Update from President

Howdy allRecently I was in Houston USA where I heard one of President Trump’s appointees to the Department of Interior talk about their resource management law. Being a resource management practitioner, I paid particular attention. He used a lot of terms in our RMA.He talked about the use and development of natural and physical resources and how the USA was blessed have so many resources that can provide for American people and communities and their wellbeing. Any impact on the environment as part of that use wasn’t mentioned; instead, the focus was on the importance of being the country being energy independent and related job creation.All that talk made me quite proud of the balance that we achieve in New Zealand with our main resource management law. While the RMA does say much of what the speaker was proud to support, it is also qualified and includes protection of resources and contemplates future generations, the life-supporting capacity of our resources and ecosystems and addresses effects on the environment. What a balancing act we’re constantly being asked to achieve!I want to give a quick shout out to our RMLA regional chairs. They do a lot of behind the scenes, thankless work. With the support of branch committees, they help ensure a level of collegiality and support in our regions. They also help coordinate the provision of roadshows. Thank you to each and every regional chair. So you better know who they are we will be including an introduction to our regional chairs in our newsletter, with the first one today being Sarah Ongley. Also in support of our regions, I’m pleased to advise that we’re currently working on a roadshow with the Environment Court that will go to many of our regions. So watch this space.While I’m giving a shout out, I want to say a special thanks to Lizzy Wiessing at Simpson Grierson for her help in shepherding content for Quality Planning (QP) over the last year. The QP resource is being updated and growing and we’re proud to support it and pleased that it is getting a new lease on life. You’ll see that we’re seeking feedback about priorities for reviewing guidance notes so please go to the website and fill out the online feedback form.Hasta luego.Rachel