I am pleased to present this, my second report as Chairman of Neighbourhood Support New Zealand (NSNZ).

During the year, and after seeking legal advice, the name of the Committee of Neighbourhood Support New Zealand was changed to the Board of Neighbourhood Support New Zealand, which explains my use of the word Board in this report. Also, at the suggestion of the Chief Executive Officer, the title of that position was changed to National Development Co-ordinator, which we believe more correctly reflects the role.

Our Organisation
When elected two years ago, I wanted to ensure that Board decisions would be democratic and represent the input of districts through their delegates, that there would be no secrecy in what we did, and that members were kept informed. As part of that "openness" policy, the minutes of Board meetings are now available electronically to all who have an interest.

As a body, the Board of NSNZ is the collection of delegates representing their districts who gather together to exchange ideas and develop initiatives and practices, which advance Neighbourhood Support and crime reduction. It is not some autocratic organisation to which you have no say or representation. Board meeting agenda's are open so that any delegate may have an item included on it for discussion. NSNZ is your organisation.

All decisions taken by the Board are arrived at democratically by the delegates. If your committee is not advising your delegate of its position on issues, or your delegate is not advising you of the discussions and decisions taken, then there is little the Board can do about it. It is a district issue.

From my perspective as Board Chairman however, I am pleased to report that the Board is working extremely effectively. We have been having full attendance, getting through mountains of work, and the contribution of the delegates has been strong and committed. We have very capable and enthusiastic delegates. The hours put in at Board meetings is an indication of the commitment they make and the work they do. I thank them all sincerely for their participation and support over the past year.

During the year we were fortunate to have our Patron Burton Shipley address the Board on the distinction between "governance" and "management". We got to grips with understanding the differences. NSNZ is concerned with the governance of Neighbourhood Support, rather than with authority or management over the districts so that district autonomy is preserved.

NSNZ is an enabling organisation, facilitating contact with central government and other key organisations as well as providing leadership, consistency in practice, developing initiatives, and providing guidance, support and assistance to districts and area organisations. Our role is to ensure that Neighbourhood Support works with central government, local bodies, police and other community safety partners to develop and foster continual growth at the grass roots level and is accepted and recognised as a credible crime reduction organisation by the Police and community at large.

I believe we are now achieving an acceptable degree of credibility of which we can be justifiably proud. MP's, local body politicians and some leaders of corporate organisations now recognise Neighbourhood Support where once many didn't want to know us. This recognition has provided stability, growth and a sense of purpose for local Neighbourhood Support organisations and a common bond amongst them.

Funding and Sponsorship
During the past year we have made a number of applications to organisations for funding support. We have made progress in that both the Lion Foundation and New Zealand Community Trust now support us. We have new sponsorships from STATE and Hammer Hardware. Interlock and ADT have also renewed their association with us.

It has been suggested by one district that as NSNZ currently has some funds in the bank we should distribute some funding to districts.

Unfortunately, it cannot be NSNZ's role to fund the districts. We will never have that sort of funding or sponsorship money in the foreseeable future and our immediate concern must be to fund the office of the National Development Co-ordinator and a part time Secretary.

Long Term Community Consultation Plan
The commencement last year of the Local Government Act 2002, requiring local bodies to consult with their communities, provided a good opportunity for Neighbourhood Support organisations to present their case, particularly in this local government election year. The board had the National Development Co-ordinator prepare a presentation that was available for use to anyone who wanted to make a funding submission in their district's annual plan submissions. The National Development Co-ordinator was also available to assist anyone with his or her presentation.

Some of our Achievements this year
This past year has been quite demanding, but we have made progress in many areas. We have:

• Redefined the Neighbourhood Support logo including the letterhead and fact sheet brand, so that we may have consistent branding by all Neighbourhood Support organisations across New Zealand.
• Revised the presentation given on Neighbourhood Support to police recruit intakes.
• Introduced a Neighbourhood Support presentation to community constables' refresher courses at the Police College.
• Obtained Hammer Hardware as a national sponsor.
• Obtained sponsorship for delegate travel to Board meetings from the New Zealand Community Trust.
• Obtained a Trust Power sponsored vehicle for the National Development Co-ordinator to use.
• Developed and agreed a set of policies for the operation of NSNZ and the office of the National Development Co-ordinator. These policies have been written in such a way that if an area or district Neighbourhood Support organisation needs to put in similar policies, they can use them as a model to adapt to suit their own circumstances.
• Filmed and released a new introductory Neighbourhood Support video.
• Agreed the Mäori name of "Tautoko ä-Hapori o Aotearoa" for Neighbourhood Support New Zealand.
• Been asked to consider the subject of affiliation but have referred it to the AGM agenda for open discussion.
• Re-designed the "tri folder" to the style asked for by users.
• Received police assistance for an experienced criminologist to do research on Neighbourhood Support, to look at the way Neighbourhood Support is structured, the aims, objectives, our strategic plan, whether it is useful for partners, the Government and sponsors etc.
• Initiated our own brief questionnaire to determine from delegates and district chairpersons if they were happy with the direction we were taking.
• Produced best practice manuals for use by Police as a quick Police Guide to Neighbourhood Support plus a generic guide used to advise on how to set up a Neighbourhood Support group when no Police or Neighbourhood Support co-ordinator is involved.
• Negotiated with IAG (Insurance Australia Group), sponsorship under their brand of STATE for NSNZ and Canterbury with one other district identified by IAG for crime and risk reduction projects to be run in these districts and the potential for extension.
• Completed a strategic plan that focuses on communications, best practices, and increasing membership so that we are able to take positive crime reduction initiatives.

The Strategic Plan
The strategic plan was put together with the participation of all delegates over two board meetings with the assistance of a consultant facilitator.

The plan focused on our medium term goals to ensure that we have suitable structures, policies and practices in place to grow the grass roots of Neighbourhood Support and reduce crime. At a more detailed level, it sets out some of the projects and initiatives we would like to see put in place by NSNZ to support districts and local organisations across New Zealand.

Police now recognise that Neighbourhood Support is able to implement many crime prevention initiatives that they or the Crime Prevention Unit are unable to, and that Neighbourhood Support will more and more become the vehicle for getting out the crime prevention message to the community. That's one very good reason why we need to be a credible and consistent organisation so that central government, police, local bodies, and the community can have confidence in us.

Approaches to Government
Securing funding for the National Development Co-ordinator has been a problem for us and a lot of effort has gone into this. The role is essential to expanding Neighbourhood Support, developing best practice and project outlines for areas to make use of, and in getting more consistency in what we do.

For all of the past year, we have had no salary funding for the National Development Co-ordinator and she has had to work for us in a voluntary capacity. It's been very frustrating for both the Board and the National Development Co-ordinator and has meant that a number of important initiatives have not been able to be pursued.

I have had discussions with both the Minister of Police, George Hawkins, and the Minister of Justice, Phil Goff, re funding for the position and while both now appear supportive of the work that we are doing, they have both so far declined to provide the funds we need. There are however a number of MP's who have been very active on our behalf and in particular one who deserves special mention is Steve Chadwick, MP for Rotorua. She has done some sterling work on our behalf and taken our case to many MP's as well as the Prime Minister.

Other MPs who have actively supported us are Mark Alexander, Tim Barnett, and more recently Lianne Dalziel, all from Christchurch and Jim Sutton from Timaru.

Last year our submission to Government was for funding for the National Development Co-ordinator plus 48 area co-ordinators but was rejected. This year, on advice from the Minister of Justice, we have again put in a submission for Government funding, but this time restricting the submission to funding the National Development Co-ordinator and a part time Secretary.

Police Support
It is one thing to have a Memorandum of Understanding outlining our partnership with Police but another to have had the tremendous support we have had from Inspector Morris Cheer of the Office of the Commissioner. He has been tireless in his help and I need to say a great big thank you to Morris. The services of the Office of the Commissioner have been well used by us and they have provided excellent support, especially also Susan Milner who has been responsible for work on the branding exercise and the revised tri folder.

Police also supported production of the new video that was released recently and was well received in districts that had an official launch.

Affiliation
We have been asked by one district to consider the subject of affiliation. It is an important issue and a concept that most delegates supported but it was agreed to hold over any decision to this AGM. It has been put on the agenda for discussion at this meeting so that you all have an opportunity to discuss and decide.

Resignation
John Bailey of Hastings, an initial member of NSNZ has suffered health problems and has resigned. John was one of the foundation members of NSNZ and put a lot of effort into it, and I would like to take this opportunity to formally recognise his contribution and wish him well.

Conclusion
Due to health and family reasons I am not offering myself for re-election, but have left plenty of work to do for the incoming officers.

Some people I want to thank for their contributions are Don Denham out Treasurer, Jan Owen, the deputy delegate from Bay of Plenty, and Yvonne Palmer the National Development Co-ordinator. Each has contributed much, sometimes under circumstances when they had plenty of other concerns and demands on their time.

For the future, we need to have all local chairpersons and delegates keep the pressure on their local MP's to get Government funding for the National Development Co-ordinator. We also need to hone up our collection of statistics to provide more proof that Neighbourhood Support does work.

Another area where members should seek support is by keeping the pressure on their local authority representatives. Many now actively support Neighbourhood Support as a crime reduction and community safety initiative, but some are still quite reluctant to do so.

While sometimes NSNZ has been criticised for being short on specifics, on the other hand we have districts telling us they don't want us telling them what to do. The strategic plan is now an official document that corporate organisations, local bodies and funding agencies may wish to see, so use it to you advantage. It should provide you with the opportunity to adopt initiatives that assist your area and local partners, and the National Development Co-ordinator is there to help you refine and implement them.

I wish you all well in your endeavours.

W K Gibson
Chairman
Neighbourhood Support New Zealand