National AGM: Committee reports

nzLARPS
#1

Since I won’t be able to make the meeting:

Secretary’s report

We now have 128 members (70 in Auckland, 41 in Wellington, and 17 in Hamilton), up from 80 last AGM. We also have a new regional branch in Hamilton, which is responsible (along with Crucible) for the increase in membership.

I’ve spent some time this year cleaning up the database and reminding people when their membership is about to expire in an effort to increase retention. I’ve also documented past committee decisions as well as handling the increased reporting from the committee. We’ve also had our first Privacy Act request - something which took up a significant amount of time and attention.

#2

I will be at the meeting, but for the benefit of people who won’t:

Marketing Officer’s report

In this term a national marketing strategy was created that emphasises growing larp attendance, expanding larp in new areas of New Zealand and further developing the good reputation of kiwi larp locally and abroad.

Through the efforts of NZ larpers, attendance and society membership have grown markedly in the last year. NZLARPS has a new branch in Hamilton and there are two new regional larp conventions called Medusa and Phoenix in Hamilton and Christchurch respectively. We continue to offer all possible marketing support to larps and conventions, including those that are not NZLARPS projects such as The Crucible and Phoenix, because the mandate of the society is to promote all kiwi larp. Larp conventions including Chimera and Hydra continue to be an excellent way of bringing local and national larpers together and acting as an ideal introduction to larp.

I’ve provided support to local marketing efforts by coordinating advertising materials, sharing marketing approaches between branches, keeping online marketing resources up to date and organising marketing events in Auckland in the absence of a regional Marketing Officer. I’ve responded to media requests which have resulted in favourable coverage of larp in NZ. There are still action points outstanding in the national marketing strategy that can be actioned in the coming year with the help of the community.

#3

Treasurer’s report:

It has been a fairly stable year for the Society, in terms of the National Treasurer position. The main thing to note is that it was decided the Society should change banks, after years of poor service from our current one. This has been an awfully slow process (turns out most banks were little more interested in us), but we have decided on one, and the process is now nearly complete. When there are new bank accounts for the Society, everyone will be advised. There is not much to report otherwise.

The vast majority (I estimate at least 80%) of the recorded financial activity of the Society relates to Auckland.

Financial statements:

Attached to this post are the Society’s financial statements for the financial year ended 31 August 2014. Notes to the statements are as follows:
[ul]
[li]Because Chimera 2013 ran over the end of the previous financial year, the accounting for it was deferred to this financial year, which has bumped up total revenue by around $10,000.[/li]
[li]The surplus is unusually high this year. A significant part of the reason for this is that, with the move of Crucible from a project to an affiliate, they nominated to retain the gear purchased for the first weekend game, which ordinarily would have been paid for by NZLARPS, which would take ownership of the gear. Because most of it would be relatively small purchases individually, it would normally be expensed. This did not happen this time around, and so the surplus is much larger than it would have been otherwise.[/li]
[li]The $13 ‘tax to pay’ is actually tax paid (MYOB names it rather confusingly for some reason). It was entirely tax paid on interest earned from deposits in the Society’s bank accounts.[/li][/ul]

Please feel free to ask any other questions you might have. I have likely forgotten to mention something important.

#4

IT Officer’s Report:

There have been a few errors with Diatribe and the hosting on occasion, which have been fixed variously by Craig, Ryan, or myself. Nothing absolutely crippling has occurred to the hosting systems NZLARPS uses in the past year.

Craig has informed Ryan, Mike (the most likely new incumbent), and myself that he will be giving up the role of NZLARPS web host, and NZLARPS will need to seek its own hosting solution. Craig has not set an immediate time frame and would like to make the transition as easy as possible. He will be discussing this further with the new incumbent to the IT Officer position.

While I set out to create a new website for NZLARPS, real life got in the way of me doing so, and while I have made progress in this direction, I feel like I still won’t have enough spare time to work on such a demanding project. It is with this lack of time in mind that I will be stepping down from the role.