Chairman's Report To The AGM 2012

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This has been another busy and successful year during which we have continued
and advanced our programs.

Social

Pub nights and our two annual dinners have been the mainstay of this program
as usual.  We have consolidated and reviewed the list of locales and
arrangements for the former, deleting some and reinstating/ adding Library and
Pollux, and celebrated twenty five years of decriminalisation through the latter. 
This had its hiccups but I think most people enjoyed the event.  It was certainly
more than compensated by our end of year function at the Cheeky Pipi; thank
you Phil.

We have also been able to expand and develop our visiting speaker series,
mostly on human rights matters and will be continuing with these into the future
with a number of interesting prospects in view.  Amadee has put a lot of effort
into this in particular and I am glad to acknowledge that through this report (not to
mention her organising of occasional walking events).

Sponsorships

We sponsored both Out in the Square and Out-takes again this year.  The latter
continues to make a healthy come back.  We have been able also to make a
small one off grant to an organisation which has been starting up in the past year
and we trust they will continue to build and develop.  We remain a full member of
ILGA.  Just as a footnote also to our sponsorship of the Outgames last year, we
have received some return on our financial support from that highly successful
venture and we have earmarked this for subsequent sponsorships.

Our relations with the gltbi media have continued to be positive through both gay
Express and gaynz.com. 

Campaigns

Our current prime minister John Key continues to ignore us, and to treat gltbi
events and concerns as mainly opportunities for public relations.  It is
disappointing to see some within our communities falling for it.  It is also beyond
disappointing and verging on the alarming to see the appointment of Judith
Collins as Minister of Justice (and thus as holding the portfolio for human rights). 
"Crusher' Collins was a strong opponent of civil unions in Opposition, and I do
not think we can expect much progress on our issues in the current term with her 
as Minister.  We have nevertheless written to her setting out our main concerns
and seeking what (if anything) we might expect to see by way of initiatives over
the term of the government.

We have done the same with the other main political parties in parliament and
have already had a response from both the Greens and Labour in that context. 
By the time this report is considered we will have met with both and I can report
further verbally.  We will be urging them to work co-operatively on our issues on
most of which they share ground.  Issues raised have included such priorities as
gay marriage, single gender adoption, homophobic bullying in schools, and the
implementation of To Be Who I Am.  On this latter we have urged those who
have taken up specific issues to pursue their concerns through the Human Rights
Commission where we think a good deal of progress could be made but they do
not seem amenable to this and are fixated on changed the HR Act.

Notwithstanding the government's lack of enthusiasm for progressing gltbi rights,
we have approached Ministers on a range of individual issues which have
included: the failure of our representatives to publicly get behind US and British
UN initiatives on discrimination against gltbi communities in a significant number
of member states; transgender issues regarding the housing of prisoners and the
recording of gender on birth certificates; and homophobic bullying.

Our issue regarding the blocking of Wifi access on an apparently discriminatory
basis by the McDonald's chain seems to have regrettably stalled partly over the
failure of McDonalds to respond in any positive way to the HRC mediation
process and because it would be hard for us to make the case at the Human
Rights Review Tribunal.  This latter is not because a case cannot be made
(although it would not be cut and dried) but because our pleas for some
professional evidence regarding the technology involved has not met with a
membership response.  If we do not have this formal evidence we cannot
proceed.

Our efforts to seek a rapprochement with the Salvation Army have continued and
we have made significant progress although that has been pretty much under the
radar to date.  We now have an agreed exchange of views and are working on a
joint text to go public by way of a media release.  The outcome may surprise
some people.

We have met with the new chair of the Human Rights Commission by way of a
courtesy call and were very cordially received.  His background is in disability
issues but he seems to have a sympathetic understanding of our concerns and is
clearly willing to fill in any gaps he may have in his understanding.

Finally in this area it looks as if there is going to be some progress on the blood
donation issue with the desired movement among larger metropolitan
governments, in Europe in particular, starting to happen.  We remain in touch
with the Blood Service at their initiative over this.

Membership and Patronage

Our individual membership remains disappointingly static.  Our secretary in
particular has to spend far too much time chasing people up and I must repeat
what I said last year.  Our annual sub is very modest, particularly in relation to
what we do for members, and it is something that people should not have to be
reminded about. 

We are also delighted to welcome on board a new vice patron Jan Logie
following her election to parliament. 

Housekeeping

We have initiated a review of our objectives and our constitution so that these
reflect our current activities and strategic objectives.  The changes entailed will
be considered during the AGM and, I hope, endorsed. 

Board membership and attendance has been good and I thank board members
for their work and input, especially our secretary Tony Reed who has somehow
learned the trick of not needing sleep so that he can work on your behalf.  This
has added a new terror to opening one's emails but is all to the good for the
members.  And new blood on the Board is always welcome, of course. 

Tony Simpson
Chair of Rainbow Wellington