National Board Reports September 2026

NZDA 2026-27 National Board, photographed at the 78th Conference and AGM in Wellington. (Absent; Mark Hastie)

Had our first meeting of the new Board and it was good to spend some time with other Board members and get to know them a little better over a very solid day and a half of work. A solid chunk was boilerplate Board induction topics to make sure everyone at least had a reasonable understanding of the core NZDA processes and background documents.

For me, having been on the Board a few years back, it was pleasing to see how far NZDA has come over the last 3-4 years. The professionalism of the team generally, and the quality of management information in particular, has taken a huge step forward over this period. The Board had very comprehensive presentations from both Alex (Membership) and Courtney (Digital and Brand) and I was particularly impressed with the depth and rigour of their knowledge.

As a general rule, high-quality management information and hard data usually lead to common sense business strategies and workstreams. They certainly help a Board make decisions that support management's recommendations. I left the meeting quite excited about the next 2-3 years and the opportunities in front of us.

Our Board agenda for the day and a half was all of six pages, so there's too much to cover in any detail in this report. Planning is already underway for the 2027 Conference, we're reviewing the Ute Raffle and next steps, and the Business Planning and Budgeting cycle has just started, all overlaid with a virtual smorgasbord of work on the advocacy and political fronts.

Added to that, Trevor has announced a troika of reviews and I will be leading the governance review, which aims to lift the overall performance of the Board over time. I presented, and had approved, a short Board and CEO Training policy. It focuses on making governance training available to Board members, particularly those new to governance roles. It also aims to support the CEO annual performance review process with some professional development opportunities. Next cab off the rank is a Board Charter, which I hope to bring to the December Board meeting for approval. I also outlined a possible Board Evaluation process we might implement in 2027.

Back home, I managed to get away on the first Molesworth Management hunt for four days, which will hopefully set a host of important precedents for the future. While there I also installed another three trail cams as part of a joint Nelson/Marlborough Branch research project looking at ungulate numbers on Molesworth.

Several significant changes have emerged across the Lower South Island during these past months, particularly around DOC’s hunting-permit system, 2027 roar ballots, access and firearms regulation.

DOC is moving a number of previously balloted hunting areas onto its new online hunting-permit system for the 2027 season. The change affects Wānaka, Murihiku, Catlins, Leithen Bush and other previously separate ballot systems.

2027 roar and rut ballot deadlines