President's Column Farewell - May 2020

By Sian| May 1, 2020 at 10:13 AM

Kia ora Koutou

This is a column about farewells and goodbyes.

We worked together as a nationwide team to get NZ to Level 2 and that has enabled us to say a very welcomed goodbye to Levels 4 and 3.

Working together as a team has been one of the foundation pillars that has made my tenure at ILANZ so enjoyable. This enjoyment of working with my ILANZ colleagues makes this column from me to you less of a ‘welcome goodbye’ and more of a ‘fond farewell’.

If you haven’t had an opportunity to read the President’s Report released for our AGM last Friday, this may be news to you all. Due to changing circumstances, I have resigned as ILANZ President and from the committee. That change took effect last Friday 22 May 2020, so this is my last and final column to you all.

During the past three years there have been so many wonderful interactions with you, our members, that I have lost count.

A few personal highlights from my past 3 years have been:

• The introduction of our ILANZ committee stand at conference as a landing pad for our members to find their committee, engage with us and share their ideas
• The focus groups we ran as part of the discovery process for the skills and development course which enabled me to hear from you directly
• The chance to interview some of you one-to-one as part of our Trends Survey follow up
• The opportunity to be on the judging panel to get an inside glimpse at the outstanding work you all do, day in and day out, to service your organisations

So it is with a deep sense of satisfaction that our section is evolving in a great direction that I hand the baton over to the new committee and soon, a new president.

So what’s next for you?

You now have a new committee who took office last Friday. 

There is now a vacancy for the role of President and whilst the new committee make their decisions on how to fill this, your Vice President Grant Pritchard will step in to meet some of the functions.

The acting manager Tiffany Henderson is now on parental leave and you have Ngaire Titov-Smith appointed to take on that role. Ngaire is an experienced branch manager for some of the regional NZLS branches and so you’re in good hands.

What’s next for me?

The jury is out on that one at the moment as I take stock, but if you want to get in touch, you can find me on LinkedIn. You know my name so you’ll find me easily enough!

Thank you so much.

It’s been an absolute honour and pleasure to serve you.

Sian