We’ve heard you and we have made changes to the Conference Hui
Kia ora members,
Over the past seven weeks, we have received a significant amount of feedback from members expressing their concerns around eligibility to attend the Emerging Leaders Conference Hui.
While most agreed that supporting emerging leaders was very helpful for them, it was also unfair not to be more inclusive and supportive of existing leaders attending for their ongoing leadership development. Some found that the cost was not feasible for their brigade to cover, and others felt this was not respectful of the value of volunteers.
Firstly, we understand this could have been done better and we sincerely apologise as it was never our intention to exclude our existing leaders and/or have our members feel this way. The conference is still an opportunity to bring together all our leaders – existing and emerging. We are proud to be working in the interests of our members and we would like to thank everyone who has shared their thoughts with us.
Bill Butzbach (UFBA CEO) and Russell Wood (Fire and Emergency Acting CE) met to discuss these concerns from our members and agree these need to be addressed.
We have listened, we have taken action on your behalf, and we hope the following changes are welcomed:
- The Fire and Emergency fully-funded criteria for the Conference Hui will now be extended to; one emerging leader and one existing leader per brigade.
- The registration close date for the Conference Hui has been extended to 3 October to allow more time for others to register.
- Existing leaders who have already registered as an AGM Delegate and/or an Additional Representative for Conference Hui, will be contacted directly by the Events Team to discuss their individual situations and reimbursements.
These changes take effect immediately. Existing leaders who have not registered for any event will be able to register online from Friday afternoon (18 August).
The UFBA AGM close date for registrations remains as 3 September. So please send in your delegate nomination forms asap. If you’ve been feeling frustrated with the AGM & Conference Hui process this year, you need to be at the AGM, so you can take part in the discussions of future events.
Again, we are very grateful for our members who have worked with us over the past several weeks and we look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the AGM & Conference Hui.
Kia kaha, kia kotahi ra
Our strength is our unity
Ngā manaakitanga,
UFBA