Momentum Waikato Update - July 2020
Published on 3 July, 2020
Nau Mai, Haere Mai.
We hope this finds you well and things are getting back to some sort of normal. It never slowed down for us and yet there was still a lot of catching up to do once we all returned to the office at Level 1. Here below is what you need to know.
Crisis puts funding resilience on agenda
Kelvyn Eglinton, Momentum Waikato Chief Executive
Kia ora tatou everyone.
Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis people have often said to us “We should have set up an endowment fund five years ago.”
It can be difficult for an over-stretched community organisation besieged by day-to-day challenges to build its long-term resilience, to pause the urgent and focus on the important. The pandemic has however emphasised and amplified the vulnerability that comes from a dependence on contestable, application-based funding and sponsorship.
In turn, the utility and assurance of Momentum Waikato’s central mission to build a regional endowment fund, within which community entities can invest all or some of their capital reserves for secure long-term income, has become more widely apparent during the recent challenges.
As a result, since the lockdown our conversations with a range of Waikato organisations have markedly accelerated towards action, as more boards recognise that an endowment is a cornerstone of a diversified and therefore sustainable funding base.
Mighty Waikato Cookbook feeds the need
Kia ora!
Momentum Waikato is delighted to be a partner in The Mighty Waikato Cookbook project!
This brand new e-cookbook celebrates and promotes favourite Waikato food establishments, encourages local hospitality patronage as doors start to open again, and fundraises via contributing to our Greatest Needs Appeal to get food to the region’s most vulnerable during the recovery from COVID-19.
It is can be purchased for a donation – from $5 but the more the better – and downloaded at www.mightywaikatocookbook.co.nz [deactivated May 2021]. A receipt and PDF download link will be sent to you.
You can recreate some favourite tastes at home and will be prompted to head to your local eateries to experience the rest of their menus!
How about donating what you would have paid for that favourite restaurant or café meal you have been missing? Or the cost of feeding a family for one day?
Waikato Women’s Fund reaches $100,000 endowment milestone
It’s fair to say the first half of 2020 has been one of exceptional circumstances, a time we’re unlikely to ever forget! But in between the lockdown experience in New Zealand’s fight against COVID-19, some highlights have stood out for Te Ira Waahine o Waikato, Waikato Women’s Fund.
Our first Annual Members’ Meeting (AMM) was held on Wednesday 20 May in the midst of Level 3 – the wonders of Zoom! This coincided with a significant milestone for the WWF – our endowment fund now sits at $100,000. This is wonderful recognition of the generosity of our members.
We welcomed six new committee members at the AMM, all of whom are committed to continuing the work of the dedicated establishment committee, many of whom have stepped down after two years of working passionately to see the Fund come to fruition.
Theatre progress slowed by crisis
The Waikato Regional Theatre project has continued to roll during the Covid-19 crisis, although progress has been slowed due to the resulting extra hurdles and other challenges.
The Waikato Regional Property Trust (WRPT), the new entity that will own and oversee the operation of the theatre, was focused for the first three months of the year on revisiting and determining the best procurement process for a construction contract. This culminated with the selection of Foster Construction as the primary contractor at the end of March, just as we entered Level 4.
Nga Mana Toopu o Kirikiriroa (‘NAMTOK’) meet with Momentum Waikato and the Waikato Regional Property Trust at the future Waikato Regional Theatre site, Thursday 11 June 2020.
The next step was the pricing process, wherein Fosters have been engaging with sub-contractors and suppliers to confirm the budget needed to complete the building. This stage was significantly delayed by the lockdown as access to the site was curtailed, such that it is still underway and the numbers are still a few weeks away.
Welcome to Rhianon Lewis
Rhianon Lewis has joined us as our new Office Manager, the role that keeps this whole show on the road!
Giving to the Waikato Women’s Fund: Bev Gatenby's donor story
Te Ira Waahine, Waikato Women’s Fund is one way of contributing to the future of women and girls in this beautiful region we live in.
As I sit down to write this post on ‘why I am a donor to Te Ira Waahine, Waikato Women’s Fund’, I am tossed by a storm of feeling. This is not easy to articulate, though the choice to be a donor was really easy. Writing and gifting are labours of love.
Waikato Vital Signs 2020 Report out soon
The 2020 edition of Momentum Waikato’s signature research project, Waikato Vital Signs, will be published in mid-July.
The COVID-19 crisis switched the inquiry’s community engagement from local workshops to an online survey, which inevitably means the resulting report will differ from what was originally envisioned.
Individual survey responses, rather than group brainstorming, has meant views and concerns have been more strongly expressed, often with more specific detail and suggested solutions, but possibly without some of the insights that would have hatched from the synergy of conversation.
And being based on an opt-in survey, inevitably there are also some geographical and sectorial gaps, so we will seek to fill them with supplementary research and reports over the next couple of years.
Nevertheless, this Waikato Vital Signs 2020 Report is an excellent product that will give you and the region’s decisionmakers a detailed and thought-provoking snapshot of the Waikato’s current data and community priorities.
