Can you believe 20 years has gone by? FICA has been an incredible initaitve that has become a significant player in the forestry sector - and I can say that as CEO for the last 5 years!
I won't go any further though without acknowledging the Board, who with John Stulen set this organisation on a trajectory of success. It's a hard ask to manage many people and satisfy all, but I always say if you get the majority, the few that are never on board were not going to be anyway!
Who wrote that book, "Don't sweat the small stuff!" Thats right Richard Carlson. He must be the most horizontal person I know to not sweat the small stuff but god he got it right. It is good to know what makes everyone tick, whats important to some and not to others.
We have had our Board communicate with all members over these last few weeks. Some may not quite be complete but what an awesome fact finder that has been - thanks to my Board for the huge committment, and to those members who had a chance to feedback. I will be presenting some findings at our AGM - 20 Year Celebration in Rotorua this week.
We launch into this next 7 days of significance. Almost 2 years ago the FICA Board spoke about the opportunity to manage an EXPO (Big Boys Toys I called it) and goodness it's going to be a few more big toys than I ever imagined. Come on down to the Rotorua Racecourse this week Friday 18 & Saturday 19, you will not be disappointed - check out the pre-supplement of the event loaded up in the newletter.
Note an apology with regards to our last newsletter, the listings of the organisations involved in the collaborative letter to Te Uru Rakau for the Industry Transformational Plan omitted NZIF. As an update on the submission, we are subsequently still waiting on a reply from TUR but not holding our breath. The final plan gets launched at the National Field Days end of this month.
Just over 5 weeks until Xmas, and then closing out 2022 with one more newsletter to go, four more articles to write up and a huge list to do before I can put up my feet as you are probably all thinking about. What a bloody crazy year - good, bad and ugly.
Watch out for information about our last webinar too for the year - Wednesday December 7 with Immigration NZ going through the new Accredited Employer Work Visa process.
Ask your mate tomorrow, if they are OK, thats going to be more powerful to this sector than we even imagine! You just have to read what is below versus this time 2-3 years ago to see how the world has changed so much!
Lets have a beer at the EXPO this week and just enjoy being passionate (maybe crazy) to love this industry.
