Chair's annual report

CHAIR’S ANNUAL REPORT ON 2009

It is my pleasure to present this report for the 2009 year.

This year my report is made under the goals that the Trust Board defined in developing its strategic plan in 2009.

Structure:
S1 Review and construct a new constitution for the Trust
S 2 Restructure the Trust into new governance/management structure
S 3 Clearly define all Trust, Governance, management roles

There has been an initial consideration of the Trust’s constitution. More work will be required in the coming year to identify what parts of the Trust’s constitution are now no longer appropriate to the strategic plans of the Trust.

Some work has been done on defining and clarifying governance and management roles. The challenge for the future is to define governance and management roles in ways which take account of the operating realities of the Trust, for example, having the manager of the Boyle Centre based at the Boyle and the secretary/treasurer based in Christchurch.

Finance:
F1 To be financially secure in three years
F2 To form a substantial Foundation for all capital works of $2 million
F3 Charges cover all operational costs
F4 Review and update Board financial policies
F5 Investigate staffing funding out of schools staff funding

This year’s accounts show the Boyle Centre finishing the financial year with a small surplus. The manager and staff at the Boyle and the Trust’s treasurer are to be congratulated on achieving this result. However, such a result disguises the fact that the Boyle is still reliant on fund raising to cover major capital developments and also to cover some aspects of depreciation, for example, fund raising to replace equipment such as ropes, tents etc

In spite of goals F1 and F2 not much progress has been made to date on finding ways of securing the Trust’s financial future to the point where it is less dependent on annual grants and fund raising.

Charges levied on users of the Boyle’s programmes cover operational costs but do not provide for long term capital development. This means that projects such as the provision of new staff accommodation in the form of the first of two chalets which the trust has been working on in the past year must be funded from substantial grants from funders such as the Canterbury Community Trust. The Trust’s objective is to build two chalets capable of accommodating two to three staff.

The support of the Canterbury Community Trust in assisting the Trust with the first of these is warmly acknowledged. The Community Trust has been a very significant supporter of the Boyle over the years.

The task of forming a Foundation to raise a capital sum in the vicinity of $2 million has yet to be undertaken.

Setting charges for the coming year is always a delicate balancing act for the treasurer and the manager. From 2010 the Board will be asked to play a greater part in the discussion that needs to go into setting charges at the time the budget is set in October. While the Trust would like to ensure that all operating costs are covered by the charges levied from its clients, often the Trust has to settle for slightly lower fees to ensure that it does not lose clients. The cost of sending children to courses at the Boyle is one of the most frequent issues raised with us by schools.

A challenge for the Trust is to find ways of increasing the % of bookings at the Boyle. Data on bookings collected to January 2010 shows the % of bookings to potential occupancy varying from a high of 70.3 % in March to a low of 8.6% in June and 13.9% in July. While it is to be expected that bookings will be lighter in the winter months than in summer or spring, nevertheless it will be important for the long term viability of the centre to find ways of offering programmes that can ensure a higher % of bookings per month spread more evenly through the year.

Early in the history of the Boyle Centre the costs of employing the resident teacher (now manager) were covered by levying participating schools a proportion of the staffing for that position. With the advent of the Tomorrow’s Schools reforms that option became less popular with schools. The Trust would like to revisit this option with schools.

Strategic Planning:
P 1 Produce a strategic plan for three, five and ten years
P2 Include environment scanning surveys and focus group results in planning process
P3 A plan to be developed to implement three year goals within 3 months

We are in the process of negotiating a concession with the Department of Conservation for the use of the area surrounding the Boyle Centre. This is the result of DOC’s acquisition of most of the stations in the St James-Lewis area and DOC’s desire to rationalize and regulate the users of the crown estate. The negotiation process involves many hours of paper work and negotiation, much of which is being done by Arthur Sutherland. It is an important process because it will determine the extent to which the Boyle centre will have access to areas which it has traditionally used for its adventure-based programmes.

The Board has adopted a planning structure which will see it review its strategic plans in August each year which will then lead in to planning the budget for the coming year. What remains to be put into place is the development of a plan which looks ahead on the timescale signaled in the current strategic plan.

There is a clear need for the Trust to develop a longer term strategy which identifies the key capital development requirements for the next ten to fifteen years and develops a plan for financing that development.

To help in longer term planning the Trust needs to collect a range of data, for example, about booking patterns and client preferences in terms of programmes. In the absence of such data, planning becomes a hit and miss affair.

Profile marketing
M1 Substantially raise the profile (need to establish what the profile is at the moment)
M2 Develop and implement a plan to promote changes to Trust structures

The Trust appointed Robyn Sutherland to a six-month position in marketing and client liaison. During this initial appointment Robyn made contact with and visited most of the Trust’s regular client schools. In addition she made contact with other schools which for a variety of reasons do not currently use the Boyle for their programmes.

Robyn’s contacts yielded very useful information about the attitudes of our current major clients to the Boyle and provided us with valuable pointers about where to focus our attention in terms of client relationship strengthening for the future. We recognize that the Trust has not been very active in making such contacts in the past and that developing ongoing contacts will strengthen our position in the future. Robyn’s contacts have substantially lifted the profile of the Boyle and opened up the possibility of new client schools for the future.

As a result of this initial 6-month appointment, the Trust offered Robyn a further 6-month appointment through to July 2010.

A revised web site has been developed with the assistance of Zeald. This is now up and running though there are still some gaps to be filled. The advantage of this revised site is that it gives us the ability to change content more easily, thereby making it possible to have a more up-to-date site.

I have undertaken a progamme of speaking to Rotary clubs within the Rotary district in which the Boyle is located, District 9970. My intention here is to raise awareness of the Trust and the Boyle Centre amongst Rotary clubs with the aim both of encouraging them to sponsor students on Potential Leader courses and to get their financial support for the projects for which we are seeking funding such as improvements to the Lodge and its surroundings. As a result of my talks interest has emerged for Rotary to sponsor a leadership course of its own annually at the Boyle.

The Trust has strong links to Rotary as a result of the part Rotary has played over the years both in establishing the Lodge in the Lewis Pass and continuing to provide funding and other support over the years. We still have Rotary representation on our Trust from the three clubs involved in establishing the Trust – Kaiapoi, Rangiora and Belfast.



Programmes:
PR 1 Continuously improve the quality of programmes to meet client needs

The manager and staff of the Boyle Centre are continuously reviewing the quality of the programmes offered to our clients. The information collected by Robyn Sutherland has been very valuable in providing us with another way of gauging the extent to which we are providing what client schools and other clients are looking for from a Boyle experience.

A Journey experience organized for an Australian school and using Boyle staff proved very successful and the same school has booked to return in 2010. The possibility of offering similar journey experiences to schools in New Zealand needs to be investigated. Robyn Sutherland’s investigations has shown that there is interest in such programmes.

As costs go up and the charges we ask schools to pay also go up it will be important for us to show clear links between what the Boyle can offer and the NZ Curriculum. While the responsibility for doing this lies essentially with the schools themselves the Trust needs to be proactive in demonstrating how such links can be made. For the future the Trust should consider the role it could take in offering teacher professional development in this.

Staff:
ST 1 Quality staff are recruited, supported and retained
ST 2 A safe and high quality working environment is provided

Late in 2009 we were fortunate in being able to make an appointment to the position of assistant manager to replace Ian Olson. Aaron Agnew was appointed. Aaron has come to us with a wealth of experience and we are looking forward to his contribution to further developments at the Boyle.

To provide more permanence to instructor staffing it was decided to make two long-term appointments to the position of instructor rather than rely entirely on casual instructor appointments as has been the case. It has proven difficult to attract instructors to these positions. Efforts will continue to find suitable instructors for these roles.

Towards the end of 2009 Sarah Gardiner resigned her position as part time office administrator. I would like to thank Sarah for the very valuable work she did in supporting the staff and providing administration support for the work of the manager. The search is on for a replacement for Sarah.

The events at OPC have caused us to look again at our safety policies and procedures. We are aware of the risks that go with outdoor education and the need to ensure that staff are appropriately trained and supervised in our safety policies and procedures. Later in 2010 it is intended that an exercise will be held which will involve the scenario of an emergency at the Boyle. We aim to fully test our procedures through this exercise.

Thanks

My thanks to the manager, Wendy Davis, the assistant manager, Aaron Agnew and the staff at the Boyle Centre for their work throughout the year. Operating a centre which provides outdoor education and adventure-based programmes demands a high level of skill and attention to detail. It also demands a high level of team work and collective determination to ensure that those who are attending courses at the Boyle get the best possible experience. We are fortunate to have highly experienced and committed staff.

My thanks also to the Trust Board, and in particular to Arthur Sutherland. Arthur, in his role as secretary-treasurer, puts in many hours to ensure that the Boyle centre is well supported.

Thanks to those who support the Boyle in a voluntary capacity. This particularly applies to the guardians who provide a very valuable caretaking service during weekends and public holidays

Thanks to those who support the work of the Trust through donations from time to time. This extends from the considerable funding support received from the Canterbury Community Trust to donations such as those received from St Margarets’ College (data show projector and screen) and $1300 from Rangiora High School. Such support is highly valued and appreciated.


Peter Allen
1 March 2010