NZCF Constitution Review – First Stage Consultation
On behalf of the NZCF Council and Reregistration Subcommittee, below is the first stage consultation document for the review and rewrite (or replacement) of the constitution of the New Zealand Chess Federation (NZCF) – this has also been circulated to NZCF life and club members by email. Some regulations, particularly the Supplementary Regulations, may require some updates as well depending on the submissions. The consultation document provides explanations of requirements throughout, and includes questions regarding various aspects of updating or replacing the constitution for submitters to answer. Submissions are welcome from anyone (there is no monopoly on good ideas!), but particularly encouraged from member clubs (there is a tickbox at the end of the document to indicate an official member club submission). Note before printing that this document has 31 pages.
Submissions are preferred on the document provided (it is a Word document to allow typing), but submissions will be accepted and considered in any reasonable format. Questions can be left unanswered where the submitter does not have a view. While a number of questions are framed around particular ideas, submitters may provide other suggestions if they wish. There are some catch-all questions for any aspects not covered elsewhere in the consultation document.
The due date for submissions is 28 February 2025 – if necessary, extensions may be requested through Craig Hall. The Reregistration Subcommittee will collate the feedback and prepare a report with recommendations for the Council. Where there is no clear preference in the feedback regarding particular aspects of the constitution, these aspects will be referred to a workshop to work through these with a view to making recommendations. Recommendations will be used to prepare drafting instructions for a law firm (most likely Parry Field) with an aim to adopt the new constitution at an SGM at the end of July, noting that the Council will avoid school holidays and tournaments. The report and submissions will be published to the extent possible (for submitters who prefer their submissions not to be published, there is a tickbox at the end of the document to indicate this).
The intended timeline is as follows:
- 28 February 2025: Submissions close
- Late April 2025: Workshop
- May 2025: Drafting of new constitution by a law firm
- Late July 2025: SGM to adopt new constitution (Council will avoid clashing with tournaments and holidays)
There will be some online sessions to go through this. The first of these will be Thursday 12 December (this week) at 7:30pm – a calendar invitation has been sent to life members and member clubs with a Teams link in it. Craig Hall is also available to attend club committee meetings by Teams/Zoom – please email Craig to discuss.
To recap, the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 was passed by Parliament, replacing the Incorporated Societies Act 1908. There is a transition period for existing societies (like the NZCF and affiliate member clubs) to reregister by April 2026.
In February 2024, a Special General Meeting (SGM) of the NZCF was held which resolved that NZCF should reregister as an incorporated society under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022. As part of the notice calling the SGM, a paper was provided setting out the steps required for reregistration. The main step is to adopt a new constitution which meets all the requirements of the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, along with other relevant laws e.g. Charities Act (the NZCF is a registered charity), and the Council undertook to run a consultation process which would provide opportunities to provide feedback and ideas for the new constitution and Supplementary Regulations, followed by another round of consultation on specifics (particularly where there is no clear agreement on particular matters from the initial consultation). This is the first stage of consultation in that process.
Many thanks are due to the rest of the NZCF Reregistration subcommittee of John Ansell, Richard Christie, Stephen Lukey, Nigel Metge and Caleb Wright, and apologies in advance for any errors.
Some useful links with information about reregistration and constitutional requirements: