PhotoForum 52nd AGM 29 July 2026
PhotoForum's Annual General Meeting 2026 will be held via Zoom on Wednesday 29 July at 7pm.
Agenda
1. Opening Karakia.
2. Apologies
3. Adoption of Minutes from the 51st AGM (30 July 2025)
4. Presentation of Financial Report
5. Presentation of Director’s Report
6. Matters arising & general business
7. Election of Committee
8. Closing Karakia
Link to join AGM:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8388827645?omn=89881583051
Minutes from the 51st AGM:
PHOTOFORUM NZ
51st ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING held by Zoom, Tuesday 30th July 2025.
Present: David Cowlard, Yvonne Shaw, Geoff Short, John Pennington, Carly van Winkel, Caryline Boreham, Mark Kaneko, Annabel Pretty, Theodore Macdonald, Stu Sontier, Julie Downie, Natasha Boshkovski, Ziggy Bond.
Opening Karakia
Apologies: Sonja Gardien, Wendy Brandon, Cassey Locke, Paul Fudakowski, John Turner, Anton Maurer (proxy allocated to David Cowlard), Andy Spain, Fiona Clark, Jane Zusters.
Minutes of the last Annual General Meeting, held 23 July 2024, were received and accepted as true and correct. Moved: Yvonne Shaw Seconded: David Cowlard
The Director’s Report was presented to the meeting by David Cowlard. A copy accompanies these minutes.
Financial Statements:
The 2025 PhotoForum accounts and tax return for the year ended 31 March 2025 (prepared by Tyler Price Accountants Limited) were presented to the committee and members.
Stu Sontier commented on the increase in the price of the storage unit. Yvonne and David replied that PhotoForum rents the smallest storage unit available at National MiniStorage, Newmarket. Storage Unit costs have gone up. Even after consolidating books, we still need a storage unit to accommodate our archive of books. A set of PhotoForum publications is kept at the storage unit and a second set at Geoff Short’s house. Surplus copies of books are stored at the Newmarket storage unit.
Stu asked about the specific artist/writer costs for the online exhibitions. Writers were paid $400 (plus GST if GST registered) and artists were paid $150 each (plus GST if GST registered). Stu raised the possibility of obtaining a grant in future for these online exhibitions - perhaps Creative NZ. Yvonne notes past proposals to CNZ have been made for specific projects, however despite the applications being endorsed they have not been successful for a number of years due to a high number of applicants and lack of available funding to meet all approved applications.
David pointed out that our most significant expenses are printing, postage and storage. All these items have increased in cost.
Current bank balance 30/7/25: $9560
PhotoForum received a donation from Sony in September 2024 of $1600 and a donation from ProGear of $2000 in July 2025. We intend to have a fundraising event at the end of 2025. David noted that PhotoForum has good financial health and extended a special thanks to Sonja Gardien for her work as PhotoForum Treasurer.
Financial reports moved and accepted:
Moved: David Cowlard. Seconded: Stu Sontier
Revised Constitution
• The Incorporated Societies Act 2022 requires PhotoForum to reregister as an incorporated society with a constitution that is compliant with the 2022 Act. Committee member Wendy Brandon has had a key responsibility for drafting the new constitution and it was circulated amongst members for feedback.
Annabel Pretty queried the definition of “officers” and asked about members’ written consent.
According to the Constitution:
‘Member’ means a person who has agreed to become a Member of the Society who has been properly admitted to the Society and who has not ceased to be a Member of the Society.
‘Officer’ means a natural person who is:
• a member of the Committee, and
• occupying a position in the Society that allows them to exercise significant influence over the management or administration of the Society, including any Director or Secretary or Treasurer.
Every applicant for membership must consent in writing to becoming a Member on first joining the Society.
The new constitution does not stand until after it has been ratified at this AGM.
Motions to approve the new constitution as read to the committee:
1. That PhotoForum Inc re-register as an Incorporated Society under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022. Moved: Yvonne Shaw. Seconded: David Cowlard
2. That the Members APPROVE the draft constitution prepared under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 and circulated to members for their approval as the new 'Photoforum Constitution' to accompany the application for re-registration.
Moved: Yvonne Shaw. Seconded: David Cowlard
3. That all of the officers and committee members Consent in Writing to be an Officer (in an email is sufficient) and they certify that they have read the relevant clauses of the Constitution and they are not disqualified.
Moved: Yvonne Shaw. Seconded: David Cowlard
4. That the Director and/or the Secretary will be Photoforum's Contact Person.
Moved: Yvonne Shaw. Seconded: David Cowlard
Election of 2025 – 26 Committee
The following nominations for the 2025-2026 Committee were received and ACCEPTED :
(note allocations of sub-committees will take place at the first meeting of the new committee)
PhotoForum Director: David Cowlard
Nominated by Yvonne Shaw and seconded by Geoff Short
PhotoForum Secretary: Yvonne Shaw
Nominated by David Cowlard and seconded by Sonja Gardien
PhotoForum Treasurer: Sonja Gardien
Nominated by Yvonne Shaw and seconded by Stu Sontier
PhotoForum Committee members:
John Pennington
Stu Sontier
Geoff Short
Carly van Winkel
Sue Gee
Mark Kaneko
Theo Macdonald
Natasha Boshkovski
Ziggy Bond
Julie Downie
Moved ALL positions: Yvonne Shaw. Seconded: David Cowlard
Date for first meeting of the new committee:
Tuesday 12th August 2025
Closing Karakia