President's Post - June 2025
With the countdown to our conference, 60th Birthday celebrations, and our Awards of Excellence function on the 14th June quickly running out of days, this is the last time that have the opportunity to write my notes for the Presidents post.
This has been one of the most interesting parts of what I have done over the few years, there are times that I knew what I was going to write about, and things came easily into my head, and there were times that I was scratching around for topics. I recall dreading the phone call from Mikayla informing me of my deadline, and then the follow up phone call from Mikayla that I need my comments today. It was amazing what can be produced when under pressure, as I am sure every signwriter knows, but I hope that everyone has enjoyed the posts from the last few years.
At our upcoming AGM in Nelson, Logan takes over the Presidency of the NZSDA. This is a role that is at times challenging, and it is exciting to donate time to the industry that we are all involved in, to try and get the best out of this industry, and to ensure that as many companies within it are doing the best that they possible can. This is a challenging industry, we do need to remember that at times, and we all need to be there for each other during the tougher times.
I am reflecting on my time from the very beginning, when it was just Andy and myself on the Board, with the incredible support from Melissa. Andy was a real rock for me as I had also only just been elected to be on the board. We then had the terrible task of shutting down the Signee programme, creating a new communications role and welcoming Mikayla to our team, who has been wonderful to work with, even when I am being chased.
One of the things that I am most proud of is the strength of the board now, since our days of just Andy and myself, we have welcomed (in no particular order), Logan, Leanne, Angie, Scott, Clinton, and Antony. This is an incredible Board, with balance, experience, and a great nationwide coverage.
I also look at the things that we have done over the last two years, these include re-designing and modernising the Master Signmaker programme, publishing the best practice guide to try to ensure the quality of work around the country is as high as possible, the wage and salary guide has been updated and sent out, the updated price guide also updated and sent out, we introduced assistance for HR to support business owners as the business environment became a bit tighter, we worked in with Advantage Business for that additional support and advise when required, we encouraged women in business programs and set up school expo trade shop experiences where school age people can have a go applying graphics and get an understanding our industry.
I also made a commitment to set up regional meetings again, and for me to personally attend these. We made this available for every sign shop to come along to and ask any questions that you had regarding our association as we progressed the above items. It was great to get out and about our beautiful country, and it was amazing to meet as many of you as I could, and the odd sign shop that I visited as my schedule allowed.
Then of course, we had the Trade Expo in Manukau, along with the conference, and the awards of excellence, followed a year later by our conference and Awards of Excellence going to the Hawkes bay, and by all accounts these two events were huge successes, well supported by our industry suppliers, and our tradeshops, and a lot of fun for everyone involved.
We now move on to Nelson, where we have had a huge turnout of numbers for conference, we have the very rare situation where we had more attendees that wanted to attend than what the resources could support, which is just amazing and sets us up for a fantastic few days in Nelson. It shows to me that we are taking our association in the right direction. I am particularly looking forward to our Awards of Excellence this year, the entries were just outstanding, and it was a very tough year to complete the judging. Everyone that entered their signage projects should be very proud, and to those that win, please know that you have all won an award in a year where the entries were of a very high standard, so I congratulate you. I wish everyone a fantastic conference and Awards evening.
Logan, over to you now. I know you will do an incredible job, and our association is in very capable hands under your stewardship. I am looking forward to working with you over the next two years as the immediate past President.
Kind regards,
Shae Goom
