Latest Update
Hey everyone, just thought I would touch base with an update on what Auckland UWH has been up to in the last little while.
As you know, we became an incorporated society last year with a new committee. This was a good time for us to take a step back and think about our future direction, and we are in the process of developing our strategic vision for the next three to five years. This will guide our short-term goals for the next year. We’ve got a couple of tweaks to make to the draft plan over the next few weeks, but will then be ready to share this with you and get any feedback you have. If you’re interested in looking at the draft and having a chat with me about your thoughts, please just get in touch at any stage. We’re aiming to share our completed vision doc at the AGM later this year, along with a one-year operational plan.
In the meantime, we’ve been ticking along to make sure that good things for our members keep happening.
We’re conscious that the AUWH committee doesn’t always communicate well with our members, and we have been working on a revamped website to help us address this issue. This should go live in the next little while, and will give us one central place for all our up-to-date info, as well as making it easier for new players to find out information about us and what we do.
We have also been working hard in the background to set up a more structured membership database for Auckland UWH, and to capture a bit more information so that we can keep learning about our sport and better communicate with our members. Big thanks to Kieran Hill for his efforts so far in getting this off the ground. If you’ve seen an online form to sign up for this year (this has been distributed to both Fins and Pakuranga club members), please complete this asap so that we can get everyone registered with Auckland UWH and UWHNZ. You may also have seen that we’ve put out a new fee structure this year, aiming at a more standardised approach across both clubs, and to provide more transparency about how your fees to AUWH are calculated. Thanks to Shayne Blake and Raelene Lock for their hard work on the financial and admin side.
In other news, John Cole and Allan Bullot have organised a Have-a-Go night out at Glen Innes on Sunday 19 March to give newbies a chance to try out the sport. Strong turnout is anticipated from Baradene and Howick, but please put out the word that this is open to all schools. Please contact John or Allan if you expect some numbers from your school to attend or if you have any questions. We will have sticks, gloves and some other gear there for new players to borrow, but they should be encouraged to bring a mask, snorkel and fins if possible.
Planning for this year’s school league is well underway, thanks to Shayne Blake and his team of volunteers (including Tracey Stevenson and Sandra Kemp). Four pre-season school nights are scheduled in, starting from Tuesday 28 March. Contact Shayne if you need any more info or want to sign up your school for the pre-season slots.
In addition, the Cole Cup is up and running for 2017, the B and C-grade league is well on the way, and Sunday night social games are continuing. The elite men’s and women’s regional squads are hard at work preparing for the NZ Interzone Champs in Wellington in April, and there are a bunch of talented youngsters trialling for the various NZ age group teams for the World Age Group Championships in Australia in July, so it’s all go!
That’s all for now, but feel free to get in touch with me or any of the other AUWH committee at any stage if you have any questions or feedback. Happy hockey-ing everyone!