and CEO From the Recreation Aotearoa

MARK BOWATER

Kia ora koutou. What a crazy year 2020 has been! Unprecedented and extraordinary, we have had so much disaster and adversity happening around the world. Extreme weather events, raging bush fi res, drought, fl ooding, we have seen it all. And Covid-19. This has been a global pandemic that has radically disrupted our societies and caused over a million deaths internationally. In Aotearoa, our borders have been tightly controlled for months and our economy has struggled with the eff ects of alert-level lockdowns and restrictions.

We have seen and experienced the huge value of parks and recreation, and connection to nature during these trying times. We have recognised and ANDREW LESLIE

2020 has been an interesting year for all of us. As the Covid19 pandemic broke and New Zealand went into lockdown, Recreation Aotearoa positioned itself as the organisation for the recreation industry to come to for the latest news and updates. I’m really proud of the response that our team provided, and wanted to share some of it with you.

Starting with an update page, we quickly realised that there was a huge amount of information out there that we would need to share with our members

FROM THE RECREATION AOTEAROA CHAIR

appreciated our people who have worked in these areas, and our essential workers have been highly respected. We are evolving new models of how we work, how we communicate, what we focus on with constrained fi nances, and in local government realms, who needs our help the most. In the process, we are building resiliency, which we will need more of as we go forward.

That brings me to a special point. I want to reference the story of Andrew Leslie, CEO of Recreation Aotearoa, during 2020. In March, Andrew had a serious mountain bike accident. He was doing what he loves to do, but it all went wrong. He suff ered a signifi cant spinal injury and was hospitalised in a serious condition. Andrew was in a specialist hospital spinal unit for months. During that time, Andrew’s rehabilitation progress has been inspiring and remarkable, and is a true testament to his inner strength and spirit. We have followed his progress in awe, as he has taught himself how to walk again, from tentative steps on crutches to and the industry. We built a mini-website to collate this information into one location and developed a brand for all Covid-19 related communications. This made relevant information easy to recognise for our audience and forged a connection with the government Covid19 communications.

The ever-evolving circumstances surrounding Covid-19 are uncertain and challenging, and as the leadership organisation for recreation in Aotearoa, we wanted to be sure to keep an open stream of conversation with the sector. We set up a series of virtual meetings across our sectors for our members to openly discuss, with us and their peers, the impact Covid-19 is having on their day-to-day business. These virtual coff ee and chat meetings provide an opportunity for us to check in on each other and share our stories, strategies and solutions during this time.

We shared these conversations via FAQs on our mini-site, so every sector cross country mountain walks. This has absolutely been a story of determination, positive attitude and self-belief — often against the odds.

The team at Recreation Aotearoa have been amazing in how they have stepped up to help cover key roles and activities during this leadership disruption, and deserve a huge thanks. The support of the Recreation Aotearoa Board, the wider membership, key stakeholders and colleagues has also been incredible. I know that collectively this has made a big diff erence for Andrew.

It has been a long road to recovery for Andrew, and following a carefully managed and progressive return to work plan, he is back to working full time and making the positive diff erence he enjoys. This is an inspiring story, and I know Andrew is looking forward to the opportunity to share it all when the time is right. Noho ora mai (stay well).

Mark Bowater

FROM THE RECREATION AOTEAROA CEO

Recreation Aotearoa Chair could benefi t from the insights shared across all meetings. The coff ee-andchats sessions have been incredibly successful and will continue on a monthly basis, hosted by each of our programme managers.

The entire recreation industry has reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic and developed innovative solutions to keep the nation active during lockdown. We created a page on our website to share these fantastic stories and inspire the rest of the industry. Around Aotearoa shared stories of creativity and inspired others to develop their own programmes.

We’re looking forward to building back bigger and better in 2021 and supporting the recreation industry to thrive in the new normal.

Andrew Leslie Recreation Aotearoa CEO