2008 AGM
Rangatira Alpine Sports Club (Inc)
Minutes for the 50th Annual General Meeting
Held at Remuera Golf Club, 7.30pm on the 30th March 2008
Present:
43 members as per the attendance register.
Life members: B Chambers, B Strevens, D MacPherson, J MacPherson.
Foundation Members: G Fairley, B Wiseman, R Sissam
Members: P Oosterbaan, T Oosterbaan, M Oosterbaan, V Papesch, D Papesch, B Sullivan, J McCurran, D McCurran, R Wimsett, J Wimsett, L Baker, P Boberg, P Boberg, S Stewart, J Baker, M Hyams, D Hyams, J Hyams, N Tribe, K Wiseman, D Strevens, B Ferguson, G Rees, S Waugh, J Moses, M Moses, J Philo, C Burton, J Ashby, G Ashby, A Cornwall, T Cutten, P Rowe, Z Rowe, K Rowe, E McFie,
Guests: P Jenkin, C Simpson.
Apologies:
P Clemow, N Price, C Milbank, P Milbank, A Haueter, M McDougall, B Worthington, C Dempsey, J Neale, I MacPherson, B MacPherson & Family
Obituaries:
None
Minutes of Previous Annual General Meeting 3rd March 2007:
Taken as read and accepted as a true account of the meeting.
Moved S Stewart Seconded M Hyams
Carried unanimously.
Matters Arising: None
Presidents Report:
Taken as read.
Moved B Wiseman Seconded N Tribe
Carried unanimously.
The President would like to refer to General business two items from the Presidents report for discussion.
(1) Differential Rating of tariffs between Iwikau & Turoa.
(2) Electricity – Lines Charges
Opened for discussion
Electricity - main problem is not so much with the actual cost of the power we are using it is more to do with peck demand. We have a charge that we pay for peak demand usage and we are obviously only using Iwikau for 3 months of the year but we are getting the privilege of paying this fee for the full 12 months of the year and it is pretty substantial. It has risen about $6000 in the last two years and still rising. They are hitting small groups like the Iwikau village that are getting really hammered and are not in a position to increase their income. Not only are we paying for electricity but also for lines charges to the lodges.
Iwikau 2006 - Iwikau 2007 = 22% increase. In terms of 2008 we are due for another increase of 16% again on top of the 2007 increase making the total increase over the 3 year period of 38%.
$9.72 was the actual cost in dollars per night for everyone booked in last year whether it be w/end or m/week. This is a large chunk out of our tariff of $30.00 w/end and $20.00 m/week.
Turoa will be hit this year but not to the same extent as Iwikau.
We deal with King Country Energy and we do not have a problem with the power company. Our problem lies with The Line Company the transmission operator that is cranking up the charges and referring to it as “fair pay” and their rational behind it is that we build a highway to run e.g Auckland peck traffic eight lanes wide and if you don’t need it at 12 oclock in the morning then that is too bad they will still build an eight lane highway so the same with the power net work they need to build cables and networks to provide us with peck usage whether you use it or not. In our misusage they have said our peck usage 71 day period over August/September and they calculate out our particular usage at that time. It is all rather theoretical they don’t have meters or anything like that. I think that our usage over this period is higher. As you are aware we are only there for three and a half months of the year and Iwikau has to pay $1155.00 per month every month. Turoa is $650 per month every month. They are targeting everyone on demand. Our highest demand is August/September period when of course the lodges are full and everything is going flat out. Even private owners of ski lodges e.g. three bedroom houses is exactly the same.
Questions and views from the floor
B Chambers;
When they went underground the first time 30 years ago all the clubs had to pay a capital charge for the line.
V Papesch:
We have just had to pay again for the line to be upgraded and to go underground.
B Chambers:
We have already paid for this in a capital sum.
P Oosterbaan:
What we have just paid for is for the line from the Chateau to State Highway 1 to go underground at a cost $1000.00 for each club.
A Cornwall:
Who owns the line? If you have paid a capital charge do you not own the line. I believe if we have paid the capital charges there is defacto ownership of that asset and in normal capital charges situations if you have paid for something you don’t need to pay for it again in the form of a levy that is called double dipping. The second issue is that all the businesses in our area will be affected in exactly the same way.
I am privy to power negotiations going on at present and know that the budget figure of a 10% is allowed for the increase in charges over the next year. Ohakune will play catch up to the charges at Whakapapa. These increases are planned to continue over the next 4 or 5 years.
P Oosterbaan:
We feel that The Lines company look at us as a very disorganized group (all of the mountain clubs) and that we are not going to do anything and that we will just pay the money.
A Cornwall:
We are dealing with a group of people far larger than just the Whakapapa ski village that would form an extended volume of maybe 260 businesses and I believe that there is in fact a case particularly when capital charges have been paid to go to the Commerce Commission on the pricing regime.
P Oosterbaan:
The Ruapehu Mountain Clubs Association has given us some template letters to send out and the Commerce Commission is one of them. Local M.Ps. and there is a whole host of people complaining about this. I think if we have a bit of pressure and be it public pressure is properly our best chance of success. They have also changed us from a rural client to residential client. There is some question over whether they can call us a residential client as we are in a rural area. There is no real rational in terms of how they have made these numbers up in terms of what your peck demands is because there are not any peck demand meters in place. Some clubs have been hit for a lot more than us and some have been hit for less. It is not constant.
V Papesch:
I just wish to clarify that it is not King County Energy that is putting these charges on us but “The Lines Company”
B Chambers:
The Lines Company bought from the King Country Power which then owned the whole installation including the generation and at the time when they first negotiated wishing to go underground I was the secretary of RMCA. The clubs all then had to pay a capital fee to do this. In turn KC Energy have now sold what’s not theirs. We need to go back to the Commerce Commission under the official information act and demand that they pay for it out of their workings
V Papesch:
The argument that they would put up being the devils advocate would be yes you paid for the line from that point to this point however as part of the greater grid you are still using a certain amount of that highway now whether it is equitable or not
J MacPherson:
What about RAL are they effected in the same way
P Oosterbaan
No they have supply contracts. They are not affected the same way and nor is the Chateaux to the same level. They are affected to a lesser degree. They may catch up in time when their supply contracts cease.
V Papesch
Just as Pieter has said we are one of 45 clubs that are affected on the mountain and there is a lobbyists and Wellington Catholic Club (Andrew Wellum) He is doing a great deal of work on this subject. There have been letters to Commerce Commission, the various M.Ps, (20 different letters have been sent out)
P Oosterbaan:
We would like our members to send out the template letters. The more people who do it the better. The intention is that all the clubs do this and it will have an impact being election year.
V Papesch:
The committee does not intend to just sit here and rolling over and we are going to have to pay these charges because properly we will unless we have huge legal defense so we are looking at other options for power energy sources and that’s really subject to this years review of what we do if we are stuck with it. Those rates are inequitable and there are in fact other options. It just comes at a capital cost.
Nolaleen Tribe
Could we not cut the power off over the period of time when we were not using it and what would it cost to reconnect?
V Papesch
The early discussions I have had third party. If you disconnect and reconnect you will end up paying for all the charges you didn’t pay during the disconnection period.
Jon Moses:
Could we place solar panels on the roof.
P Oosterbaan:
DOC will not let us have solar panels, generators or wind turbines.
V Papesch:
Preferred option at present would be to convert a number of the appliances to gas. We need to research if this is a viable option based on the condition of the appliances in extreme temperatures
T Cutten:
The price of a gas cylinder has gone up. When I installed it 6 years ago it was $48.00 a cylinder and is now $112.00 per cylinder for a 45kg cylinder.
V Papesch:
It’s not the cost of the electricity it’s the lines cost of getting it to the lodge. If we can reduce own demand during the peck period of July/August/September and we have already identified what those appliances are that are by far the largest user at peck period time for example the hot plate at Iwikau uses 25% -30% of our total power usage when that’s turned on. It’s drawing something like 25kwts but we can easily exchange it for a gas appliance that can do the same job. There are several quick fixes if gas is a viable option. Obviously hot water heating is another which runs 24hours a day whether we use it or not. Other lodges including RAL use gas now. I have already spoken to a gas supplier and getting it too us is not an issue.
N Tribe
Could we put up a false roof to help lower the heating cost to the lodge.
P Oosterbaan:
One of the problems we have is the peak demand that they are measuring. If we can spread our usage then we can reduce our peck demand it is a matter of how you do that. The worst time is in the evening when cooking and people are having showers the heaters are all on and there is a lot of power being used at once. There are properly ways we could manage this so we are not having such a great spike in the amount of power we are using. We have to be careful in what we do like if we go down the gas route and then find that gas becomes expensive. I think in the first option we need to look at how we can go about reducing these costs. We do need to also have a plan B.
V Papesch
That $9.72 is based on our current usage and if we can double our usage that $9.72 does not double. So if we can use the club more than the three and half months of the year the costs stay the same.
P Oosterbaan:
This is really where summer usage is going to become really important for us. Because these things although expensive are not going to be as hard to bear if we have our usage spread over a bigger period.
N Tribe
Did we manage to get in our summer groups this season.
P Oosterbaan
No it was pretty disappointing this season and we are properly not marketing it well enough. That’s an area that we do need some help on. We could certainly do better.
N Tribe
Christiana had school groups in all last season.
P Oosterbaan
That’s something that we would like to get as well. We have been trying to do it by getting our members to do it and I think properly that’s not going to be the way to go forward maybe we need to look at leasing it out or getting school groups or some other way of getting the club used so that that cost
Treasurers Report and Annual Accounts:
Taken as read.
Moved J Moses Seconded P Rowe
Carried unanimously.
A PowerPoint presentation of theClub’s accounts with comparisons to the 2006 financial year was presented and spoken to by Vincent Papesch. The 2007 accounts are presently at the auditors.
Appointment of Auditor:
Mr M I Holland to be re appointed as auditor for the ensuing year.
Moved B Wiseman Seconded B Sullivan
Carried unanimously.
Election of Officers and Committee:
Nominations Received and Accepted:
Pieter Oosterbaan – President
Barney Sullivan – Vice President
Vincent Papesch – Vice President - Treasurer
Jane Wimsett - Secretary
Paul Boberg - Club Captain
Committee Nominees:
Chris Smith, Jan Baker, Noel Price, Rob Yallop, Steven Stewart, Mike Hyams, John McCurran, Roger Wimsett, Craig Milbank
General Business:
2008 Subscriptions Increases
Couple $250.00 up from $220.00
Senior Couples $180.00 up from $160.00
Adult $180.00 up from $170.00
Differential Rates:
Opened for discussion:
Views from the floor:
J Moses – Power costs Iwikau verses petrol costs travel to Turoa
B Sullivan – Booking officers job will be made more difficult under differential rating
J Wimsett – Other clubs have not maintained their lodges as well as we have thus more capital expenditure
B Chambers – we are one club and both lodges should stay the same tariff rate
R Stewart – Would like rates to stay the same
B Strevens – Discussion is based on financial figures of being overfill on one side and not on the other need to look at ways of increasing the usage at Turoa
P Boberg – Would prefer to pay more at Iwikau and keep her feet warm
D MacPherson –
J Moses – Show of hands required
Vote – Stay as same rate over both lodges for 2008 season.
Summer Occupation, opened for discussion
Views from the floor:
M-R Moses – Need to make contact with the schools and tramping clubs and advertise the club
B Chambers – Need to liase with cycling groups
N Tribe – Possibility of outside membership for summer usage
P Boberg – existing membership not interested in summer usage we need to expand to outside interests
G Ashby – Need to take on more trampers as summer members
P Oosterbaan – Approach motor homes clubs
V Papesch – Need to plan and structure ahead for development and set up a summer committee to run the lodge.
C Burton – Advertise as brokers accommodation – Approach the Tour Operators - Offered to approach the schools on the clubs behalf
J Wimsett – Advertise Turoa to schools at $400.00 per night with their own food
B Chambers – Not easy to obtain schools over the holiday period. Advertise in Eduvac magazine.
J Moses – Do we have a figure of expected income that we would require from summer usage.
S Stewart – Need to advertise on the website for some person to run the summer activities.
Iwikau Ten Year Plan:
We as a club need to look ahead and write up a 10 year plan for the major capital expenses that will be required for Iwikau lodge. Need to evaluate the useful life left in the assets of this lodge and determine how many will need to be replaced. We could be looking at a budget of between $60,000 - $80,000. Works that come to light are the cladding and the drying room. Both need to be looked at over the next two years.
50th Anniversary 2008:
B Sullivan put to the meeting the need to organize the 50th anniversary. B Sullivan happy to head this committee and put suggestions to the floor:
(1) Ball at the Chateau
(2) Ball or function to be held in Auckland suggest somewhere like Ellerslie Function Centre.
(3) Date of function to be prior to the start of the season.
(4) Will put together costings of functions and circulate to members.
From the members at the AGM they felt that a function in Auckland would attract far more of the old and existing club members and would be priced more within the whole memberships budget.
Offers of help with this event came forward from S Waugh and J Wimsett.
Custodians 2008:
Iwikau: To be advertized.
Turoa: To be advertised.
Pieter Oosterbaan declared the meeting closed.
The meeting closed at 9.30 pm
Posted by Rob Yallop on 26 November 2008 at 11:52 AM