Update from Pam Elgar – Chair of Auckland Hockey

Tēnā koutou, members of our incredible hockey community,

I hope this message finds you all well. I’m proud to be sharing the developments your Auckland Hockey and Board teams have been working toward since our last Chair’s update. There are a few key areas from the past year we’ve identified for improvement, as well as priorities we’ve developed processes around going into 2025.

Winter season wins and room for growth
Seeing the successful culmination of another wonderful season brought not only some great results for Auckland teams across local and intercity competitions, but also a wealth of new knowledge, ideas and areas we’ve identified as having potential for development. With every season comes challenges surrounding the competitive nature of the competitions, the implementation of rules and formats to structure the grades and the systems we’ve put in place to ensure the safety and enjoyment of our community. In general, we’ve been pleased with the success of the competition and in response to some of our key learnings, we’re reaching out to members both within and outside of the Auckland Hockey community to ensure we can effectively implement the areas we’ve identified for improvement. More on this to follow as we get stuck into reviews and planning over the off-season.

High-performance and representative pride
Congratulations to our NHC Auckland Women winning the NHC title in Palmerston North last month, claiming back to back titles for the first time since 2014/15. We also sent Tier 2 NHC teams for the first time in over a decade, which is an important pathway for our representative programme. We’re incredibly lucky to have Jenny Pooley and Dean Couzins take the lead on driving the next stage of development for our Representative and High-Performance pathways.

We’ve identified pride in representing Auckland as a major priority for us going forward and we’re committed to giving our current and up-and-coming high-performance players the right environment and support to succeed. As a point of note, we’ve learned the hard way that our best laid plans still need care, transparency and communication to ensure our entire association shares the values we hope to instil. In the selection process for our NHC teams, through a lapse in communication we’ve let down some of our players and want to take ownership of that. This error won’t be swept under the rug by this committee and will feed into our commitment, decision making and dedication to our stakeholders going forwards. In 2025 and onward the structures we’ll put in place will ensure those who put in the effort are given our best in return.

Financial security as a priority
With the financial challenges we’ve faced going into 2024, this year has been about tight controls, good financial management and our aim to get as much value for our dollar as we could. Both Mark Robinson and Sarah Anderson have been instrumental in recommending priorities for the budget going forward. James has been working tirelessly to ensure strong day-to-day financial management of the organisation, fundraising for key CAPEX projects, while balancing the challenges with our small team of staff to deliver business as usual with limited resources. While we’re not out of the woods yet, there’s a good feeling of progress among the Executive Committee and we’re hopeful we can enter 2025 in a stronger position thanks to everyone’s diligent work. Mark has also agreed to head up the Sponsorship Committee of Auckland Hockey to help build relationships with local businesses so we can continue to deliver the events, programmes and competitions our community needs and deserves.

Facilities and growing Auckland Hockey
Sarah Anderson, again, has stepped up to liaise with the Auckland Hockey Facilities Trust in an effort to expedite and manage both the relationship and construction of assets at Colin Maiden Park. While this hasn’t yet been finalised, there’s been some great progress with the Trust finalising their board and navigating the legal aspects of our shared obligations. James, as always, has ensured our existing facilities are being maintained, improved and replaced as needed to ensure our competitions and sport can remain strong here in Auckland. We’d like to thank them both for their incredible work pushing forward this expansive project alongside the Auckland Hockey Facilities Trust. We are launching a buy-a-brick fundraising campaign and encourage you to support this important legacy for our community.

CEO and staff updates
James in his new role as CEO, on top of the tasks he’s already managing has been instrumental in ensuring the smooth running of Auckland Hockey. Of note, there are  limited staff numbers working to deliver everything required in our community. With Coralie helping manage hospitality at LEP, Rochi leading our Representative and Participation programmes, Denise working her magic delivering competitions and James himself managing everything else, we cannot be prouder and more amazed by the hard work they continue to put in. Emma Walter has also been contracted 10 hours a week to help drive events and communications, including the Premier Hockey League Trident’s opening round fixture at LEP Stadium on November 2^nd.

A welcome to our new board members
After a humbling show of support for some temporary board positions that have opened due to some work-related resignations, the board are thrilled to announce the inclusions of Dean Couzins, Vijay Patel and Nick Paterson who will bring some much-requested experience in hockey management, risk, finance and governance to the Executive Committee. Welcome all, we’re incredibly lucky to have you. We’d also like to thank the other applicants who’ve kindly pledged their support to Auckland Hockey where they can – it’s a wonderful feeling to see the generosity of our community and we’ll almost certainly be taking you up on your offers.

Communication, transparency and a fresh look for a new era
Marc Dudley is working to oversee our communication, marketing and brand plans to ensure the board’s commitment to transparency and openness can be seen and felt throughout our community. Plans are already in place, balancing the fine line between consistent, relevant messaging and the resources Auckland Hockey has at our disposal. With Emma Walter now supporting communication channels you may have already noticed a fantastic boost to our presence online. While most of the plan will take effect into 2025, along with a new website designed to reinvigorate the pride in our incredible community and deliver our stakeholders the information they need, work is being done in the background to ensure we enter next season strong, open and explicit in our goals for the betterment of hockey for Aucklanders.

Upcoming strategies, constitution updates and a massive thank you to your spokespeople
Earlier this year the board met for a very successful strategy session to set priorities, identify key areas we wanted to see improvements and to be really honest about making sure Auckland Hockey is heading in the right direction for all our stakeholders. I can honestly say we left with a real sense of optimism toward the future as well as a set of lofty but achievable goals. This is only just the start, however, as we really want to seek input from our clubs and members to inform these decisions, discuss these key initiatives and develop our KPIs with your feedback. As such, over the coming months we’ll be reaching out for volunteers and recommendations of people who can help us shape the future of Auckland Hockey.

In a similar vein, we’ve identified a couple of amendments that need to be made to the constitution to better protect our community through board transparency, committee member term lengths and other safeguards to ensure the board and staff will always be working for the betterment of Auckland Hockey members. With the support of Mark Robinson, we plan to have these changes ready to go for the next AGM. I’m also really happy to report that our monthly meetings with Presidents have been really productive, with great turn-outs and frank discussions that keep us abreast of the issues you’re all facing, so thank you all for giving up your time to help us reach our common goals.

Special thanks to our silent contributors
I’d also like to send my deepest thanks to both Trish Rangi and Neil McCorkindale for their continued amazing support to both the Executive Committee and on the ground with the Auckland Hockey staff. They’re picking up some really important work while we transition through the summer season into 2025 and we couldn’t begin to make the progress we hope to without your many contributions.

Ngā mihi,

Pam Elgar ONZM
Auckland Hockey Chair & President