As Alastair Duncan has stated in his article a proposal is being tabled at the 2025 Grey Power AGM to change the structure of the Federation’s board. This comes on the back of concerns regarding the effectiveness of the current board structure.
The previous Board had initiated an independent review of the Board’s governance viability moving forward. The demands of governance plus a heavy load of operational work, were taking a toll on Board members and there was wide frustration at the suboptimal public impact of Grey Power in fulfilling its mission.
The key results of the review were shared by the acting-president at the 2024 AGM. Relevant conclusions were:
Due to the lack of segregation of governance and management duties, the Board is not operating as an effective governing board. Instead, it works as a management operations team.
Due to the Board spending most of its time in operations, the expectation of Associations for the Board to deliver on strategy is misaligned.
Board members are at risk of burnout due to the operational demands on their time. This strain on individual members is not visible and, therefore, potentially unappreciated at Association level.
As it stands, the Federation operating model is not fit to meet modern needs of a business.
Under my leadership, the current Board embarked on a number of externally facilitated workshops to explore ways to make it more fit for purpose today. My original proposal was to have a board consisting of the executive committee, president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, three zone representatives in the North Island and two from the South Island.
However, after much discussion, the Board decided we needed people on the Board with governance experience and skills which would benefit the Federation’s advocacy work and make Grey Power’s voice even stronger.
To achieve this, it was proposed that the recommendation to the AGM would be for all Board members to be elected ‘at large’ at future AGMs. This would allow delegates to vote for those candidates seen to be offering the best skills for Grey Power’s future.
The need to rationalise zones to include a more equitable number of members and associations was discussed. It was decided to postpone any such reorganisation at that stage and to focus on the most critical issues facing the Federation’s future.
It was recommended that there be seven Zone Facilitators (currently Zone Directors) who will be the conduit between the board and associations (not branches). The role of the Zone Facilitators was viewed as being more pastoral with emphasis on assisting struggling associations and encouraging all zone associations to be effective in local advocacy.
In addition, the Zone Facilitators will come to the operational business day of each face-to-face board meeting, four times per year, to table their reports and discuss any issues which have arisen in their zones and how they will support their associations.
From the 11 members on the board 10 voted for the new structure proposal; there was one abstention.
To relieve the Board of the heavy operational business load, the Board contracted a review of all manuals and policies; this has been completed. In addition, the Board endorsed the employment of a Federation Facilitator to support the Board in managing the operational issues delegated to them [the Federation Facilitators] by the Board. Both of these actions will effectively remove some of the burden of operational issues currently diverting the Board from its core governance functions.
I have taken the proposal outline to associations in both the North and South Islands and had a very favourable response. All associations in the Wellington area, and other parts of the country, could have invited me to do the same. In fact, I visited Wainuiomata on the May 28, 2025.
I am presenting the proposal at the June 2025 AGM where delegates can debate and vote on it.
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