AGM 2022 Report:
Business North Harbour (BNH) would like to thank the members, associate members and all interested parties who attended the 2022 Annual General Meeting of BNH Incorporated held in the BNH offices on October 20th at 5pm. With no COVID restrictions to worry about it was good to be able to revert back to an in-person meeting following the need for an online version last year.
Peter Lamberton and Kevin O’Leary in their respective capacities as Chair and General Manager, both outlined the challenges and highlights of the 2021/22 financial year, as BNH navigated its way through the ongoing challenges of the pandemic. The overarching strategy and business plan for the current year through to June 2025 were also outlined to attendees.
The 2021/22 financial year was unique in its nature with BNH, like our members, having to deal with the ongoing pandemic and its associated lockdowns, Alert Levels and Traffic Light Settings. Regardless of these difficulties, the BNH Ambassadors were able to contact over 1700 members, identifying 248 new businesses that had moved into our area in the process. Moving forwards, continuing to improve member awareness of and engagement with BNH remains of paramount importance to the organisation and the Ambassador roles will remain pivotal in helping us to achieve this goal.
Member communications across a variety of platforms were enhanced because of this improved engagement, as key messages and information were reaching more members due to the improved accuracy of our membership information. Consequently, we were able to deliver on our key priority of supporting members through the ongoing pandemic, as BNH was able to maintain the provision of up-to-date information, links and resources to members, regarding Government and other support for businesses and property owners.
BNH again developed a full calendar of programmes, services, events and workshops, tailored to the identified needs of members, following feedback from our annual Member Survey. These offerings were all aligned to the 3 C’s, Connect, Communicate, Collaborate and included the introduction of a mixed-gender Mentoring Programme to run in conjunction with the successful Women In Leadership Mentoring Programme, both delivered in partnership with Massey University.
Unfortunately, our events programme which scheduled 29 in-person events, was badly affected with many events having to be cancelled due to Government restrictions. However, 7 in-person events were delivered along with 18 online opportunities for members to engage with subject-matter experts. This included 6 webinars in response to topics highlighted in our Business Resilience Survey, which was an additional survey conducted in February to ascertain where members required additional support.
Advocacy remained a key priority for BNH with advocacy to Government Ministers and our local MPs becoming more important as we regularly asked for additional financial and other support for members as the effects of the pandemic worsened. Feedback was also provided to Auckland Council and Auckland Transport on a variety of topics including the Council Budget 2022/23, NZ Three Waters, 5 Bylaws, Congestion Charging, The Parking Strategy and 12 additional Transport Projects.
Consistent messaging regarding supporting local business by shopping local, buying locally produced goods and utilising locally available services continued to be promoted regularly and our BUY NORTH HARBOUR Facebook page, along with the Business Directory on the BNH website, provided other platforms for members to showcase their business.
BNH continued to support the Activate North working group who remained active in their quest to become a key advocate and influencer in the development of the wider region from Devonport to Orewa.
The Annual Financial Reports to June 30th 2022, were presented to the satisfaction of attendees along with key performance measures for the current financial year. Additionally, the draft budget for the 2023/24 financial year which includes a 6.9% increase in the targeted rate was approved by members.
There were a number of changes to the Executive Committee as Peter Lamberton, Terry Ottow, Ryan de Zwart and Bronwen Newcombe stepped down from their positions. BNH sincerely thanked Peter, Terry and Ryan for their excellent contribuitions to the organisation over the past six, five and four years respectively. BNH sincerely thanks the remaining Board members for their ongoing work and extends a warm welcome to our new Executive Committee members Janet Marshall, Lisa Hill and Jenny Chen.
