Message from the Chairman

The economy is still making it tough for most companies and I have noticed a corresponding slowdown in our industry. We recently held our annual conference and AGM in Taupo which was well attended. Thanks to all those involved in organising this event and those that attended. The AGM held on the Sunday marked the end of Dawn Wratts role as CTNZ secretary. Dawn has given many years of excellent service to CTNZ and the board thanks her for her efforts. Bill Lovell is taking over the secretarial role and combining this with his Industry Champion roll for CTNZ. The board is currently creating a survey that will be distributed to members shortly so that we can gather some information on the size of our industry. It is important to have this information when we are talking to government. There have been no changes to the board this year and we will continue to focus on those issues important to our industry.

Gordon Muldrew
Chairman

CTNZ Conference 2012 - Wairakei

Our national conference this year was held at Bay View Resort Hotel at Wairakei. This venue has proved to be successful for CTNZ with good conference facilities and administration team, excellent accommodation and well located with Taupo only a short drive away. Although this year’s conference was organised in a short time frame we had a 55 delegates attending and 7 participating in the partners program. The delegates program started on Friday with 32 attending an industry tour of Waratah Engineering at Tokoroa.

This was an enlightening and inspirational view of a production engineering facility which is using lean manufacturing philosophy to the maximum. Our Friday night drinks and canapés with Jazz music in the background gave everyone a chance to catch up and network. The full program started off on Saturday morning with a presentation on modern gating practices by Jack Frost which encouraged a lot of discussion. The day was full of interesting presentations from suppliers, universities, training providers and from industry itself. The final presentation by Jack Frost was to reinstate confidence in the industries future by highlighting some of the opportunities that exist globally as well as on our doorstep. Saturday evening started with pre dinner drinks and then to a sumptuous buffet dinner. Adding to the successful evening was a win by the Chiefs in Hamilton. Sunday morning’s AGM was well attended and the existing Chairman and Board members were re-elected.

Due to the end of our CTNZ contract with Business NZ this was the last duty for Dawn Wratt as secretary. The Secretarial and Industry Champions position has been combined with Bill Lovell’s position with his wife Bev assisting.

The interest in our annual conferences has continued to grow and we have already started planning for the 2013 Conference. We will keep you informed.

CTNZ Award

This year we initiated an award for members to vote for a person who has contributed to the industry throughout the year. This follows a similar award given by the AFI to their members. This Award recognises dedicated or outstanding service to the Industry. This year’s recipient is Dawn Wratt who has been CTNZ Secretary for a number of years and has contributed greatly to the running of CTNZ and the organisation of the Annual Conferences.   Dawn is well known and very popular with the members.  She always offed assistance and support for every task at hand.  Regardless of how large or small the problem she has always done her utmost to solve it. We all wish her well in her much deserved retirement.

2012 Australasian Foundry Conference

The 2012 AFI Foundry Conference is being hosted by the AFI NSW Division
When:       October 21- 25 October 2012
Where:       Crowne Plaza Coogee Beach, 242 Arden Street Coogee, Sydney.
Topics up for discussion include issues relevant to foundry management, government and regulatory, employment & training and carbon tax.
For further information go to: www.afiaustralia.org/nsw

"A big thank you to our New Zealand agent Gordon Muldrew of Metcast Services"