NZRA Board Nominations

Do you have the leadership skills to motivate and inspire? If so, the New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA) needs you on its Board. NZRA is a charitable body governed by a national Board of seven people. Four Board positions are elected by the membership and three positions are appointed by NZRA's Board Appointments Panel. Click here for the nomination form.


MSC Updates

With all this snow around, backcountry avalanches are a risk for outdoor participants. Check out the New Zealand Avalanche Advisory (NZAA) for more information on avalanche risks and to keep yourself safe.

MSC have launched the final in their series of outdoor recreation guides. 'Backcountry Mountain Biking' is available to read and download.


Certificate on Outdoor Leadership - Caving Unit Standards

Skills Active are now seeking feedback on the Caving Unit Standards as part of the TROQ process. Be great to have NZOIA members summit feedback.
Click here for the consultation survey and programme overview documents. Consultation closes 5pm Tuesday 15 August 2017.


Safety alerts - SCUBA and SCBA cylinders

WorkSafe New Zealand considers that there are health and safety risks arising from SCUBA and SCBA cylinders manufactured from aluminium alloy 6351, and has withdrawn their design approvals. Read the alert here.

Board Talk August 2017

Strategic planning for the next 3 years was the main focus of the Board meeting last month.  With Sport NZ funding now in place through until 1 July 2020, the Board is looking at what we think NZOIA should look like in 3 years time.
 
We identified three key questions/areas of focus:

• Funding model – what can we expect in future grant funding and should we further review our membership/assessment/course fee model
• Membership – what are the opportunities to further grow NZOIA’s membership and how do we capitalise on these
• Alignment with NZ Certificate qualifications – recognising that NZOIA qualifications are valued in the “market place”, how to best to continue to make them available in the context of NZ Certificate developments, and where to with the alignment process with Skills Active.

We will run a session at the Symposium/AGM on these topics, but in the interim if you have views on NZOIA’s strategic directions you would like us to hear drop an email or pick up the phone to your elected Board members (contact details are on the website), or email the NZ Board at board@nzoia.org.nz
 
Other agenda items were the regular financials, health and safety, business plan update, and TSC update, and review of the NZOIA Code of Ethical Practice for Outdoor Instructors.  Jo Thompson (Martindale) is leading the process for consideration of any revisions at the AGM so drop her a line if you have any views on that - jo.thompson2017@gmail.com

Gill Wratt - Chair

NEW! Artificial Whitewater Course Instructor Qualification

There's a new qualification on the block to meet the demands of the urban outdoor industry!  The qualification was developed for those people instructing on artificial courses such as the Vector Wero Whitewater Park in Auckland.  Natural whitewater and rivers are outside the scope of this qualification.  Check out the new syllabus and assessment guides here.  If you are a school teacher or instructor working on this course, you can now gain an external qualification to say you have the skills to competently carry out your job.  You can achieve this qualification through the Free Range Assessment model.  

NZOIA worked closely with Wero to develop this qualification to assess the unique skill set that an instructor requires on artificial courses.  NZOIA and Wero have a Memorandum of Understanding for the provision of the artificial whitewater course qualification. 

Check out some of their pics below.

Q: When submitting a logbook for a refresher, can I just send in a NZOIA summary sheet?

A: Nope, summary sheets are for assessment applications only so the assessor can quickly see if you have met the pre-requisites. As a professional working in the outdoors, it is important that you keep an updated logbook.  If the proverbial hit the fan you may be asked to produce a log as evidence of your currency and experience.  For you seasoned folk out there who log a significant amount of time, this does not mean you have to diligently fill in all the columns you once might have ie. what the weather was like or how the group complained all day, but you do need to provide enough detail ie; when, number of days, locations, role, group/employer. Sometimes we receive this as a separate word document but the best place to record this is at the bottom of your existing logbook. And maybe try and update this as you go, rather than leaving it until your next refresher to trawl through 3 years worth of old notebooks ;)