Tēnā koutou ki te whanau,

Nga mihi o te ra. 

September has been another busy month for the Executive. 

After lodging a submission on behalf of the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Tuia Pito Ora on the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon Amendment) Bill 2019 we were asked to present the submission to the Select Committee on 30 August at Parliament.  Thanks to Julia Williams and Clive Anstey who ably stepped in at the last minute to give the oral presentation on our behalf.  Julia and Clive did a great job.  You can read the submission and see the oral presentation here.     
 
I attended an Industry Association Committee (IAC) meeting at Unitec on 18 August along with a number of members of the NZILA and Unitec staff. The meeting generated some interesting discussion and should help to forge closer ties between Unitec and the profession.  Unitec has been through a lot of change over the last year or so and it’s good to see the staff engaging with the Institute and the profession. 
 
The Executive had a meeting in Tāmaki Makaurau on 20 September.  As has become custom, we met with the local branch the night before and had a good catch up, with some thoughtful feedback from branch members on local issues.  We had a very full agenda and got through a lot of work during the meeting.  We will be in touch with the membership soon with an update on progress on the main projects we are working on including the Governance Review and the Landscape Guidelines.     

I have just returned from a whirl wind trip to Chengdu, China where Renee Davies and I were invited by the Chinese Society of Landscape Architects to give a presentation at the 2nd Park City Symposium.  Chengdu has become the poster city in China for the integration of parks and natural environments into the fast-developing Tianfu new town urban expansion area.   

The New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Tuia Pito Ora supports the declaration of a Climate and Biodiversity Loss Emergency by IFLA.  At the IFLA World Congress in Oslo, Norway NZILA had strong representation where the 77 voting nations supported the declaration unanimously.  

We are getting really close to the first week of November, when we will see the Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture 50 Year celebrations, the 2019 NZILA Firth Conference and the Resene New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architecture Awards 2019 Dinner on 8 November to mark the end of the Conference.   The first week of November will be the biggest week on the event calendar for the Institute in 2019, so if you haven’t registered or got the tickets you need to take part, then now is the time.  It’s going to be a huge week and I’m really looking forward to it.   

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

Mā te wā,

Brad