Executive View
Page 2
Jonathan Mosen, Chairman
It is difficult to convey in words the sense of occasion and history that was felt by all those attending the governance structure changeover meetings on 30 April.
On that day our name changed from the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind to the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind. While this grammatical difference may seem minor, it reflects a fundamental change from the Foundation being run on behalf of members, to the members themselves running the organisation.
All outgoing trustees and incoming directors of the board attended the final meeting of the Board of Trustees and the inaugural meeting of the Board of Directors, at which a new chair and deputy chair were elected. I am delighted to again serve as chair, and to have such an able and experienced deputy in Don McKenzie. The other members of the new board are Linda Beck, Geoff Gibbs, Geraldine Glanville, Nancy Higgins, Neville Bennett, Jillian Dalby and John White. They have a wealth of experience in the blind community and a broad range of professional backgrounds, including teaching, law, academic lecturing and business analysis. Geoff Gibbs is a previous CEO of the Foundation.
The new board holds ultimate responsibility and authority for the Foundation and, like all modern governing boards, it delegates the day-to-day running of the organisation to the Chief Executive.
Unlike any other socially focused organisation in this country however, the new constitution requires the board to consult with members when drawing up annual and strategic plans and before making any significant changes in direction or to the constitution.
In this issue of Outlook we've invited our consumer organisations to respond to the changes and challenges of the new governance structure and we'll be listening to those views intently. The board election process itself went extremely smoothly. For the first time, our braille readers received a voting pack with candidates' names in both large print and braille. This was a revolutionary approach to independent voting and we hope to further this in future by offering telephone voting for board members using TIS.
While it has been important to pause and celebrate the achievement of many, many months of hard work to put the new governance structure in place, the board is mindful that there is much to do. Now, the real work begins. We appreciate the support of all our members so far and look forward to working with you as the Foundation grows.
Page 3
Paula Daye, Acting CEO
In moving to a member-driven organisation, the RNZFB faces new and exciting challenges in the delivery of communication and services to RNZFB members.
The new Foundation of the Blind will ensure that you are consulted about the services we provide and how you would like to receive them.
One way we will communicate with you, is through our 41 active advisory committees - who have been renamed community committees. The committees will be reporting directly to me on a regular basis so that you can tell us what is happening in the regions and we can let you know about Foundation activities and services of interest to you. Community committees will also be one way for us to reach members on matters that require consultation.
Another channel of communication will be our eight consumer organisations. We plan to continue meeting with the consumer organisations at the consortia held at Awhina House in Auckland. At our most recent consortium in March we agreed as a group to collaborate on a media release on under-funding of blindness education - the issue we featured in the autumn Outlook. We are also consulting with consumer organisations in putting together next year's business plan.
As part of the recent change in name I am proud to announce that we have taken this opportunity to launch a new logo. We felt the timing was perfect to launch the new logo at the same time as the new name and direction the organisation will be taking.
Through the gradual roll-out across our offices nationally, we intend to raise the profile and strengthen public perception about what the organisation stands for.
The logo is eye-shaped with horizontal arcs of black radiating out from the centre of the eye to the outer line, representing an eye to the future. At the same time, the logo also demonstrates that blindness is not black but varying shades. The words Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind sit underneath the symbol. The symbol and words combined are the new logo.
We believe the distinctive black and white design will help to brand our organisation as a progressive, professional one that is member driven and supports challenge and independence.