A Note from the President (July 2020)

Dear Members,

It is really great to see so many of our members at the fortnightly meetings and luncheons. The new hygiene measures, along with the revised menu and table service, seem to be working well. We look forward to more people enjoying our facilities in the following months.

At our first meeting back post lockdown I provided an update from the recent meeting of the Auckland District Presidents. At this meeting the RNZRSA Chair outlined their structure and perspective on what is happening going forward and this has formed the basis of my notes below.

The Board are all volunteers who manage the governance of the RNZRSA, which is mainly strategic oversight of financial and operational risks to the RSA movement as a whole. The National President and the District Presidents Forum are the elected representatives who represent the RSA membership on Remembrance, Support and Advocacy matters.

Due to tighter fiscal restraints on the organisation, Head Office has not filled three positions and is now working with six full time staff. The Government Grant given to the National Support Services team to deliver support programs, training and operational outputs, is in its final year and expires by July 2021. National Office do sponsorship deals from time to time to try and get discounts for RSA members, ex and current serving NZDF personnel and their families. The President Forum decided that the funds collected by the Give a Little Collection Campaign, run by Perpetual Guardian for Poppy Day over lockdown,  would be held centrally at National Office with each District able to draw on $30,500 for welfare and support of ex and current serving NZDF personnel   and their families. The funds will be controlled by District Presidents.
 
Due to the cancellation of Poppy Day this year, our focus is to plan a new date to hold a local Poppy Collection in the Devonport/ Takapuna area. With Remembrance Day fast approaching, it makes sense to hold one around that date so, we are hitting the streets of Devonport on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of November to collect for our area. If you would like to help please do let us know. We are also hoping to hold a Remembrance Service/ Parade on Sunday 8th November and currently waiting to hear back from the Auckland Council for sign off. We will let you know once this is confirmed. 

Since the update of our building we have regular weekly bookings for a variety of classes including art, yoga, dancing and of course Toast Masters. It’s so great having the community back in the building and the feedback is very positive.  We are also being booked for large and small functions including a charity event for St Leos Primary School and the launch of our tenant Bear Brothers new book “Two Bears in a Bubble”.  Make sure you stop by Janet’s store and purchase a copy - $5 of every book sold is donated to the RSA.

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You will be pleased to know we are in the middle of updating our sound system which will result in a much better quality and of course you will be able to hear us clearly at the fortnightly meetings. Hopefully we will have this up and running by August. 

If you read the Devonport Flagstaff or follow us on our Facebook page, you would have seen the Speech Competition we have organised. A great initiative from our Vice President, Red Beatson with the help of our Youth Ambassador, Ella Cronshaw. We are looking forward to reviewing all the speeches that come through.

We regretfully announce the resignation of our Secretary, Peter Skogstad. We are extremely grateful for all the hard work he has done for the Devonport RSA. Peter is a pleasure to work with and we wish him all the best on his next journey. 

Looking forward to seeing you all at the next meeting. 

Keep safe, keep warm, and wash your hands.

Howard Mace
President