June newsletter from the President
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Greetings Fellow Justices
The past three months since I last “penned” this Newsletter to you all has seen dramatic changes in our personal lives as well as the life of being a Justice of the Peace. We are very appreciative of the positive attitude and care that members demonstrated during Covid-19. To those of you who were willing and able to assist members of the public during Levels 2 & 3, our sincere appreciation. COVID-19 Firstly my sincere appreciation to the Support Group Coordinators for passing on the Association and Royal Federation communications during this time. We did not have access to our office in the Auckland District Court for more than six weeks plus the Registry staff were not allowed access until recently. However we have been able to operate from our homes in almost all instances. Members will be aware that some of our service desks reopened in late May under Level 2 and these have been extremely busy unsurprisingly. Currently we have just under one half that have reopened in a variety of locations. The authorised service desks are the responsibility of the AJPA – how and when they operate and where they are located. As a consequence we have relocated some desks so that members of the public and our members are not restricted and can maintain the required social distancing. In order to assist members working on these desks the Association has had Perspex screens made and supplied each desk with a bottle of hand sanitizer and desk disinfectant. It is a personal choice whether to wear a mask or gloves. The Association also provided an Implementation Plan and Covid-19 Contact Tracing Forms as well as Notices for the public in terms of our procedures. As the winter season is here, these will continue to be assets and available for use. AJPA Council Your Council and Committees have continued to meet during the Covid-19 period via Zoom but we return to face-to-face meetings for our June Meeting. The Council Briefs are noted on the website a few days after each meeting so please do check these out under the “Resources” tab. They are also posted on our Facebook Page. Our Facebook page is a closed page so if you are not already a member do consider joining as this is updated very regularly, thanks to our Registrar. We now have over 200 members who utilise this for updated news, information as well as giving feedback. Do contact the Registrar if you wish to join the Facebook page by emailing for the necessary forms – registrar@jpauckland.org.nz The AJPA website also contains a host of information and relevant forms – no login required. Stamp vouchers and name badges have been provided to those members who applied for these prior to 31 March 2020. We continue to provide these also to newly sworn Justices. Sadly the past two swearing in ceremonies have had to be cancelled but we can proceed with the June ceremony. There is a backlog of new Justices to be gazetted as well as many to be interviewed but these will progress this month. Currently the reprint of the AJPA logbooks with some amendments is underway. Once the revised manual has been completed and is online, we will also provide members with a hard copy. It is hoped to have these available for members at the AGM. The Strategic Plan 2020-2024 is now in its fourth draft and the Committee responsible for this will present it to the full Council for approval at the June Meeting. The Centenary Committee has been established given the AJPA will celebrate one hundred years since inception in 2022 – the third Association in the country. Regional Conferences have been cancelled by the Royal Federation throughout the country but our Annual General Meeting will still take place on the morning of Sunday 20 September. An update regarding the venue and the programme will be circularised. We are delighted to acknowledge that the Hon Justice Simon Moore (High Court Judge) has accepted our invitation to be the Patron of the Association. We have been well served by our previous Patron the Hon Justice Edwin Wylie QC who attended some of our functions as well. If you have served for ten years or more as a Justice of the Peace and wish to resign, you are entitled to apply for JP Retired status. A pro forma letter is available on the AJPA website under “Resources” or contact the Registrar by phone (09) 916 9276 or email registrar@jpauckland.govt.nz Royal Federation It is with sadness I must report that the recently elected President, Terry Byrne has been forced to step down due to ill health. We wish him improving health going forward and have written to Terry accordingly. As a consequence the Vice President, Garry Nicholls now becomes the President! We offer our warmest congratulations and support to Garry as he steps into this role most unexpectedly. He must be the only person on the RF Board to not only be the President but also the Immediate Past President of an Association – ours! Past President Rachael O’Grady has stepped in to fill the Vice President’s role until the AGM next year and Denise Hutchins has been “recalled” as the Immediate Past President. Terry Holding has been appointed to the Board as the Auckland Representative replacing Garry Nicholls. HUB PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MEETING DATES – RESCHEDULED Now that permission has been given for gatherings up to one hundred be held, we have rescheduled all our HUB Meetings which had to be cancelled. The dates and venues for these in date order are as follows:
The topics to be covered are as follows – Foreign Documents, Anti Money Laundering Act (AML), A & I form (Authority and Instruction), Use of social media, Statutory Declarations. Please bring your manual to the meeting. If you cannot attend your local HUB Meeting, please feel free to attend any other on a date that works for you as the topics are the same at each venue. CONGRATULATIONS! Our warmest congratulations and best wishes are extended to Life Member Ken Graham QSM JP who recently retired as a Judicial Justice in his 45th year in this capacity. Ken was introduced to the bench by Trevor Maxwell the Stipendiary Magistrate. Ken learned by sitting alongside Trevor at the Otahuhu Court in mid-1970 and he sat at the Auckland and Manukau District Courts often. Ken will be officially farewelled by the staff at Manukau District Court on 9 June 2020 but at his final day of sitting on 30 May his service was recognised by the Duty Lawyers and staff at Manukau DC. The AJPA Council will also acknowledge him in the coming weeks. We also offer our warmest congratulations to three of our members who were acknowledged in the Queen’s Birthday Honours being awarded the Queen’s Service Medal (QSM) for services to their communities in a variety of ways. · Chandu Daji · Pravin Kumar · Neil McCorkindale. My sincere thanks to all of you who have supported public access to our services over the past challenging three months. We look forward to returning to some sense of normality in the coming weeks. Kind regards Sherryl Wilson JP PRESIDENT June 2020
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