2020 has shown us that our aroha for others and our environment, along with the ability to look beyond ourselves is more precious than ever.

The National Executive has been busy working on a strategic plan to re-invigorate our Association. We engaged Billy Matheson, who you might remember as a keynote speaker at the 2018 conference, to facilitate this process. After thinking about some key questions, we met in Wellington to continue this work in October 2020. A report has now been prepared and we will be consulting with our members shortly so that you can all engage in this process of change. We welcome your comments, feedback and ideas so that we can ensure that our Association has a clear vision and purpose, enabling us to continue our work into the future.

We also need to remember to take some time to care for ourselves.  As David Henry Thoreau noted nearly 150 years ago, “We need the tonic of wildness”. He wrote this in his cabin by Walden Pond, which was not far from the busy town of Concord. Thoreau found wildness in what was just about an urban backyard. Like Thoreau said, “We can never have enough of nature”, and we can find nature close to our homes, maybe in ways you hadn’t thought about before. Take the time to slow down and notice our immediate surroundings in different ways and gain solace from nature.

We are all in this together. We will get through by relying on each other, sharing our ideas and collaborating in innovative ways.

Ngā mihi mahana me kia kaha

Sally Birdsall, Morag Vasaliki, Chris Eames, Anita Anderson, Pam Crisp, Gill Stewart, Robyn Zink, Annie McDonald, Anzac Gallate, Elspeth McMillan
NZAEE National Executive

Stay up to date with a summary from our latest meetings.

Visit the Seaweek website

Special thanks to Dr Mels Barton, who coordinated and led Seaweek in Auckland and nationally from 2011-19 and, since 2017, the Hauraki Gulf Monitoring Project (HGMP) – a science and action learning extension to Seaweek using the NZ Marine Studies Centre’s Marine Metre Squared (Mm2) project.

Following Mels’ resignation in May 2019, NZAEE called for expressions of interest to deliver the 2019 Hauraki Gulf Monitoring Project and to start preparing for Seaweek 2020. Shanthie Walker (EFS Solutions) was contracted to deliver the HGMP, and the Sir Peter Blake Marine Recreation and Education Centre (MERC) to start preparing for Seaweek.

Shanthie, with Mm2 Director Dr Sally Carson from the NZ Marine Studies Centre, achieved a fast turn-around of the 2019 HGMP including field work, follow-up work with schools and a teacher PD workshop, in time to meet Foundation North’s November reporting deadline.

MERC General Manager, Yuin Kai Foong and marine educator, Sara Kulins dived enthusiastically into preparing for Seaweek 2020 – even though it would be late November before NZAEE would know if its 2020 grant application to Foundation North had been successful. Fortunately it was!

MERC have done a great job and we look forward to working alongside them in the future, with MERC leading the overall direction and coordination of Seaweek and NZAEE in an advisory, support and governance role.

2020 Project Reports

Seaweek 2020 Snapshots report here: https://www.seaweek.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/08/Seaweek-2020-Report.pdf

Seaweek 2020 Outcomes Evaluation Report (Recreation Solutions Ltd.) here: https://www.seaweek.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/08/Seaweek-2020-Evaluation-Report.pdf

Hauraki Gulf Project’s 2019 report here: https://www.mm2.net.nz/files/dmfile/mm2-report-november-2019-final-3-4.pdf

Thanks everyone!

Our thanks to all of the people and organisations, our volunteer regional coordinators and event organisers across the country, and our national sponsors and all our regional sponsors for their invaluable support for Seaweek 2020 and the Hauraki Gulf Monitoring Project. Thank YOU for being a part of it all.

Planning for 2021

We are also looking towards Seaweek in 2021. In conjunction with the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre and the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, another application for funding Seaweek and the Hauraki Gulf Monitoring Project has been submitted to Foundation North, our major sponsor.