This meeting is scheduled to be held at 5pm Sunday 23 March 2025 at the Don Rowlands Centre, Lake Karāpiro.
The AGM will be adjourned on Sunday after the General Business and reconvene 10.30am Friday 28 March 2025 at the Principals Morning Tea at the Don Rowlands Center, Lake Karapiro.
A quorum will not be required on Friday, no new policies or rules will be enforced during these discussions. Principals who were unable to attend on Sunday will get the opportunity on Friday to discuss matters of importance for the future of school rowing. The AGM will conclude once the Principals Discussions are completed.
Over the coming weeks we will provide further updates, but for now we would like to confirm the timing of the meeting and ask that schools provide the following information:
This information should be sent to Rebecca Milicich on [email protected] or 022 306 3164.
Should you have any questions about the 2025 Annual General meeting, please contact Mark Cotham, NZSSRA President on [email protected].
A Special General Meeting of the association was completed by online ballot on Friday 24th January 2025. At 2pm all votes were counted. 86 Members submitted an electronic vote. There were 10 ballots received from non-financial Members. Those 10 ballots were cured (considered financial members for this SGM) and therefore included in the voting. At the time of the SGM NZSSRA had 136 members (Financial Members and Life Members), therefore the 40% quorum was met.
There was one remit before the SGM (see Agenda). Out of the 86 votes cast, 72 Members voted in favour for adopting the remit. 14 ballots voted against adopting the remit.
With over 75% of votes in favour for adopting the remit, the remit has been passed and is effective immediately.
Year 14 students are no longer eligible to complete at Maadi regattas, unless their Principal has applied for an exception and one has been granted.
The Constitution (Article 1), Regulations (Regulation 7), and Rules (Rule 2) have been updated. Draft Minutes for the SGM will be made available in due course.
An NZSSRA special committee (Independent Panel) will be created to assess all exception requests. To apply for an exception for a Year 14 student to compete at Maadi, Principals must submit an application declaring the student's academic need to [email protected] by 11th February 2025.
Further information about the special committee, and exception process will be provided by end of January.
The Terms of Reference for the NZSSRA special committee that will consider Year 14 exception applications are now available for download: Terms of Reference [.pdf 68KB] (updated 250213)
The 2025 New Zealand Secondary Schools Annual General Meeting will be held on Sunday 23 March 2025. This will be held at Lake Karāpiro .
In addition to confirming the date for the meeting we now also would like to call for the following:
Nominations close on Sunday 9 February 2025 at 5.00pm.
Nomination are to be forwarded to Rebecca Milicich at [email protected].
A Special General Meeting of the association was completed by Teams meeting yesterday:
"Any student who is a Year 14 will not be permitted to participate at the Maadi Cup* from 2025. Exceptions can be made on a case-by-case basis following approval of an Independent panel. This panel will be made up of Principal representatives, who will assess the legitimacy of the student by taking into account factors such as academic need".
* it was confirmed this policy only applies to Maadi; not other NZSSRA Championships
Meeting attendees asked if the policy could be expedited. This can happen, through holding another SGM to implement such changes to the Rules and Regulations as are necessary to enforce the policy prior to entries opening for Maadi. A working group was established from attendees to develop the necessary remits to amend the Rules and Regulations.
The Schools Committee of the New Zealand Secondary Schools Rowing Association (NZSSRA) has sanctioned Hamilton Boys High School following an investigation and disciplinary process regarding breaches of NZSSRA rules and regulations at four of its regattas.
Hamilton Boys High School admitted:
Following the investigation, the School promptly admitted the breaches. In total there were 17 breaches, across 10 events in the Under 15 and Under 18 Novice boys' categories in these regattas.
In admitting the breaches HBHS Headmaster, Susan Hassall, has said:
"We were devastated to learn of the breaches and apologise unreservedly to all the schools participating in the regattas involved. The breaches do not reflect the school's approach to sport, and were, regrettably, the result of very poor judgment by one person in our rowing programme. Our rowing programme has grown significantly in recent years, and we clearly did not have sufficient systems in place to make sure such breaches do not occur. These breaches also occurred during the COVID period, which exacerbated the problem. We deeply regret the impact this has had on the students at other schools and can assure everyone that we are making significant changes to our rowing programme to make sure it never happens again."
The School has accepted the following sanctions, formally imposed on it by the NZSSRA Schools Committee:
In giving its decision, a spokesperson for the Schools Committee said:
"The breaches by Hamilton Boys High School were significant and affected a number of other schools and rowers. Suspension is the most severe sanction the NZSSRA can impose on its Member Schools. The conditional suspension provides Hamilton Boys High School with a warning that if it breaches the same rules again, all rowers at the School will be banned from competing at either a North Island Secondary Schools Championships or a Maadi regatta, even those rowers who were not at the School at the time or who row for it subsequently.
The sanctions imposed should serve as a reminder to all Schools that they must fully comply with the rules, no exceptions. In particular, those Schools with large rowing programmes must make sure they have all the necessary systems and checks in place to ensure entries and substitutions are made and done so in compliance with the rules".
There will be no further comment from NZSSRA or Hamilton Boys High School regarding this matter.
As responsible users of New Zealand's waterways all member schools need to be aware of the Didymo ("Rock Snot") bio-hazard. Schools should be proactive in their efforts to avoid the spread of this pest*. For more information see the Biosecuity New Zealand website.
"CHECK, CLEAN, DRY"
* Users of Lake Ruataniwha need to be especially vigilent as Didymo is confirmed in the Lake, fortunately SIR has an excellent washing programme in place to help members "check, clean, dry"
It is an unfortunate and little-known fact that NZSSRA lost the bulk of its records in an arson attack on a Member school in the nineties. So when we were contacted by rowing's Archivist, Evan McCalman, who was looking for Maadi regatta programmes to try and fill some gaps in the record we were unable to assist.
The missing Maadi Cup Regatta programmes, which are needed to complete the Archives set, are: 1970, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1982-1989 inclusive, and 1991.
These programmes are needed to establish with certainty when girls events began, to establish who were the winning schools (pre Jubilee and Dawn Cups), and thus the names of the winning crews.
If anybody can assist the effort to complete the archives by donating (or lending for copying and return) a programme from any of the listed Maadi regattas then that would be greatly appreciated. If you have one of these programmes please contact Evan McCalman: 35 Marine Parade, Eastbourne, phone 04-562 7154, or e-mail [email protected].
Please send an email to [email protected] if you have a school rowing related notice you would like considered for publication.
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