Kia ora e te whanau,

Nga mihi o te ra. 

March 2019 has been a busy month for the Executive.

We had an Executive meeting in Christchurch on 1 March, as well as a celebration of Di Lucas New Years honours with the local Branch, the evening before. Louise Bailey and the Canterbury Westland Branch did a great job of hosting us and Di responded beautifully by handing out both urban and rural lyrics for ‘Don’t fence me in’ as she led us all in a loud (but not necessarily in-tune) sing song.   
   
The 2019 Conference Creative team and the Operational team have both made great progress on planning for the conference in November in Christchurch.  The theme, DISRUPTION, centres on the responses that critical-thinking people have actioned in the face of disruption, whether this has been instigated by natural systems or humans.  The theming, speakers list, venues and event logistics are taking shape.  It’s going to be a landmark conference at the end of the year. 

We are continuing to make progress on our two main projects – the Governance Review and the Landscape Assessment Guidelines.  Look out for more information updates on both soon.

Next week the NZILA AGM will be held on 5 April in Tāmaki Makaurau and will be followed by a landscape research workshop co-ordinated by Dr Julian Bolleter and facilitated by the Landscape Foundation.  Both will be well worth attending if you are in town.   

The Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards 2019 applications close on Monday 1 April (nothing at all humorous about the date given the busy time of the year).  You have the weekend to get your entries in.  It’s going to be a strong year for award entries and we have some very high calibre judges on hand to decide the winners. 

Unfortunately 15 March 2019 will be remembered in the history of Aotearoa as being one of our darkest days.  We have all been shocked by what happened in Christchurch.  We stand with our Canterbury friends and whanau to help them through this time.  We are looking forward to showing Christchurch our support later in the year. Aroha nui Ōtautahi. 

As always, if you have anything you want to share with me, then please drop me a line  
 
Mā te wā,
Brad