GREY POWER FEDERATION – UPDATE

The annual Grey Power Federation AGM and Conference took place in Wellington over the 26th to the 28th July.

Some points of interest to note: long standing Board Member and Treasurer Roy Reid retired from his position as Board Treasurer causing a vote to be taken to fill the vacant position. Bill Rayner from the North Shore Association has been elected to the position. We, of course, wish him well in managing our Grey Power capitation contributions.

Jan Pentecost was re-elected un-opposed to the Presidency of the Federation. And again, we wish Jan all the very best as she heads into her second term as President.

There were no other elections and the Board remains largely unchanged for the next year.

There was the usual round of remits put to the delegates in attendance. Of particular interest to us here in the Horowhenua was a remit put by the Napier Association. They were asking the Board to actively promote and support the idea of increasing and improving council-run pensioner housing, with additional funding coming from the Government. Sadly, we in the Horowhenua no longer have council owned pensioner housing. That remit is now a matter of record.

The challenges of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant meant that attendances were lower than those experienced over the past few years. Initially it was planned to hold a joint Zoom and face-to-face Annual Meeting. Although this was on offer, the costs to Associations made this prohibitive. As a result the meeting was a face-to-face meeting at the Brentwood in Wellington, only. Perhaps next year as (hopefully) Omicron diminishes we can look forward to better attendances.

Terry Hemmingsen [PRESIDENT]