Governance Review

Since October 2023, the Charities Act 2005 has required all registered charities to review their governance procedures at least once every 3 years. As the Club is a registered charity, we are required to have completed a governance review by October this year.

A governance review involves looking at both our rules document (the Constitution) and our key policies and procedures, for example those relating to financial management and conflicts of interest.

The aim is to check that our governance arrangements are still fit for purpose, support our declared objectives, and help us meet our legal obligations.

At its July meeting the Committee  carried out the governance review using the Charities Services checklist.  The only area identified as requiring any significant further work is the issue of risk management and the introduction of a Risk Register - this is currently under action.

Learners 2026

The 2026 Learners class officially graduated on Monday 27th July, and it was my great pleasure to present each member of the class (excluding the three existing club members) with a certificate to mark their achievement in successfully completing the course.

Those attending were:

• Alison Allen
• Cary Bartlett
• Rob Clarke
• Sarah Crichton
• Penny Currier (existing member)
• Roger Currier
• Dianne Gardner
• Wayne Goodall
• Mike Horvat (existing member)
• Stephen Jannink
• Carol March
• Lorraine Nelson
• Daneel Penman
• Sonia Pratt
• Peter Scott
• Chris Simons
• Stewart Walker
• Gayle Westney

Not Present:

• Richard Westlake (existing member)
• Madeline Palmer
• Stefanka Chukova
• Bruce Allwood

On behalf of the Committee I'd like to acknowledge Chris Farrow and Vivienne Cannell for all the work they’ve put in to preparing and delivering this year's course - and in particular to recognise their willingness to step up at very short notice back in February to teach what was I think the largest beginners group the Club has ever had.  

I would also like to thank all those club members who have given up their time to help in the delivery of the lessons programme:

Rewa Allen Di Andrews Marg Gott Steph Cheeseman Shelley Ross Mehegan Goodman Sally Weatherley Roz King Liz Campbell

Please join me in welcoming all the new members - we’re looking forward to seeing you at the Club regularly in the future.  

(Special thanks to Marg Gott for the cake)

Val Bentley

I'm very sorry to have to tell you that Val Bentley, a member of the Club for many years, died on Friday 24th July.  She was 96 years of age, and had been in poor health for some time.

We send our sincere condolences to all of Val's family and friends.

I will announce Val's funeral arrangements as soon as they are available.

Painting

Update - start date delayed

Please be aware that - weather permitting - the repainting of the exterior of our building will now be starting on Thursday 23rd July.  Some disruption to normal operations can be expected while this work is undertaken: please bear with us and the contractor, AR Painters Ltd.

The repainting of the building every 10 years is a requirement of our lease.  

Thanks are due to Rae Lutman for obtaining a grant of over $10,000 from Pub Charity to cover the cost of this work and also repairs to the window sealing which will be undertaken separately on 12th August.

Waikanae Multigrade Pairs

 Please support our next major event:

Matariki

Tēnā koutou katoa	Greetings to you all
Mānawatia a Matariki	Celebrate Matariki
Matariki, te tau hou Māori, he mea nui ki a tātou	Matariki, the Māori New Year, is important to us Greetings of Matariki to all of you
Kia ora	Be well

Message from Kaibosh CEO

We recently received the following message from Susie Robertson, the Chief Executive of Kaibosh:

Kia ora Rae and the Waikanae Bridge Club

Reaching out to personally say thank you for your recent generous donation to Kaibosh.

It means the world to me when local clubs like your recognise the hard work that the Kaibosh team are doing in our community.

We really appreciate the support - a significant donation like this will be put to good use - hopefully to help us purchase a our very own truck up in Kāpiti!!

Thanks and keep up the great community spirit you obviously have!

Susie

I've passed this messge on to Bob Jennings (President, Paraparaumu), because of course this was very much a joint effort from both clubs.

Online Bridge Exercises

A member recently told me about free online ACOL bridge exercises she finds both accessible and interesting. The page is called "Learn Modern Bridge" and is presented by Dominic Rayner. 

If you're interested, the page can be found here.  Dominic also runs a website at https://www.allthingsbridge.co.uk.

Charity Tournament

I'm delighted to be able to announce that as a result of last Sunday's Charity Tournament
the Waikanae and Paraparaumu Bridge Clubs will be making a donation to Kaibosh of $2,000 (including an anonymous private donation of $200).

This is a great result - thank you to everyone from both clubs who supported the event.

Tournament Reporting

No sooner had we published the new tournament report form required by NZBridge than they decided to update it! 

The new form is available here.  Tournament organisers are requested to complete the form and forward it to NZBridge following all official tournaments run by the Club.