2020 / 2021 Board

Mat Prichard (Interim Chair)

Martin Galley (Secretary / Tour Director)
Chris Smith (Treasurer / Outreach Director)
Chris Davies (Communications Director)

Member announcement December 2020

As the NZDG board prepares to open voting for the upcoming SGM, we would like to share the following with
our members.

Software
In early November the board contracted an independent information technology consultant to review and
implement software improvements. Luke Hetzel of Frankly Web is supporting NZDG with generously
discounted services and has an impressive career in sport administration with proven IT expertise at Snow
Sports NZ. Luke will be NZDG’s trusted external IT administrator for the foreseeable future.
The now completed stage one was to establish and externally host NZDG’s email addresses and data sharing
software. The result is an independently administered remote data server with secure document systems and
full confidence in the internal and external confidentiality of NZDG’s emails.
Stage two is the use of third-party software to independently manage the December SGM board election
process. Luke will establish the membership email database while the tamper proof software oversees the
voting count. We can trust the integrity of the tallying process and ‘audit trail’ feature to deliver 100% accurate
election outcomes. Expect to see the ‘Election Buddy’ emails come through when voting opens.
Stage three will see Luke and Mario Cerniar of Teepad teaming up to review and strengthen NZDG’s
membership database. Upcoming changes to the Privacy Act will be addressed while we look at better
methods of capturing member information and communicating directly with our members.
We thank Luke for his below-market rates and his ongoing commitment to disc golf in NZ.

SGM Voting Software

In order to maintain full confidence in the SGM voting process, the NZDG member database has required a
complete overhaul. The secure and anonymous voting software relies on inputting NZDG member email
addresses as the first step. This is how we can ensure the votes cannot be tampered. In other words, without a
member email address, the software does not allow a vote.
To achieve the overhaul we have consolidated the last 12 months of NZDG sanctioned tournaments.
Unfortunately many of the tournament directors have provided partial lists of registration email addresses.
While we have done our best with the information provided, there are still many members that will be
required to submit their email addresses in order to vote in the upcoming SGM.
The board is aware we are having to find the balance between an anonymous voting process, and the current
database limitations of such a process. However we are adamant that voting integrity should take precedent
here. Therefore we ask every member to assist the process by helping NZDG capture member email addresses.
If you are aware of a member that does not receive the voting email, please ask them to get in touch with our
independent voting receiving officer Luke Hetzel. They will need to send their full name and date of birth via
their email address to luke@franklyweb.co.nz. Luke will cross reference the member’s name and date of birth
against the database and add the email address as long as it checks out as being unique. We are confident we
can get through every request before the voting closes, but please be patient while Luke works through the
requests. We will endeavour to do everything possible to allow each member to have their say.
We appreciate your assistance with improving the NZDG voting process and enhancing the activities of NZDG.

Mobile 0274 111 645 chair@nzdg.org.nz 1 Hogan Lane, Wanaka, 9305, New Zealand
2020 / 2021 Board
Mat Prichard (Interim Chair)
Martin Galley (Secretary / Tour Director)
Chris Smith (Treasurer / Outreach Director)
Chris Davies (Communications Director)

Policies
For NZDG to become a Sport NZ recognised national sport partner we need to develop a full suite of
organisational policies. While Sport NZ are introducing their 2032 ‘everybody active’ strategy, new partner
organisation inductions are on hold until July 2021. The current board are committed to this large
administration project and are hoping to have most of the policies in place for further discussions with Sport
NZ next July. The goal is to become a recognised Sport NZ partner organisation and begin resourcing the
potential of disc golf with the NZ government.
The board is currently reviewing communications and commercial interest policies, and will plan to expand into
finance, governance, and technology policies next year. We value members’ feedback so may be asking for you
to contribute to the development of those policies as they are created.

Constitution
Having identified some procedural shortcomings during the recent Spa Park funding project, and from concerns
expressed by our members, the board has been advised to add a new clause to our constitution. The aim is to
limit opportunities for the board, clubs and members to profit from NZDG’s activities.
Our current constitution has three sections relating to payments to members and clubs: 2.2, 19(h) and 23.4.
The advice has been to add the following into all three sections:
No member of the organisation or any person associated with a member, shall participate in or materially
influence any decision made by the organisation, in respect of the payment to or on behalf of that member or
associated person of any income, benefit, or advantage whatsoever.
Any such income shall be reasonable and relative to that which would be paid in an arms-length transaction
(being open market value).
As per the NZDG constitution, this change has the consent of Inland Revenue. To improve the constitution’s
protection from commercial interest, the above addition needs a two-thirds majority vote. We trust members
will vote for this positive change and enhance the future integrity of NZDG.

Member’s Motion
An attempted members’ motion was received by the board before the submission deadline for the upcoming
SGM. The submission did not meet the constitutional requirements of a members’ motion and was therefore
invalid. However the board has agreed to assist with the submission and allow the 15 members to correct it.
We note the corrections will be accepted after the deadline then permitted to be submitted as a members’
motion for the SGM. Although the submission is not required to be tabled at the SGM, such is the board’s
desire to have NZDG’s members’ voices heard.
The members’ motion is for a vote of confidence or no confidence in Martin Galley as a board member of
NZDG and is asking the members to consider Martin’s involvement in the Spa Park funding project. The
submission also requested a vote of confidence or no confidence in Chris Davies, however the board concluded
Chris had no involvement in the Spa Park project and considered another vote in Chris less than two months
since election to be unsubstantiated. It is also of note the board could not ethically agree to a single vote
involving two board members due to confusing the democratic process. We conclude a suitable compromise
has been reached with the invalid members’ motion submission.

Mobile 0274 111 645 chair@nzdg.org.nz 1 Hogan Lane, Wanaka, 9305, New Zealand
2020 / 2021 Board
Mat Prichard (Interim Chair)
Martin Galley (Secretary / Tour Director)
Chris Smith (Treasurer / Outreach Director)
Chris Davies (Communications Director)

The board are exercising their NZDG constitutional right under s26.3 to comment on Martin’s exceptional
contributions to the NZDG board over the last five years, and to disc golf in NZ over the last 20 years. Our
organisation, sport and game cannot afford to jeopardise the commitment of such a valuable board member
and proponent to the success of disc golf in NZ.
NZDG have identified some procedural shortcomings during the recent Spa Park funding project. Learnings
from those shortcomings have guided an Inland Revenue consented change in the constitution to ensure they
do not happen again. Further commercial interest management will be achieved with improvements to NZDG
policy. We assure the members that Martin acted with honesty, without ill-intent and in a professional manner,
to give the Spa Park project the best chance of success. Martin Galley and Mat Prichard have each admitted
their individual fault during the project and are owning those as important lessons for professional
development and NZDG improvement.
The members’ motion and Martin’s statement can be found here:
SGM Members' Motion Dec 2020
Martin Galley Statement
We encourage each member to carefully consider the facts of the Spa Park funding project and vote for a
board committed to continuing organisational improvement and success.

Spa Park Taupo funding project

The project was delayed while NZDG awaited income tax exemption confirmation from Inland Revenue. With
exemption now processing, our fourth funder will proceed with assessing NZDG’s $10k application. The fifth
and final $10k funder application decision is scheduled for early December.
We are confident the course will be fully permanently basketed for a potential NZDG sanctioned tournament to
be held there in 2021. Once the Spa Park trial funding project is successfully completed, the board will be
looking to develop and roll out a funding template for local disc golf clubs to fund their own planned
developments. We look forward to assisting the growth of our great game in regions across NZ.

Regards,
The NZDG board

Mobile 0274 111 645 chair@nzdg.org.nz 1 Hogan Lane, Wanaka, 9305, New Zealand