"Looking Back"

It was indeed an honour to serve as Association President for three years from 1993 till 1996. For the Management Committee these were busy and exciting years. We had just finished a complete rewrite of the Association’s Constitution, which defined more clearly our objectives, clarified our rules, and unleashed some latent energy.

One of our aims as a Management Committee was to encourage membership by increasing the advantages of joining. This involved a number of different initiatives. There was the establishment of our own NZTCA Trading Scheme whereby members could get discounts from various suppliers of trees, horticultural supplies and services. To this end we produced a “Directory” which included a cross-indexed list of trees and products, detailing the discounts available to members - and, for the first time, we issued membership cards so they could claim these discounts. This “Directory” also listed all the important Association contact people, and was mailed free to each member on the renewal of their subscription.

There was also the “Association Handbook”, issued to new members, which explained to them the background and philosophy of the tree crop movement, and informed them of the various things we try to do at Branch and Management level.

Good Branch activity was actively encouraged by the production of yet another booklet, “The NZTCA Branch Manual”, giving duties of branch officers and some helpful tips on getting things done.
To make more information available to members on various crops we did a comprehensive update of our “Fact Sheets”, and we procured a range of other publications for selling-on - making sure, of course that members received a discount.

However, the most significant achievement during this period was the re-establishment in 1994 of our own magazine, which we named “The Tree Cropper”. Somehow I became the Editor and this involved a very steep learning curve. Milking cows had not equipped me with the necessary skills to organise the writing and publication of a quarterly magazine, but many people responded to my requests for information and assistance, and “The Tree Cropper” is now firmly established. After three enjoyable years as Editor I handed over to my very capable successor Valerie Cowperthwaite (who in turn has now retired, making room for Lachlan Hunter). In my days as Editor I tried to use the least possible pages for dry discussions of Association politics, and the greatest possible number of pages to stimulate interest in a wide range of useful and fascinating species. I am convinced that we will never run out of new tree crops if we keep open and enquiring minds.

Another important milestone of my era was the appointment of our own Tree Crop Research Co-ordinators, Dr David McNeil and Roy Hart, two people who had the necessary expertise to guide us in our attempts to trial new crops and evaluate new techniques. Roy has doubled as our Information Officer, fielding countless enquiries.

By the end of 1995 I felt I had accomplished much of what I had set out to do, helped by a supportive Management Committee and by some hard-working and efficient appointed officers. At first Tom Dinning was my Secretary, followed later by Bronna Brown, and Hugh Wylie was my Treasurer throughout. In April 1996 I stood down from the President’s position, handing the reins to Eric Cairns who had been my trusted North Island Vice-President for several years.

I wish the new Association officers all the best as our first twenty-five years comes to an end and we enter a new century.

- Maurice Denton [2000].