Minutes of Canterbury/Westland Branch Meeting
held on 14th June 2022 at 4:30pm
at
First floor function room, Christchurch City Council, 53 Hereford Street, Christchurch.
Welcome
Jeff Fahrensohn welcomed attendees to the first face to face meeting of 2022.
Attendance
Members were asked to complete the attendance register
Apologies
Apologies were received from J Blanken, P Bone, R Cooper, J Lilley, S Percy, W Roden, B Van Handeel
Minutes and Matters Arising
Jeff confirmed that no nominations had yet been received for election to the branch executive, and that the position of Chair is vacant. He announced that the board have approved an honorarium for the executive to attend this year’s conference in Rotorua and encouraged members to consider putting themselves forward for this role.
Correspondence In/Out
None
Board Update
Jeff Fahrensohn presented the board update (attached)
Guest Presentation: Mates in Construction – Taking care of ourselves and each other
The increase in the volume of building consents in the last 24 months have brought challenges and pressures that our sector was unprepared for. The large volume of consents and associated consenting delays have led to customer frustrations and dealing with this has meant that we are working under increasing pressure. Councils are also finding it hard to recruit and retain staff, leading to a shortage of skilled BCOs which has contributed to the problem.
Ongoing uncertainty around product availability and price rises means that we are likely to continue to feel these pressures for some time to come.
The team from Mates presented their general training session. This involved an insight into the suicide statistics in the Construction industry in NZ, why our sector is so overrepresented and how the Mates programme aims to help reduce this.
The session started with a short questionnaire so that members could reflect and note how they gauged their own mental wellbeing. The purpose of the Mates programme was explained, with an explanation of the current suicide statistics in the construction industry in NZ. Maddi explained that the construction sector is disproportionally represented in suicide statistics, with 10% of suicides since 2008 sadly being from the sector. 32% of a sample of the sector interviewed confirmed that workplace pressure has contributed to poor mental health.
Charlie followed this by discussing some tools and tips that we can all use to help ourselves and also to support our friends and colleagues if they are struggling. Charlie also highlighted the fact that anger is the primary symptom of poor mental health, and that many of the customers that BCOs are dealing with may respond poorly to interactions with BCOs (as regulators) but that this may be due in part to other pressures that they are experiencing.
The session was sobering but started some great conversations during the networking session that followed where members discussed the pressures that they have experienced and strategies that they have used to help. It was positive to reflect and have the opportunity to discuss this with other members who are sharing similar experiences.
The Secretary thanked Charlie and Maddi for their presentation, members for their attendance and Christchurch City Council for hosting the meeting and sponsoring the refreshments.
Networking and refreshments
Refreshments – Thanks to Christchurch City Council for kindly sponsoring refreshments