Election Speeches 2010 National Committee

nzLARPS
#1

This is the thread to post election speeches for the 2010 National Committee Elections.

Secretary
Responsible for keeping all society correspondence and documentation organized, taking minutes at the meetings and keeping membership records up to date. The secretary is also responsible for communicating with members about their membership status and expiry.

Rowena Knill - National Secretary

I am dedicated to NZLARPS and larping in general. I am am excellent person to be the NZLARPS National secretary as I am organised and I have excellent communication skills. My current job in a contact centre involves making/receiving phone calls and emails all day, so I am well versed in various forms of correspondence, have an excellent phone manner and can send professional emails/letters.

I also now work 4 days on and the 4 days off, so I have time during weekdays to make necessary calls and to keep the membership list up to date.

Since becoming Secretary last year, I have instituted several small behind the scenes improvements to the system including having the Secretary’s master spreadsheet of members converted to a google doc so it is accessible to all members of the National and Regional committees, issuing membership numbers to all current members, re-organising the file box of NZLARPS documents to make things easier to find, and backing up important documents, (including our certificate of incorporation and current minutes) to the NZLARPS USB stick.

Please vote for me as National Secretary.

nzLARPS AGM 2010 – National Committee Nominations
#2

Joseph Outram – National Secretary

Hello, my name is Joseph Outram from the mighty metropolis that is Hamilton, and I am running for the position of Secretary on the National Committee of nzLARPS. Although I have only been a member of the Society for just over a year now, I am dedicated to ensuring that nzLARP and larping in general continues to grow in New Zealand. Though I may not possess the job skills of Rowena, my years as a University Student have left me with the ability to be organized even when under pressure, and to deal with bureaucracy, and I hope to be able to do so that no one else has to. My experiences in life have left me articulate and able to communicate well with people.

I am presently studying part time, and as such I have plenty of time to dedicate to the job of Secretary. And as my courses are either early in the morning or in the mid- to late afternoon, I am able to use my spare time during the week to fulfill my duties.

If I become Secretary, I hope to continue Rowena’s improvements to the nzLARPS membership systems and bring my knowledge and experience to bear in their improvement. With the implementation of the new regional committees and the expansion of the Society since Chimera, my goal as Secretary will be to lay down ways and means of ensuring that we are all on the same page, and ensure that members new and old will be getting the best assistance possible from the society.

Please vote for me as National Secretary.

#3

I accepted the nomination for Information Technology Officer because I have some useful technical skills to get IT work done for the society. I was involved with the formation of the society and have been a committee member in the past, so I know the ropes.

I’ve been doing much of the technical officer role behind the scenes for a few years now, in an unofficial capacity. With help from Craig Neilson I put together the NZLARPS website, and have kept it up to date. I also added the member database to the site. I’ve been involved in getting the Chimera website up each year (with help from Michael Andrew this year), sorting out Gmail accounts for the committee members to use (so the email account can just be handed over to new people coming into a position), and recently acting as the administrator of Diatribe.

While I’d be perfectly happy to continue doing some IT work for the society in an unofficial, dogsbody capacity, I think it’s useful to have the IT Officer position on the national committee for the purpose of coordination with the committee, and I think that IT is an important function of the national society that needs an elected functionary. I’ll continue to volunteer to do IT work for the society going forward, regardless of whether I’m the IT Officer or working for someone else elected to that position.

In terms of thoughts for IT work that it would be nice for the society to have:

  1. I’m most of the way through adding event booking and character management functions to the NZLARPS database. This function also gives the NZLARPS site pages for each project, affiliate, and event that can be edited by the people in charge of them, and could be extended to allow for a more complete calender. This is something I’ll pick up again when I have some time to finish the coding.

  2. I think the NZLARPS website could do with an fresh new look that also integrates the database more visibly. Craig and I put up the existing website so that the society would have something in place, but we never intended it to be permanent. This is something we could progress if the committee is in favour, although much of the work would need to be done by a graphic designer.

Thanks,

Ryan

#4

President: The President of the society shall be responsible for overall running of society, promoting the vision of the society, chair committee meetings, work for consensus in the committee, cast deciding vote in case of ties, attend meetings as society representative, liaising with all regional directors to coordinate the workings of the Society across New Zealand, managing matters related to the core function of the society, the first point of contact for those wishing to contact the society

Anna Klein - National President

I’m chuffed to be nominated for the role again, and would be happy to serve the society in this capacity for another year, if elected. I have been on the society committee for four years now, for three years as the President, and I still like doing it!

In my past term, I have guided the committee and society through a radical overhaul of the constitution to update the society to be a truly national society, I have worked with the national treasurer and a trained accountant to convert the nzLARPS book keeping to an electronic format, I have give guidance to our new projects and I have liaised extensively with our Wellington branch.

For the coming term, I am no longer running a major campaign so my only other time commitment larp-wise is Chimera, so I will have even more time to devote to maintaining and improving the backstage function of nzLARPS. I would like to take the term to focus on ironing out nzLARPS paperwork, maintain our legal status and co-ordinate committee function across our two-and-a-half larping centres.

Specifically, these goals include:

  • Work with the committee to put together a year plan for the national committee of goals and landmarks we would like the society to reach in the next year, and how to implement them.
  • Work with the regional directors to develop a year plan/goal list for each region
  • Work with national and regional treasurers to complete the overhaul of the society accounting systems and resolve the society’s tax status
  • Create new, updated resources for project managers and treasurers. Our old forms our outdated and not very user friendly. I would aim to create comprehensive information resources on the benefits of being a project or affiliate, how to become a project or affiliate, updated project and affiliate application forms, and general advice on things that are
  • Work with the national secretary to ensure our paperwork with the Ministry of Economic Development is up to date.
  • Work with the regional directors to keep up the good larping mojo across New Zealand

I am passionate about the role of nzLARPS in facilitating and fostering high quality, all-inclusive larp across New Zealand and with the support of the membership, would like to keep up my work in making nzLARPS a more streamlined, user friendly, all inclusive, supportive body to all involved in the larp community.

Thank you,
Anna