Minutes of the Meeting of the Ako Aotearoa Board

MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE AKO AOTEAROA BOARD HELD ON FRIDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2016 IN THE SUDIMA AIRPORT HOTEL, AUCKLAND

The meeting was preceded by a Board only session and commenced at 10.15 am

Present: Dr Graeme Benny (Chair), Margaret Taurere, Dr Gabrielle Wall, Dr Peter Stevens, Jacqualene Poutu, Dr Jill McCutcheon, Dr Jennifer Harré Hindmarsh, Greg Durkin, Claire Hague.

In Attendance: Dr Stanley Frielick (Director), Helen Lomax (Deputy Director Sector Services), Nyk Huntington, Rhonda Thomson and Jacqui Devery (Minutes).

Apologies: Donna Buckingham

16-6/1 ADMINISTRATION

16-6/1a Welcome/Apologies The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and an apology was noted from Donna Buckingham.

16-6/1b Declaration of Interest Register The Board noted the Declaration of Interest Register.

16-6/1c Minutes of Previous Meeting The Chair noted that the Board had agreed to include some of the actions and decisions from the previous Board Alone Minutes into the full Board Minutes of 20 October 2016. The Minutes would be modified to include those actions.

The Board proposed the following amendments to the Minutes of the previous meeting:

 Page 11, the Academy Representative’s name be inserted as Kelly Pender;

 Page 10, under the heading ‘Board Meeting with Māori Caucus’ amend sentence to read ‘Ako is a truly Treaty relationship based organisation’;  That ‘AKO’ be minuted as ‘Ako’.

It was moved: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 20 October 2016 be approved as a true and correct record.

Jennifer Harré Hindmarsh / Margaret Taurere Unanimous - CARRIED

16-6/1d Matters Arising – Action List The Director noted the following points from the Action List:

16-3/7a Peter Hodgkinson from IOD had offered some training options for the Board but this was on hold until the new Board was in place.

16-4/2a Comments had been received from both Massey and the Māori Caucus on the Trust Deed.

16-4/3a Recruitment to provide a 0.5 support for the Deputy Director Māori in the Auckland office was ongoing.

16-5/0 Advertising for Board members had commenced and the deadline for applications extended to the New Year.

The Board AGREED:

12-5/14 To remove item 12-5/14 from the Action List.

The Board discussed the relationship between Ako Aotearoa and the Academy. The Academy agreed their input as ambassadors of Ako Aotearoa was extremely valuable and that the Board look at ways to fund some of the Academy members to work on Ako Aotearoa’s behalf. The Director to look at how we can proactively achieve this.

Action: Director

Margaret Taurere queried whether Ako Aotearoa was providing sufficient support for professional development of Māori teachers in the sector.

Jacqualene Poutu suggested this could be a strategic opportunity for professional development sessions between members of the Academy and non-members.

The Chair noted that in discussions with the Director, the relationship with the Academy was part of the strategic refresh. The Board discussed possible reasons for the low number of wānanga that participated in the professional development programme. It identified the need for a higher profile of the Academy and the services it offered.

Greg Durkin suggested the Board collect data around the level of engagement of Ako Aotearoa with Māori educators across all other sectors and build this into the strategic plan.

Action: Director

16-6/2 GOVERNANCE

16-6/2a Health and Safety The Health and Safety Update was taken as read.

The Director noted that since the recent earthquake all staff had been issued with civil emergency kits.

16-6/2b Finance and Risk The Finance and Risk Update was taken as read.

16-6/2b(i) Financial Report The Financial Report was noted and the following points raised:

 Greg Durkin queried why the income in the P&L was down and whether that had been anticipated. The Director deferred this to Helen Lomax’s report and its relation to the downward trend of attendance at public professional development workshops.

 The expenditure was not where it had been forecast to end and Greg asked why the Academy had been significantly underspent. The Director explained the total costs for the symposium had not yet been received.

 Greg also noted there appeared to be an increase in the area of 90 days’ accounts receivable and whether support was required to manage this.

 The Board noted this was a very well presented report.

16-6/2b(ii) Risk Matrix The Board noted this report.

It was moved: That the Board approve the Financial Report and Risk Matrix.

Greg Durkin /Jacqualene Poutu Unanimous - CARRIED 16-6/3 OPERATIONAL REPORTS

16-6/3a Director’s Report (Stanley Frielick) The Board noted the Director’s Report.

Greg Durkin queried the further six-month contract with the He Taunga Waka project and the next steps forward. The Director updated the Board and explained that Joe Te Rito was in the final stages of wording that contract and sending it to TEC. TEC had given a six-month extension and during that process would undertake a review and possible further contract. They would like to see the work on cultural competence made available to the rest of the sector and that this be written into the contract.

Helen Lomax, Rhonda Thomson and Nyk Huntington joined the meeting at 10.53 am.

16-6/3b Regional Hubs update including PD report Q1-Q3 (Helen Lomax) Helen Lomax briefed the Board on her report and noted the large number of public workshop cancellations. She stated there had been low attendances throughout the country, notably the South Island and Central hub. While there had been a good uptake in the PTE sector, the spend on professional development had been low.

Assessment and learner engagement had decreased from previous years and Helen suggested that content may need to be refreshed. A planning day was scheduled for facilitators at the end of January 2017.

Helen noted market saturation and increased in-house training had both been contributing factors to the low attendance levels.

The Director stated they had been looking at the Ministry of Education model which took a COL approach (Communities of Learning). They have a centralised register of professional development providers who are accredited by the Minister. When an education provider requested professional development training they were matched with a registered provider.

Helen outlined the need to move into new areas of training such as learning analytics and vocational education.

Claire Hague noted the role of LI support staff in ensuring students success and that they were keen to receive training.

Greg Durkin suggested revising the income target from $280,000 to $200,000 to reflect the business plan. Jennifer queried whether, as part of the strategic refresh, Ako Aotearoa, along with ACE Aotearoa and wānanga, could analyse the number of Māori/Iwi staff benefiting from training relative to the percentage of people working in the area.

16-6/3c Deputy Director Maori (Joe Te Rito) The Director briefed the Board on the report on behalf of the Deputy Director. He noted total registrations for Tuia te Ako had reached 149 which put the event on a sound financial footing. The Director said this had been an amazing occasion with a focus on Māori issues and debates.

Margaret thanked the Board for the opportunity to run Tuia te Ako and Jacqualene said it had been a great benefit to have the Board represented at this occasion.

The Director thanked Te Wānanga o Aotearoa for co-hosting this event, the organising committee, Māori Caucus and the Wellington staff for all their efforts.

The Director’s thanks were also endorsed by the Board.

16-6/3d NPF 2016 synopsis (Rhonda Thomson – Project Funds Manager) The Board thanked Rhonda for all her work with Ako Aotearoa.

The Chair noted this was an excellent and informative report.

Greg noted a conflict of interest on the last page. An application had been received from Mark Williams at the BCITO and Greg noted he was a member of his staff.

Jennifer noted the Pacific theme had been in Board discussions for a number of years and that it needed to be addressed.

16-6/3ei Productivity Commission (Nyk Huntington – Senior Project / Research Analyst) The Chair noted Nyk’s response to the Commission was very well written.

16-6/3eii NZVET Research Forum (Nyk Huntington) Nyk informed the Board that this Forum had been very successful.

Claire Hague queried paragraph 6.7 on page 90 and the “notable competitor”. Nyk explained that next year there would be a one-off international conference that iTENZ had put in a bid to host. The extent to which this would be a direct competition was unknown at this stage. Nyk noted some possible competition for the same audience but was confident this could be managed by ensuring a good key note speaker. The Director informed the Board that Ako Aotearoa was funding Nyk to attend the Student Voice Conference in Scotland in February 2017. Nyk had been invited as an international speaker and saw this as an opportunity to follow up with some keynote speakers in the United Kingdom including Skills Development Scotland.

16-6/3f Academy Update The Board discussed the Academy Report and the following discussion ensued:

 Greg noted on page 94 under ‘Possibilities include’ the bullet point ‘Making more submissions on policy’. He felt it was inappropriate for the Academy to speak on behalf of Ako Aotearoa when making submissions and suggested a process be put in place that made it clear who they were representing.

 Jennifer noted that this addressed the question of the relationship between the Academy and Ako Aotearoa and how much the Academy was invited to enter into conversations with Nyk when drafting major policy submissions.

 The Chair stated that increased communications between the Academy and Board would assist with these issues.

 The Director updated the Board that Professor Christine Rubie- Davies had been nominated by the Academy to be the NZ Vice President on the new International Federation of National Teaching. He had met with Christine and made it clear that if Ako Aotearoa did support her to attend the next inaugural meeting, it would be in a co-funded model. The proviso would be when she returned she would hold a workshop with the Executive of the Academy and the Board of Ako Aotearoa.

 Jennifer noted that in Helen’s report there were discussions and actions around mentoring people in the Academy and stressed the importance of adding the ACE sector here as well.

It was moved:

That the Board approve all Operational Reports.

Greg Durkin / Claire Hague Unanimous - CARRIED

16-6/3g Meeting Schedule 2017 The Chair noted Donna Buckingham would be available for the first two meetings of 2017. Claire Hague agreed to attend the March meeting. Rhonda Thomson and Nyk Huntington left the meeting at 11.36 am.

16-6/4a ‘Independence’ – presentation from Director The Chair stated he had asked the Director to view progress towards independence and to discuss with the various parties what was required to progress this.

The Director briefed the Board and explained he had been reviewing the governance model and the work undertaken from 2010 to the present date. It had become apparent there were two types of independence; one was an independence from Massey and the other related to what an independent entity would be for. He noted TEC had not given any guarantee towards funding and that there was no correlation between independence and their continued funding.

He explained the sector was not ‘one size fits all’ and that this raised the question of what would be the best governance model to support this. He felt more focus was needed on the strategic goals of Ako Aotearoa and the appropriate business model to support this.

The Directed stated the key for the business plan was to enhance Ako Aotearoa’s presence across all sectors and to provide a physical and virtual presence through a network of ‘Ako Aotearoa Associates’. Developing partnerships with key organisations both locally and internationally was key and he noted they had recently received an invitation from the HEA to become a member of the Australasian Advisory Group.

He proposed building new revenue streams through membership, subscriptions, services and resource provision. The Director asked the Board to look at the relationship with Massey strategically and consider a partnership whereby we retained key services such as employment contracts and HR services but with increased flexibility and oversight over other services such as ICT and procurement.

The Chair noted this was up for discussion now but also at the next Board meeting.

Jacqualene said a number of the points the Director raised should have been raised two years ago, and she agreed that treading water was a very smart way forward. In developing partnerships with key organisations, Jacqualene also agreed a digital infrastructure would enable access for those not being reached at present.

The Director said that Giselle Byrne (AVC) had been asking legitimate questions around the drivers for independence. He proposed the Chair, Giselle Byrne and himself discuss what a partnership model might look like, keeping the legal entity with Massey but providing some fiscal autonomy over other services.

Jennifer noted a decision had been made to slow down the independence process based on the previous Chair’s advice. He had been cautious of a move toward independence when new funding was still to be negotiated. A clearer discussion was required between the Chair of the Board and the AVC of Massey about what an amended relationship model could look like as a transition.

The Chair informed the Board that he had been working with MBIE and had met with the Minister about two entities they were setting up in the health area. The Minister had made it very clear that those entities must be housed within an existing organisation.

The Director sought the Board’s approval to report to Mark Garisch that it was not Ako Aotearoa’s intent, at this stage, to move towards independence. Instead the preference would be to work within the existing parameters and that Ako Aotearoa have a presence in every town and institution of the tertiary sector through the network. If the AVC were a member of the Board, that would mitigate some of the risk of a shift to independence.

Jill McCutcheon queried whether, in discussions with Mark Garisch, the Director saw the nature of that grant changing. The Director replied that at this stage that was unknown.

Helen stated that at the last meeting with Mark, when asked what TEC’s support was for the move to independence, he replied that TEC could not comment either way as they had not been provided with a formal letter advising what was intended.

The Chair noted this issued had been ongoing. He suggested the Board decide on a path to be taken and that this be expedited within the next few months.

Claire Hague left the meeting at 12.20 pm.

The Chair noted that the Director would talk with TEC about a path forward and the Board would discuss with the AVC about the steps to take.

The Director raised the following points:

 Clarity around the next phase to develop a business plan and budget approved by the AVC;  Clarifying with TEC that this was a two-step process and that the Board and Massey would look to resolve some of the issues around gaining full Charitable Trust status.

Jill McCutcheon outlined the importance of understanding what impacted our business plan in terms of how Ako Aotearoa was financed and our relationship with Massey.

The Board discussed what it was they were trying to achieve by the first step. The following points were raised:

 Jennifer noted there were two points around this; one being the idea that Ako Aotearoa was as independent as it could be so that it had a multiple way of working that was meaningful to the huge diversity of sub sectors;

 Secondly, who would fund that and via what budget line through central government. Jennifer stated the Charitable Trust model could work if it was under the umbrella of a parent body.

 Having assurity that when that step was taken the money would follow, was fundamental.

 Margaret Taurere queried if it was possible to get what we wanted under the umbrella of Massey, why would we move.

 The Chair noted he had always believed Massey was not willing to negotiate a different relationship that gave the Board more delegation to the Chief Executive. However, the AVC had said she would be more than happy to have that tested. Separating the management response from the governance discussions around getting more autonomy in the shorter term.

 What were our non-negotiables and the best governance model that would work for the organisation?

 If the AVC were on the Board to represent the University at a senior level.

The Chair summarised the Board’s key points:

 To clearly differentiate management level discussions from governance level discussions;

 Governance level discussions between the Board and the AVC (and the Minister and TEC as required) would address some of the unanswered questions.  This would be a two-phase process: the first phase being we answer some of those questions; the second phase being subject to the first phase, moving towards a more independent model. Whether that more independent model could be achieved under Massey. If not, then we would seek a more independent status.

 The Director to discuss with TEC and commence work on a business plan for the next 12 months. The Board noted a degree of urgency to have this signed off by Massey and TEC.

 The Director to present at the next Board meeting a formal business plan for the next 12 months which included a refreshed strategy and a formal budget. The Director to check the reserves policy and include this in the business plan.

 The Director to provide a draft budget to the Board, with a maximum three-day turnaround for responses. Board members to reply to the Chair so a record of responses is kept.

Action: Director

Jacqualene Poutu noted, on behalf of the Maori Caucus, that some sentences had not been included in the Minutes around the Trust Deed. These were that a copy of the Trust Deed be sent out to either a constitutional group set up between the Board and the Caucus, or the Treaty Group, to review.

Jennifer queried the future of the Cultural Review Group.

The Chair proposed that Jacqualene map out the next steps for the morphing of the Cultural Review Group into the Constitutional Group and to provide some options, by email, to the Board in the next week.

Action: Deputy Chair

The Board agreed the Cultural Review Group required significant Board discussion.

Greg Durkin proposed a day be set aside outside of the next meeting. This day could be in two parts – one part to discuss Moana’s presentation to the Board and the Cultural Review and the other part working on the strategic plan for 2017/18.

The Director to arrange with Anita to find a date for a full day meeting in Wellington.

Action: Director / Anita Tailor There being no further business, the meeting concluded at 1.06 p.m.

Confirmed as a true and correct record:

30/1/17 ………………………………………………… ………………………….. (Interim Chair) (Date)