Words by Lucy Riddiford
Nearly a year ago, I wrote a blog about ‘my why’, explaining my role with the Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation. Whilst I enjoy being outside, I am not so strong on the hands on skills – but I have different skills I bring to the enterprise. I have had the privilege in my working career of having leadership roles. I am a lawyer and have always applied my craft in a broader sense – solving complex problems, building relationships, building culture – achieving outcomes through collaboration. These are the skills that I can bring to the mix.
I was able to bring these skills into play when we applied to become a charity. There is a lot of great information on the Charity Services website, but the process wasn’t easy. We were pleased that Charity Services applied a good deal of scrutiny to our application – getting charitable status is a big deal. In particular, they wanted to ensure that there was a real public benefit and that we weren’t just beautifying Ruamāhanga Farm. We were able to demonstrate this in a few different ways, including Te Reo o te Wai, our education programme and community veg growing aka Carb Club. They also wanted to test how we would manage the inevitable conflicts of interest, given that the Trustees are family members with different interests in relation to the farm. We are pleased that Leanne Southey of Southey Sayer in Masterton has come on board as an independent adviser, to provide oversight of the accounts and any payments made to Trustees for the work we’re doing in the education space.
We finally received confirmation in October 2024 that Ruamāhanga Farm Foundation is now a registered charity. Our application to be a registered charity was successful! The charity’s registration number is CC62761 and details about the charity are now publicly available on the charities register, which can be accessed through the Charity Services website www.charities.govt.nz.
Now my focus is on governance of the charity. At our most recent quarterly meeting, we talked about the different roles we play as Trustees. We think of it a bit like an arrow – Jane is the point, driving the direction, with Rod, Liz and I as the fletchings, making sure that the arrow is pointed in the right direction and our work is of good quality. We often bring things back to the 3 purposes in our Trust Deed to make sure that we remain on track:
- Environment: community-oriented native plant restoration in and around Ruamāhanga Farm (with a particular but not exclusive) focus on wetland and riparian areas relating to the Ruamāhanga River.
- Education and health: organising nature-based education, arts, health and wellness activities.
- Advocacy and community: Acting as a catalyst to encourage other landowners within the vicinity of the lower Ruamāhanga river to adopt practices that restore wetlands and provide access to the river for the wider community.
I’m pretty proud of what we’ve achieved in the last year and I look forward to what comes next. Oh, and I have learned to plant a tree!
