Dear Kiwi Handball community
It’s been a busy few weeks behind the scenes since my last update, as your Exec Committee has been working through some critical pieces of our governance and admin programme.
First up, with regret the big news to share on the governance front is that long-serving board member La Winitana has made the difficult call to step down from the Executive. While I’m sure that her passion for our great game and experience will not be lost to the handball community, for the time being at least she will be focusing her energies away from the administrative side of the NZHF. We wish her all the very best, and look forward to her continuing to make a positive contribution to the game, freed from Exec duties.
Much of our latest board meeting was spent discussing the beach handball programme for the summer ahead. While there is a question mark over what might happen outside New Zealand’s borders, Willy Silcock has done a great job in pulling together a great schedule for the next few months, ensuring New Zealand beach is as prepared as it can be for whatever comes to pass, with plenty of opportunities for handballers to get their fix of beach action.
On the policy front, we have approved an anti-doping policy in line with Drug Free Sport NZ expectations, an anti-match fixing policy to support our alignment with Sport NZ requirements. We also approved progressing a framework for national team selection and complaints processes. The idea with all of this is to build a more robust, professional structure for the sport to enhance our credibility for the modern era.
We have also progressed a consultation piece for updating the NZHF constitution. Look out for the output from that later in the year – I know that constitutional issues are not what most of us want to spend our spare time thinking about, but there are some important aspects we need to improve for the future.
Last, it was great to see a well attended, successful start to the Men’s National Training Squad campaign at the end of October with the first training camp. In these challenging times, it was a treat to see some good quality handball on display, and very encouraging the state of the men’s game in New Zealand – whatever may come to pass internationally over the next year or so.
All the best
David Ireland
President, NZHF