Issue 130 : 4 June 2023
Talofa Lava, Kia Orana, Malo E Leilei, Tena Koutou, Hello ...
... and welcome to the latest issue of “For The Love Of The Game”, the official e-zine of the New Zealand Amateur Sport Association Inc., founded in Wellington, New Zealand in 2017.
If you have any feedback on this issue, ideas for future articles, or would like to contact the Editor, please click here. And, you are invited to forward the e-zine to others you know, who may be interested in reading it. An archive of earlier editions of the e-zine can be found here.
For those who follow Twitter, you can also follow the Association, @AmateurSportNZ. If you are interested in applying for membership of the Association, please click here.
Viewpoint : “Change More Fundamental Than New Templates” ...
With the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 to come into force later this year, many national sporting bodies are now helpfully preparing constitutional templates for the use of incorporated community sport organisations (ICSOs) in revising and updating their Rules to enable their mandatory re-registration under the new Act.
(Template constitutions are not a turn-key solution for ICSOs)
However, ICSOs will need to be aware that compliance with the new Act is not simply about completing a new pro-forma template, with all changes to existing Rules requiring discussion with (and approval by) all members of an ICSO at a General Meeting before re-registration can occur. Moreover, each ICSO will need to review all of its existing operational processes and procedures in order to ensure it meets the obligations of the new Act and its regulations.
In a National Business Review article published last week, Rupert Rouch from national law firm Buddle Findlay noted that, “it’s technical enough, I’d say a lawyer probably has to do it. So, unless you’ve got a lawyer working for you pro bono, you’re going to have to pay someone.”
(Many ICSOs will require legal advice to ensure they meet their legal obligations)
He also noted that, “any change that you introduce to the Rules, they’re [the members] going to be looking at it and saying, ‘well, who benefits out of this. Who’s hurt or what’s the hidden agenda’ and so every single change that you make they’re going to want to know about it.” Rouch observes that one alternative is, “to throw all a society’s Rules out and start again.”
(Now's a good time to inform members what that they'll need to do)
More will be known about the operational impact of the new law on ICSOs when officials from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment release the regulations for the Act, in September this year. In the meantime, all ICSOs should start the process of engaging with their members to explain and receive feedback on how they intend to comply with the new law.
Association Visits Invercargill, Winton & Gore ...
Gore’s first community sport club (the "Gore Football Club") was established 140 years ago in 1883. On 23 and 24 May this year, the Association presented to over 100 community sportspeople in Gore, Winton and Invercargill on the new Incorporated Societies Act 2022, with the goal of ensuring that sport clubs remain at the heart of New Zealand communities, despite the existential risks for ICSOs arising from the legislative change.
(The Association was pleased to present to Southland's ICSO volunteers in Gore)
While the seminars were focused on ICSOs, a number of attendees represented non-sport entities, with all recognising the challenges to be faced in achieving future compliance, noting that “officers” are generally well-intentioned (but non-expert) volunteers now responsible for more complex governance obligations.
The Association would like to thank the Gore and Southland District Councils and the welcoming team from Active Southland in making this opportunity available for all those involved in delivering community sport throughout the Southland region.
“Member” Or “Participant”? ...
One of the key requirements of the new Incorporated Societies Act 2022 is that “members” of an ICSO will need to formally consent to become a member, with the ICSO needing to ensure it has processes to ask for, and record, that consent, (per s. 76 of the Act). Becoming a member of an ICSO is entering into an agreement to abide by the Rules of the ICSO.
(Registering to play in a team does not infer membership of an ICSO)
However registering to participate in competition or event organised by an ICSO does not infer that membership of the ICSO is being offered to the participant, (or being applied for by the participant). Similarly, registering to participate in a team organised by an ICSO does not infer membership of the ICSO, unless the ICSO’s Rules state that all participants in teams it organises must be members of the ICSO and this condition is made clear to participants (and participants consent to this condition), at the time of their registration.
(Members of an ICSO are required to formally consent to the Rules of the entity)
Section 47 (3) (a) of the Act, disqualifies a person who is under the age of 16 from being an officer of an incorporated society, indicating that persons under this age (being "minors") are unable to exercise the rights (or undertake the obligations) of those 16 years or older. While the Act does not prescribe the age at which a person is able to be a member of an ICSO, the Minors Contracts Act 1969 provides some guidance as to when a contract is enforceable. The Association will look to provide further guidance on this aspect of the new law.
72 Years Since Last “King’s Birthday” ...
The last time New Zealand celebrated King’s Birthday, it was 1951, when George VI was still the reigning monarch and the All Blacks won the Bledisloe Cup back from Australia, (which they last held in 1949), in a three-test match white-wash.
(The “Unwin Hut”, opened on the Diamond Jubilee of the New Zealand Alpine Club)
1951 was also the diamond (60th) jubilee of the New Zealand Alpine Club Inc. formed in March 1891, which was celebrated on King’s Birthday weekend at the Hermitage, at Mount Cook. The club was originally formed to include alpine climbers and all early alpine explorers whose work it was believed was “being lost sight of”. The new club had as one of its objects the collection and publication of records dealing with their journeys. During the 1951 King’s Birthday Jubilee celebration, the “Unwin Hut”, near Mount Cook was opened by the club.
(Arthur Paul Harper, left, first secretary and past President of the club)
In reflecting on its objects, the club was pleased that it had only one principal object – climbing. It frowned upon organisations which embraced too many objectives believing they were "doomed to suffer from disintegration". In proposing the “toast of the mountaineer”, Arthur Kay Ibbotson said one of the great things about mountaineering was that it was not subject to the plaudits of the crowd. The club still operates today, now in its 133rd year of existence.
The Ultimate Sports Volunteer ...
Wellington’s Peter Bidwell recently wrote an obituary for Gordon Albert Dry, who died in March 2023. He refers to Dry as “the complete package. He loved sport, particularly cricket and rugby”.
(Gordie Dry, “the ultimate sports volunteer”)
Dry became treasurer of the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club soon after the amalgamation of the Midland-St Patrick’s and Kilbirnie clubs in 1993 and “was such a force” as club manager he turned the new entity in to among the strongest in the New Zealand cricketing community. You can read Gordon Dry’s full life story as a sporting volunteer, here.
“Te Tohu Tiketike O Matariki” Applications Open ,,,
In association with “Te Upoko o te Ika” (NZ’s first te reo radio station), the second “Te Tohu Tiketike o Matariki” award will be presented by the Association on 14 July ("Matariki"), to acknowledge a community sport organisation which has embraced te reo Maori as part of its kaupapa. To nominate a community club for the inaugural award, click here.
From The Archives ...
CHARLIE PERRY, CHAMPION SPORT
WAIRARAPA DAILY TIMES, 8 APRIL 1937, PAGE 5
“Charlie Perry can justly claim to be the champion all-round sport in the Wairarapa. No one up to the present can approach his record in sport. He scored the first century in Wairarapa senior championship cricket - and that is a record which can never be beaten.
He has been a representative cricketer, a representative footballer (first playing for Wairarapa when about 16 years of age and still going to college, being an outstanding fast wing three quarter and splendid kick), champion of the Masterton Club at golf, champion of the Masterton Club at tennis, champion of the Masterton Club at bowls - in fact, he has won every championship that can be won in the principal divisions of sport in the Wairarapa, and this has not been achieved by anyone else in the Wairarapa.”
Walter Charles (“Charlie”) Perry was born in 1866, the son of Walter and Sarah (nee Dixon) Perry and one of 11 siblings. His father was from Cornwall, while his mother was the daughter of Wairarapa’s pioneer settlers, Charles Dixon. He attended Wellington College and became the “managing clerk” for local solicitor, Albert Charles Major. Charlie married Annie Jane Yates in 1894, with whom he had a son (Edward) and a daughter (Alma).
(Charlie Perry, circled, as a Wairarapa rugby representative in 1887, at the age of 21)
In addition to his sporting exploits, Charlie was heavily involved in supporting the Wairarapa community. He was a member of the Wairarapa Amateur Athletic Club and Vice President of the Oddfellows’ Lodge Cricket Club. A member of the Masterton Homing Pigeon Club, (for which he donated a trophy), he was also the honorary auditor for the Masterton Poultry, Pigeon and Cage Bird Society, the Masterton Cricket Club, the Masterton Football Club. and the Masterton Miniature Rifle Club, (and the associated Masterton “Morris Tube” Shooting Association).
(Perry was a racing pigeon fancier among his many community and sporting interests)
Charlie died on 14 September 1951 and he is buried in the Masterton’s Archer Street cemetery.
The Final Word ...
“Perge et perage”
“Pursue your goals until the very end”
(Motto of the New Zealand Alpine Club Inc.)