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MatarikiYouth Development

COVID-19 Update #9

COVID-19 Update #9

Posted May 23, 2020
IHNZ News

The government has decided to lift the restrictions on gatherings to allow for up to 100 people to gather, effective 12pm Friday 29th May.

This is good news as it will allow teams to train together, and to play each other, once they are ready to do so in a controlled setting. Restrictions are still needed to control the spread of COVID-19 in New Zealand and this will mean that larger events are still unable to take place at present.

The new guidelines allow for groups of 100 or fewer to come together without the need for physical distancing, but with contact tracing and public hygiene measures still in place.

This number must include participants, spectators, officials and coaches. However variations of this rule apply to allow for more than one gathering to take place and spectators to be treated differently, provided that groups are kept separated. 

The pathway to move to level 1 is being worked upon with cabinet to review this on the 8th June, with a move to level 1 and any associated requirements being considered with an announcement to be made by 22nd June.

For more information please see the links below:

Sport NZ
Sport NZ met with the Minister late last week to discuss a way forward with the funding they will receive from 1 July onwards. This money covers all aspects of active play, recreation and sport, clubs, regions, high performance sport and teams.

They acknowledge the massive task ahead to make sure they maximise this opportunity across the next 4 years. They stress that they need to be responsible, tactical and strategic in the way they apply this funding to ensure it is fair and useful and allows as many people as possible to reap the benefits.

Sport NZ will endeavour to come back with a process to achieve this over the next couple of weeks. They have been given very clear instructions from the Minster in terms of fund distribution - rather than the same old way of doing things, they encourage everyone to take a new look at what changes they need to make and will occur to rebuild sport.

The Community Resilience Fund is currently being distributed via the 14 Regional Sport Trusts to their regions. The fund is open to all local and regional organisations who are affiliated to current investment partners, as well as those that can seek endorsement via specified Maori endorsement partners.

To date, 808 applications have been received with $3.419m approved, resulting in 184 regional organisations and 588 clubs supported to date. $15m has been committed to the fund by Sport NZ to help regional and local organisations remain financially viable through the immediate period of disruption created by COVID-19.

More information including eligibility criteria can be found here.

Free Financial Forecasting
COVID-19 has created significant revenue and cash flow issues for sport and recreation organisations. Aktive has extended its Shared Services offering to include:

  • Free cashflow and forecasting assistance and training (via the set-up of a Xero add-on tool with cashflow tracking, re-forecasting, and scenario planning capabilities) 
  • A free basic Xero set-up/migration for those organisations not on Xero but who choose to be.

To apply for this free cashflow and forecasting assistance and training / Xero set up assistance, please contact Daniel Cork on DCO@clmnz.co.nz

Council Facilities:
The last remaining venues and sites are expected to open over the weekend with all YMCA training venues now open.

Contact tracing tools are developed and will be in use. Clubs and venues need to work together in what is appropriate and suitable for their needs.

All councils across NZ are reporting large decreases in revenue due to Covid-19. Emergency budgets have been drawn up and are being distributed for consultation this week.

Lotteries, Gaming Board:
If your club has received money for a purpose/event that has now been cancelled it must be returned and a new application submitted as necessary.

They advise there is a general feeling of positivity starting to return as they begin to see the hospitality industry being opened up and a fairly strong use of these services being undertaken.

They continue to advise they need at least 6 - 8 weeks to build up liquidity and are planning to make use of the relief package to build stores of revenue to ensure this type of event is well planned for again in the future.

Sporty - Referees/Associates
For those referees and scorebench officials who would like to affiliate to IHNZ and not to a club this can be done via Sporty.

https://www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/115628. Select either Referee,or Associate.

IHNZ will invoice you directly for the $10 payment. Players must affiliate via their clubs.

Communication:
We will continue to develop our guidelines and have these out as soon as possible.

Any questions or queries please forward to gm@inlinehockeynz.org.nz.

Stay safe all,
Regards
IHNZ Board