darling wife had to feed me some extra pills when I saw that SNZ was dropping their environmental stance. As one of the crew that helped draft the original constitution, it was a prime consideration. I would have thought that in these times it would have been reinforced. The new constitution seems to focus almost completely on competitions. While that is a major part of their work, I don't think our parent body should exist just for that sector. SNZ is meant to be there to echo the clubs concerns and the officers elected given the mandate to carry out the tasks. Seems the dog has turned and the average club has little in common with the present set-up.
Hard to see it being overturned either. There was a scant 2 weeks public advice before this weekend's hui. Maybe there have been a couple of clubs have their monthly meeting where conerns may be aired. But to get them together to pressure SNZ to come to their senses, doubtful.
Grrr.
Arch
PS- Nic, Love your site
Surfing New Zealand all good, they can't be a political body.
Thank you for this great information, I actually like this blog. I will visit your blog regularly for some latest post.
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