Era Decade Branch

Banking

1.   The Era Decade Branch has it's own two-signature BNZ account 02-0727-0629870-008 suffix. It needs two out of three signatories to do payments by Internet Banking. Various Association office holders have a Visa/EFTPOS/Debit card on the single-signature 02-0727-0629870-001 suffix account. Those organising Decade Do social functions can invite one of the Visa/EFTPOS/Debit card holders along to action payment for drinks, food etc over the counter. Shortly after two signatories transfer the same amount from the Era Decade 008 suffix to the EFTPOS 001 suffix to make good the missing amount.

Era Fundraising

2.   Each five year Era can do fund raising and keep left over social function funds in the 008 suffix account. This would be 'ring fenced' in excel spread sheet accounting. It would show up in the 'Position Statement' at the end of each financial year against each particular Era. It would be audited along with all other Sapper Association accounts. Some of the fund raising is to go towards maintaining this interactive website. So far, the Era Decade Branch has paid $200 into the Executive account since 2019 towards https://sprnz.tidyhq.com subscription. The Northern Branch has made similar tidyhq contributions into the Executive account over the same period. See page Finance / Fundraising & EFTPOS Cards for more background.

Era Branch Organisation

3.   The Chairperson of the Era Decade Branch should preferably be someone still in the twenties age group. This is to try to conform with the desire that the Executive Council would have a representative of each age decade ie: 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's & 70s. To this end the 20's representative would probably be a Corporal or Lieutenant still in uniform with the RNZE. The 30's representative would be the RSM [SSMs standing in] as the Engineer Regiment appointee as per the Constitution. The 40's onward Executive Council would be figured out on as come basis. The Era Decade Chairperson would do about a three year stint and then hand over to a new person. Anything less isn't worth the hassle of elections at an AGM and changing bank signatories. Any longer is becoming jaded on the job and flogging a horse to death when others should be stepping up to shoulder the load.

4.   The Era Decade Chairperson would hold about four Era Decade Branch committee meetings via Zoom each year. It is desirable that there is a Branch Minute Clerk and a Branch Finance Clerk [probably older age and once again three years only]. These three are the signatories on the bank account. It is desirable that the Chairperson, Minute Clerk and Finance Clerk step up one each year to keep them in echelon. In this fashion one is in his/her last of three years, one is in the his/her second year with experience and one is still learning in his/her first year.  The rest of the Era Decade committee would be made up of the Era Moderators [EM] elected by their own five year Era members. There might be up to a dozen EMs in total. But probably only those EMs organising, or thinking or organising, a Decade Do that year or next year would be active on the committee. Those currently holding Era Decade appointments are found on Menu > Organisation > Reunion Eras > Five Year Eras Joined RNZE.

Era Branch Office Holders Age Makeup

Ideal Age:	Age 18-29 Years Old	Age 30-54 Years Old	Age 55-79 Years Old
Office Holder:	Chairperson	Minute Clerk [or Finance Clerk]	Finance Clerk [or Minute Clerk]
Functions:	Prods young age Eras to hold Decade Do social funtions. Probably youngest voice on Executive Council.	Prods middle aged Eras to hold Decade Do social functions	Prods old age Eras to hold Decade Do social functions

 

Era Moderators Facebook Contactors

5.   Two appointments are needed in each Era. One is a permanently filled Era Moderator [EM] and the other is a startup Era Contactor [EC]:

     (a)  Era Moderators [Moderator is a Facebook term] are the action part of the Era Decade Branch. If a person can type with one finger, that's good enough to be an EM! They organise each Decade Do social function on the ground. As such it is expected that they do this intense service to their fellow sappers just for a couple of years and then stand down for a very long time. At each Decade Do a new EM volunteers, from each of the two Eras present, to organise the next Decade Do. The next Decade Do would be different in that the neighbouring Era would be the one on the other side this time. If your Era was the oldies this time, you'd be the youngsters next time, or the other way round.

   (b)  In the early stages of getting an Era working, an extra person called a Era Contactor [EC] would be needed with recruiting new members and making contact with existing members to get them to login and fix up their out of date details in their Profile. S/he may need to liase with a District Moderator [DM] to arrange for that person to do a home visit to your 'lost' member to sit along side and help him/her get their Profile up to date [see Orgainisation > Regional Branches for DMs]. Once each Era is up and running, this appointment could be dropped for that Era. If a ringing around effort is being considered, perhaps it should start about five months before a Decade Do social function. This allows those contacted to become Free Trial members for six months, thus covering the Decade Do date. After attending one social function, the prospective recruit can decide whether to take up Financial Life Membership or not.

  (c)  More background reading is on Menu > Sappers > New Accounts > para 64 'Sappers Helping Sappers'.

6.   The Era Facebook page and it's membership would stay in place in perpetuity. The main thing that would change every couple of years would be the Moderator. This would be done by the Facebook Administrator, who is the Chairperson of the Era Decade Branch. Also the membership data held in sprnz.tidyhq.com would sit there in perpetuity. Once again, the main change would be the tidyhq Admin every couple of years who would also be the EM. Each Era would have its own permanent email address ie era9599@sprnz.tidymail.co & era0004@sprnz.tidymail.co which is redirected to the current EM's email address. The Era members only need to record the Era email address on their systems. They do not need to know the current EM's personal email address. Further reading on Facebook, Pages & Events is on 'Sappers / Members' para 24 towards the end.

Numbers Near Names

7. In the Era Members table there is a four figure 'Post Code' in the left hand column and another two figure 'Allow Contact details' number in the right hand column on each name line:

a.   Postcodes are: 0100-0499 Northland; 0500-2999 Auckland; 3000-3999 Waikato BOP; 4000-4999 Taranaki Manawatu Gisborne; 5000-6999 Wellington Wairarapa; 7000-8999 Nelson West Coast Canterbury; 9000-9999 Otago Southland. A is Australia. The members are arranged in post code order to show roughly where they are in relation to venues. Postcodes are shown on same line as the member's name. The 'E' is for Email functioning and the 'R' is for Rejected email address. The 'F' is for the member being on Facebook for that Era. EMs should contact DMs for these districts to ask them to visit one of your Era members who is having difficulty setting up a new account in TidyHQ for hands on assistance.

b.  The 'Allow Contact details' two figure number in each name line is for members setting up their profile. They can jot down the number and check the box in 'Allow Contact details to selected members of my Eras' part of their profile. Once displayed, the number never changes. It is also used as a link to make up a email smart group that can be sent out to those who want to know if that person goes into hospital. See also Sapper/Members para 26a&b background reading. If the person you're looking for is from another era adjacent yours, you can use that person's two figure number. Note though, that the same number is used again every third era in echelon. So getting too far away from your own era could result in a member double up on the same number.

Voting Venues & Dates

8.   A suggested voting system for each Era: 9 points most wanted venue/date, 1 point least wanted veunue/date.

     (a)  Do the venue range first: the most points fixes the venue. RSA photos below: Turangi, Porirua & Picton. It is desirable that people become members of their own local RSA as this saves needing somebody else to sign them in at the above RSAs.

     (b)  Then vote 9 to 1 points again on the date range [with the venue fixed beforehand].

     (c)   After both the venue and date have been fixed, appeal to Era members to establish six hard core people who would attend.

     (d)  Approach the Era next door to join, on the understanding that the venue and date won't change.

National Reunions

9.   Some notes on accomodation, restrictions and extra effort to attend National Reunions are below:

   (a)  RNZE National Reunion group discount accommodation at the venue should be co-ordinated by each EM. This in turn should be co-ordinated with group discounts arranged locally by the National Reunion Committee. If the EM is not going to the Reunion, s/he can hand accommodation group discount responsibility over to someone from the same Era who is going to the Reunion.

   (b)  It is desired that no Decade Do's are held in the 12 months leading up to a RNZE National Reunion. Any National Reunion needs at least 80 people to attend to make it viable. Some basic sums are dinner $100 per head x 100 attendess = $10,000 turn over [high risk stuff]. Functions involving long distance travel held close to the same time would split attendence. So only one choice shoulld be available that year: just the RNZE National Reunion. These are held every three years. The next RNZE National Reunion is shown on Menu > National Reunion > Planning for dates. 

   (c)  Decade Do's cater for those that won't go to National Reunions because they 'don't know anybody there due to age difference'. An exception to the above could be holding a Decade Do luncheon on the Reunion Sunday shortly after the church service dispersal in the same locality as the reunion, or dinner the Thursday evening just before. About once every 10 years, each Era should make a serious effort to nominate a particular reunion and get their members to come back from overseas for it. Coming back from overseas may seem worthwhile if its a full entertainment weekend of dinner and tours, plus seeing old mates separately as well.

29 Dec 2024 last updated.