Inaugural meeting of NZTA

Thank you to those who took the time to attend the first general meeting of the NZTA held on the 5th of August 2009.

The meeting began with a director’s address.

Maurice Smith (NumberWorks’nWords) outlined the background to settings up the NZTA and goal of the NZTA to represent the tutoring industry in New Zealand. The NZTA is modelled on the Australian Tutoring Association which has been operating since 2005 and has since become a significant lobby group and representative of a wide range of tutoring organisation throughout Australia.

Maurice made a special point to mention that for the NZTA to be an effective body that represents the tutoring industry in New Zealand a wider range of organisations need to become members.

Election of a Board from the NZTA
The main order of business for the day was to elect a board to govern the NZTA for the next 12 months.

The following structure for the board was suggested:

The board of the NZTA will include five members including a President and Secretary. It was suggested that four board members would be elected with the fifth board member being an honorary position associated with the role of Public Officer.

The suggested board structure was agreed upon and adopted. Nominations for board members were then taken from those present. Following some discussion the following five members were voted in.

Sally Clarke
– Director for Straight A’s Education Centre

Jonathan Anderson – President NZTA
– CEO Kip McGrath New Zealand

Sarah Simons

– General Manager NumberWorks’nWords

Kathy Redwood
– Director MathZwise Ltd

Dr. Ralph Wesseling – Public Officer/Secretary
– NumberWorks’nWords

The official proceedings were concluded by setting a date for a Board Meeting. The first meeting of the NZTA will be held on the 29th August 2009.

What should the NZTA be doing?
Informal discussion followed regarding the goals of the NZTA in the short term. It was agreed that the main challenge for 2009/2010 was to increase membership, increase public awareness of NZTA for the public and to talk to government.

Jonathan has had contact with SPELD and a few other organisations and will renew contact to encourage NZTA membership and participation.

Jonathan expressed interest in contacting the Minister of Education to demonstrate that the tutoring industry is proactive and is seen to be self-legislating.

There was some discussion about increasing the NZTA public profile using press releases. It would be a great achievement to place a press release in daily newspapers and back that up by encouraging NZTA members to submit press releases into local news papers.

Developing the website was discussed. The aim is to make the www.nztutoring.com website an effective gateway to help members of public search for tuition in their area and to highlight the services that NZTA members provide.

Call to NZTA members:
If you can help, have suggestions or want to provide feedback please contact Ralph@nztutoring.com

– If you know of any tutors operating in your area or tutoring organisations who may be interested in joining the NZTA the please either send through their details or send them to www.nztutoring.com.

– If anyone has experience with press releases or achieving publicity then we would be keen to hear from you.

– If anyone has interest in helping with website development then please contact us 😉