Notice of NZSS AGM

The 2016 NZSS AGM will be held in Waitomo at the Waitomo Discovery Centre at 6pm, 22/10/16. This year the AGM weekend is being hosted by ASG in Waitomo from 21st to 24th October (Labour weekend). The AGM weekend will be the usual mixture of caving trips, an hour of formality and then eating, drinking and entertainment and more caving. The approximate order of events will be:

• Friday evening: Meet and greet, at HTG. BYO
• Saturday Day : Caving and NZSS council meeting
• Saturday Evening: AGM (6pm), Dinner (7:30pm) , Entertainment, Competition winners
• Sunday Day: Caving (options for bouldering as well)
• Sunday Evening: The legendary ASG BBQ at Awatiro Hut (6:30pm for 7:30pm) with the return of the flying fox
• Monday: More caving and head home.

Friday night you can sign up for caving trips you are interested in or on the morning of the trip. There will be a mix of trips including those suitable for the beginner, the SRT inclined and things in between.

Also on Saturday Chris Whitehouse will hold a training workshop people who do or want to lead trips and club training officers to help them train people in their clubs on SRT, Rigging, Trip leadership etc.

Details of the competitions are given below.

There are lots of accommodation options including the HTG hut, Top10 Holiday Park, The Waitomo Hotel and various other Motels, Lodges, B&Bs and Backpackers in the Waitomo area. Please make these arrangement yourself and ahead of time as Labour weekend is a busy time around Waitomo. If you would like to stay at the Waitomo Caves Hotel, they have made several rooms available to the NZSS at a special rate of $109 per night or a Queen room. If you are interested, contact corinne@thewellesley.co.nz.

To register please fill out the Registration and send to trevnallie@gmail.com or send to: 4 Mistletoe Place, Browns Bay, North Shore 0630.

For more information about the event please contact Trevor Carswell: trevnallie@gmail.com / 09 479 1384

NZSS Grants and Competitions – 2016

GRANTS

Members or affiliated groups can be allocated a cash grant by the Society to assist with:

• A publication
• A gear purchase
• An expedition , or
• Other caving related activities approved by the council

Council invites applications for the Annual Grant. Please send application to Alison Pickford, Secretary NO later than October 10th 2016 The Grant recipient (s) will be decided at the NZSS AGM Council meeting. The amount of money available for grants is decided by Council.

COMPETITIONS

NZSS runs annual competitions for Surveying, Literary achievement and Photography. These take place at the time of the NZSS Annual General Meeting, held at Labour Weekend every year. The prizes are awarded at the AGM dinner after the Annual General Meeting.

1. Surveying Competition All maps produced during the year, and submitted to NZSS, are automatically entered in the surveying competition by the Maps Officers. The judge is appointed by NZSS Council. The judge will submit no more than four maps for the final judgement by Council, and will submit his/her recommendation to Council for consideration at the council meeting held on the day of the AGM. In the event of a tie the judge shall have the casting vote. Only financial members of NZSS may enter.
2. Literary Cup Competition This cup is presented for the best article of the year in either the New Zealand Speleological Bulletin, or the NZSS newsletter (the Tomo Times). The judging is performed by a person who has been selected by the Council for knowledge of caving and the associated literature. Only financial members of NZSS may enter.
3. Best Affiliated Group newsletter competition (The Lipyeat Trophy) This is awarded to the editor of the newsletter deemed best by the judge of the Literary Cup. The award may be for a particular issue of the newsletter, or for the year’s newsletter overall.
4. NZSS Photographic Competition Each year the Society holds a photographic competition, to stimulate interest in cave photography. There are four sections and an overall trophy, the NZSS Photo Competition Trophy. The competition is run by the Group hosting the NZSS AGM, and will be judged just before the AGM, with the winning entries being displayed at the AGM. Costs incurred by the host group in printing and mounting photos will be reimbursed by NZSS. RULES APPLYING TO ALL SECTIONS

• Only financial members of NZSS may enter
• Entries to be of a cave or caving scene
• All entries must be in the hands of the Competition Coordinator on the Friday two weeks prior to Labour Weekend, which is Friday 7th October 2016.
• The trophies and cups always remain the property of NZSS and must remain in New Zealand.
• Lighting for all photographs must have been directed by the entrant but processing by others is permitted.
• No photograph gaining any award may be entered again in any subsequent year
• Participation shall constitute automatic consent to reproduce images in the NZS bulletin, without charge or notice, but with due credit. Any photograph can only be entered in one section but you may enter up to three photographs per section.
• Any entry will be given “acceptance” only where the judge deems it has reached an acceptable level for inclusion in the competition.
• Each section shall have an award for the photograph of the highest standard. See Sections below for prizes. These may change from year to year. Each section needs to have three financial members enter to make that section live. If the section is not live then the prize is void for that section of the competition but award points will still be allocated and count towards the NZSS Trophy.
• Whenever possible, the competition will be judged by a member of the PSNZ (The Photographic Society of New Zealand) or other worthy person.

The Photo Competition Coordinator is not allowed to enter the competition.

• Entries may either be e-mailed as attachments or sent by mail as prints or on digital storage. Submission of entries in digital format is encouraged, preferably in jpeg format, as entries printed by the photographer may be printed to a different standard to those printed by the organisers, and therefore may be at a disadvantage. Photographs submitted on digital media will be printed at NZSS’s expense. All digital files must be appropriately named.
• E-mailed entries must not exceed 10MB per photo. They will be printed on photo quality paper in 200mm * 300mm (A4) size and will be mounted on plain card. Postal entries must be packed securely in reusable packaging for return delivery. Address for sending is advised by the group hosting the AGM and entrants are asked to contact the host group if they are unsure of the correct postal address. Return postage will be paid by NZSS. The Photo Competition coordinator will take all reasonable care of entries, but will not accept responsibility for any loss or damage. Entrants should arrange their own insurance if required. Entries will be returned after the NZSS AGM.

The Overall Photo Competition Co-ordinator 2016 is Bevan Thrower. Entries close Friday October 7th 2016. Send printed photographs, waterproof wrapped, via courier or post, to: Bevan Thrower 14A Cajero Place, Greenbay Auckland 0604 Contacts: Phone 021 952 052 Send email entries to: bevan.thrower@gmail.com

Photographic Competition Categories

1. Pybus Cup for Black & White/Colour Prints: All entries must have the title of the photo on the reverse side of the print. Entries may be either printed or digital, although digital entries are preferred. Prints should be approximately 300mm x 200mm and should be mounted, and all print entries must be titled on the reverse of the print. Digital prints must not be modified except as might be expected in a commercial printing environment.
2. Waitomo Caves Museum Trophy (Novice cup) for Black & White/Colour Prints: This section is to encourage those who are new to cave photography. Anyone who has previously won an NZSS photographic award or who is an experienced photographer shall not be eligible to compete for this cup. Entries may be either printed or digital, although digital entries are preferred. Prints should be approximately 300mm x 200mm and should be mounted, and all print entries must be titled on the reverse of the print.
3. Hobson Cup for Artistic/Modified/Fantasy Entries: may be modified as the photographer desires. Entries may be either printed or digital, although digital entries are preferred. Prints should be approximately 300mm x 200mm and should be mounted, and all print entries must be titled on the reverse of the print.
4. Diamond Cup Slide Show: not exceeding five minutes in duration compiled using suitable software. The entrant must check with the Photo Competition Coordinator that the required software will be available at the AGM to show the slides. All entries must be either on DVD or Memory Stick or may be emailed if under 10MB.
5. NZSS Trophy: The NZSS trophy will be awarded to the photographer attaining the highest aggregated points obtained from all the sections that they have entered, using the following points:

All sections

• Entry (non acceptance)  0 Points
• Acceptance                        1 Point
• Winning Entry                 3 Points