ONZL was appointed as the Society’s Secretariat provider in 2013 following the retirement of our long-standing part time secretary. At that time Council considered a number of options, including a like-for-like replacement, outsourcing to a professional secretariat provider, and sharing the administration services of another professional association. The professional secretariat provider was the clear preference, due to the range of skills we were able to access, the full-time office hours and the retention of our autonomy. ONZL ticked all the boxes, including having offices in both Auckland and Wellington.

The services ONZL provides to us include:

• Council Secretariat; preparing the Council agenda, meeting papers and managing meeting logistics.
• Event Management; working with the Events Committee to promote events and help manage event logistics.
• Website; last year saw the project management of the creation of NZSA’s new website and ongoing updates as required.
• Communications; following the re-launch of the bi-monthly newsletter, ONZL provides editorial services, newsletter distribution and communications advice.
• Membership Management; managing the process of membership applications, changes and updates.
• Actuarial exams supervision (reimbursed by the IFoA).
• Committee Support; liaising with the Committees and provision of secretariat support as required. For example, currently ONZL is working with the Professional Standards committee on PS90.
• Finance; provision of financial and management accounting, budget preparation and cash flow monitoring. This includes everything from accounts payable/receivable to preparing the statutory accounts received by NZSA’s external auditors.
• ONZL provides assistance as requested; for example AGM management, associated reporting, answering general enquiries and issuing surveys.

Prior to engaging ONZL, financial work fell much more heavily on the Society’s Treasurer, rather than simply having an overview and being able to concentrate on the big picture. Although the cost of the Secretariat is a large part of our regular outgoings, Council strongly believes it is a cost effective and valuable part of our operations, and has increased the services and level of professionalism we provide to members. In particular, it frees up our volunteers to do use their specialist skills rather than getting bogged down in administrative work. We are very grateful to the support we receive from Susan Wells in managing our Council meetings, where we frequently draw on her vast governance experience, Chantal and Bev who take care of our day to day administration, Jackie who managed our website review, Andrea who helps us with our newsletter and the rest of the ONZL team.

ONZL specialises in providing these services to a range of associations, boards and not-for-profits. You can find out more on their website www.onzl.co.nz