Victor Luca
On Friday 4-Mar-22 several committee members traveled to Matamata for the meeting of the Zone 3 associations.
The zone 3 associations comprise Coromandel, Kawerau, Matamata, Mercury Bay, Morrinsville, Papamoa & Districts, Opotiki (apology), Rotorua, South Waikato, Tauranga WBOP, Te Aroha, Waihi, Whakatāne and Whangamata.
About 30 members turned out from the different associations. This represented a turn out of about 75% and was regarded as pretty good considering the concerns over COVID. The National President, Jan Pentecost, who was due to attend the meeting was not able to make it due to health issues. Her written commentary was read out by Mr David Marshall, the zone 3 Mid-Northern Grey Power Board representative. Pentecost's commentary will be made available to members as soon as I can obtain the transcript.
Some points are worth emphasizing here. Concerns were expressed in Pentecost's commentary over declining Grey Power membership. At one time financial membership was as high as 100,000 but these days it is only around 50,000. This needs to be improved going forward if Grey Power is to advocate effectively for members and their descendants. We have done some amazing advocacy work in the past and need the weight of membership numbers to continue to be effective.
Owing to COVID, there continues to exist some uncertainty regarding the date of the federation AGM to be held in Wellington. The date has not changed but a questionnaire has been sent to associations to sound them out regarding their desire for postponement.
David Marshall also presented the Board report which I will also make available as soon as I obtain it.
Due to the absence of the treasurer, the treasurer's report was deferred until the next Zone 3 meeting.
Presentation of Remits
Our main mission for the meeting was to put a remit on the table for zone endorsement. At the meeting Dr Victor Luca gave a presentation as background material to support the presented remit.
The presentation, which was well received, can be found here:
The final remit wording was as follows:
Halt Privatization of Health
That Grey Power lobby to halt the ongoing privatization of our Health System without a sound economic business case for each proposed implementation and corresponding solid evidence of improvements to the health outcomes for New Zealanders.
The remit was passed unanimously by zone members and will now go onto the national AGM in May.