2015 President's Report

WAINUIOMATA PIONEER CHURCH PRESERVATION SOCIETY INC

PRESIDENT'S REPORT TO ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

07 JUNE 2015



Another excellent year for the Society.

  
This year we have hosted only 2  weddings although have booked  4 more 

for the ensuing six months. However we also hosted a church service of
thanksgiving  for the Knight family reunion weekend.   Not  only did we hire
out our Church for this event but the committee undertook to cater morning
tea  which we did very successfully..    We have also hosted our annual
Carol night, an Anzac Eve concert and a "thank you" afternoon tea for our
invaluable Grave Carers. 

Our fundraising this year has included acting as Marshalls again for the

Tuf Guy/Tuf Gal Challenge in July 2014 and also a small group of committee

and families marshalled for the NZ Stock Car Championships  in January.
Unfortunately the Tuf Guy/Gal Challenge relocated to Paekakariki for their
2015 event so we were unable to once again take advantage of this great
fundraiser. 

A disappointing lack of bookings made us decide to cancel our High Tea
fundraiser in November but we will look to resurrect this again some time in
the future. 

We ran a very successful raffle of an All Black jersey signed by 100 former
and current All Blacks.   Thanks to Christine for driving this which saw us
selling tickets at many rugby events as well as Countdown and Mitre 10.

As advised at last year's AGM we received a grant  to install under floor
insulation which was done soon after and this has made a great improvement
in retaining heat in the Church.

Whilst we did intend to make the vestry our next major restoration project,
it was  felt by the committee that the badly deteriorated windows and
painting of the Church should be given priority.  Therefore major work on
the exterior of the Church is due to commence shortly where we will replace
all the large windows with exact replicas, then chemically strip the many
layers of paint, replacing weatherboard where necessary and finally
painting.   We are only concentrating on the front, north and south sides of
the Church at this time as the work required to the Vestry will be our next
major project. 

However in the interim three of our committee recently painted the
Kitchen,Toilet and storage cupboards in the existing vestry and the
improvement has been amazing.   Thank you Vicky, Christine and Linda.

We have also printed coloured brochures covering weddings, funerals and

the history of the Church thanks to grants from Infinity and Hutt City Council.

These are now in place in our foyer, at all libraries in the Hutt Valley and

Petone as well as Wainuiomata and I-Site.

During the year Elizabeth McCallum resigned from our committee due to other
commitments and we thank her for her input during her time on the committee.

I am very sorry to advise that Colleen Hira has very recently resigned from
the committee.    Colleen was an inaugural member of the Society and then
rejoined in 2011 when the present committee were elected.    She has been
invaluable both from her knowledge of the Church history and her drive and
enthusiasm for all our projects and has also been responsible for the
newsletters sent out two monthly to you all. 

As many of you know she has been heavily engaged over the past several

years writing a book on the complete history of this Church and Graveyard. 

This  is almost finished  and I am presently sourcing grants to cover printing
costs.    We hope to have the book printed and for sale by our Jubilee in
February next year.  As Colleen wrote this  book on behalf of the Church all
proceeds will be going to the Society.   I would like to record my personal
thanks to Colleen for this generous gesture and for her many years of
service.

And last but by no means least, Annette Thomas has advised that she will

not be seeking re-election at this meeting.   Annette also has been a member
since the early days when the Church was handed over to this Society and it
was in fact due to her enthusiasm for the project that I became involved.
The very good news is that she has advised that she will still be available
to help with our various fundraising and other projects.    We again thank
her for years of great service to the Society

On the plus side we have co-opted and welcomed Linda Grime and Hellen
Valster to the committee (Linda in 2014 and Hellen more recently) and they
are both proving to be invaluable assets to the Society

Our plans for the 150th Jubilee celebrations are well in hand -  Waitangi
day SATURDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2016.     We hope to have a street parade,

an official ceremony and food, music and fellowship.    We intend to launch
Colleen's book "Our Buried Past" then and this along with other memorabilia
will be on sale.   On Sunday 7th we will have a service of thanksgiving.

The committee have had a number of working  bees throughout the year 

and these along  with the ongoing assistance given by the  Wainuiomata
Gardeners' Club and the Grave Carers have kept the Church and Graveyard

 in beautiful order.

My thanks as always to my hardworking committee - they are quite frankly

one of the best committees I have worked with over my many years   -  their
enthusiasm and their varied talents make for an ideal combination and the
Society is very fortunate indeed to have their services.

In closing my thanks to all of you for attending today and for your support
during this past year and of course huge thanks again to our great committee


Joyce Lockyer
President