BACK

Annual Report
Legal & Constitutional
Open Books
Major Sponsors
Financial Supporters
Special thanks to ...

Yes, You can Help

2001 Annual Report

JOBS RESEARCH TRUST SIGNS PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH MAYORS TASKFORCE FOR JOBS. (left to right) Yvonne Brown (volunteer), Dave Owens (trustee), Vivian Hutchinson (trustee), Elaine Gill (Local Employment Co-ordination Group), Rodger Smith (trustee) and Claire Stewart (Mayor of New Plymouth).

IN EARLY 2000, the Jobs Research Trust reached a defining point. We had exceeded our targets in paid subscriptions for The Jobs Letter, but we recognised that by charging for subscriptions we had created a limitation on the number of readers we could reach. If we wanted to further expand our charitable purposes, that is, fostering public discussion on employment, unemployment and poverty in New Zealand, then we recognised that we needed to make The Jobs Letter more accessible.

From this perspective, the trustees resolved to abandon the paid subscriber model (which had given us an income for seven years) and instead strive to make The Jobs Letter freely available on the internet. The idea posed a fundamental structural change and dilemma for the Trust: we could not be sure that The Jobs Letter would survive without the paid subscription base that provided the bulk of our income. But the Trustees resolved that for The Jobs Letter to be as effective a tool as it could be, for as many people as possible ... it needed to be freely available to everyone one who is interested to read it.

The decision was a leap of faith. But our seven-year track record had begun to culminate in some important strategic alliances with organisations that held similar values to ours and who were willing and able to back our charitable purposes. In this respect, the support of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs along with the Ministry of Economic Development has been critical. We also gratefully acknowledge the help from Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand, the Cathy Pelly Maungarongo Trust, the JR McKenzie Trust and the koha (donations) of many individual supporters. These organisations and individuals have provided the resources that have helped us to successfully make The Jobs Letter freely available to everyone.

On 18th of August, 2000, we published issue 129, the first electronically free-to-all issue of The Jobs Letter. This and all subsequent issues have been published in three formats: an expanded internet version posted on our website with readers alerted to it by an email notice; an on-line Adobe PDF version either emailed directly to readers or downloadable from our website; and the traditional printed and posted copy that is still available on a paid subscription basis. At the changeover, about three-quarters of our paid subscribers shifted to the free email versions while the remainder still prefer to pay for and receive the printed paper edition of The Jobs Letter in the post.

What is greatly satisfying has been the huge increase in traffic on our website since we went free-to-all. We estimate that our readership has increased four-fold (from about 5,000 to 20,000) since the changeover. We believe that The Jobs Letter is now giving the widest number of people possible “... the tools to think with”, and there are very few people in this country involved in employment or poverty issues who are not using, or at least aware of, this resource.

WORKING BEE VOLUNTEERS on Jobs Letter Mailout Days.

The changeover to a mostly electronic production has meant the end to our need for our team of volunteers to help with the mailouts. For years as many as eight volunteers would dutifully and happily come to our offices every two to three weeks to fold The Jobs Letter and stuff envelopes. It was an emotional end of an era as we sealed up the last of the big mailouts, and we thank the volunteers who have been such an important part of the history The Jobs Letter.

KARL GORRINGE

During 2000/01, the Trust took on a new young staff member. Karl Gorringe was a former journalism student who had been volunteering for us in the office. In August we employed Karl through a Taskforce Green scheme and we stayed with us for seven months until he decided to move a larger center to pursue his other interests.

Also during this year, our long-time Diary column writer and Trustee Dave Owens announced he was taking leave to go and volunteer in East Timor. Motivated by the fact that the Indonesian invasion and 24 years of occupation and human rights abuses were a direct result of our western governments turning a blind eye to this breach of international law, and the fact that the unemployment rate was said to be over 80%, Dave offered his experience to an East Timorese community group in Dili called Futo. He worked for four months as a volunteer teaching building skills. During that time he emailed 11 newspaper articles back from East Timor which were published in the Taranaki paper The Daily News , Trust administrator Shirley Vickery created a “Dave Owens in East Timor” page on our Jobs Research Trust website where his articles continue to be posted.

JRT TRUSTEE Dave Owens preparing for volunteering in East Timor.

Over the 2000/01 year we produced several special issues of The Jobs Letter : “Jobs from Waste” February 2000 (issue 118); “The Digital Divide” September 2000 (issue 131); “Sustainable New Zealand” December 2000 (issue 134); “New Zealand Job Search Websites” February 2001 (issue 140), this one written by Karl Gorringe.

Editor of the The Jobs Letter Vivian Hutchinson has been in great demand as a speaker this past year. He gave the keynote address at the launch of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs in April 2000. His speech “Making Hope Possible” has been widely reproduced both nationally and internationally. In November, Vivian spoke to a day-long workshop of community groups in Dunedin. He also spoke to both the Cathy Pelly Maungarongo Trust and the J R McKenzie Trust on community philanthropy. And he addressed the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs again in March 2001, this time on youth unemployment.

Jobs Research Trustees have also attended several conferences this year including: “Redesigning Resources” in Christchurch in June where Vivian and the core group of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs had a private meeting with American author Paul Hawkin; the “Zero Waste” conference in Kaitaia in December; and the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs strategy and networking meeting in Manukau City in March 2001.

We look forward to an equally challenging year in 2001/02 ... and continue to be grateful for all the support we have received for our work.

Jo Howard
Rodger Smith
Dave Owens
Vivian Hutchinson
Trustees of the Jobs Research


TOP


30-31 March 2001

Jobs Research Trust meets in Auckland. The Trustees meet Tim McMains to discuss becoming a funding manager for the Tindall Foundation in the area of employment.

26-29 March 2001

Trustees attend the Mayors Taskforce For Jobs Strategy and Networking meeting in Manukau City.

12 March 2001

Dave returns from volunteer work in East Timor.

An East Timor section is added to the Jobs Research Trust website.

9 March 2001

Karl leaves his employment at the Jobs Research Trust to move to Wellington.

5 March 2001

Vivian Hutchinson attends Mayors Taskforce meeting which signs up "Principles of Partnership" with the Community Employment Group (Department of Labour) in Wellington.

December 2000

Mervyn Taylor, one of our The Jobs Letter mailout volunteers, receives a Volunteer Recognition Award by the New Plymouth Volunteer Centre for his extensive community service.

7-9 December 2000

Vivian attends the Zero Waste Conference in Kaitaia.

30 November 2000

Vivian meets with Community Employment Group Head Office staff to discuss future partnership which will see a CEG field officer allocated to work alongside each Mayor in the Mayors Taskforce.

21-22 November 2000

Vivian attends the Mayors Taskforce Core Group Strategy and Networking meeting at Local Government NZ Boardroom in Wellington.

11 November 2000

Dave flies to East Timor to work as a volunteer to work with a Dili-based community group called FUTO, teaching carpentry skills to members by helping to restore their buildings.

Karl takes over writing the Diary column of The Jobs Letter .

3 November 2000

Vivian attends the Mayors Taskforce meeting with Government Department Heads in Wellington.

19 October 2000

Vivian attends the Mayors Taskforce meeting with Government Ministers in Wellington.

26-27 September 2000

Jobs Research Trust annual budget planning meeting held in New Plymouth.

25 September 2000

Mayors Taskforce signs up a partnership agreement with the Jobs Research Trust in New Plymouth.

The Jobs Letter is now freely distributed to readers through its internet website.

Jobs Research Trust Dinner. All Trustees, staff, and many current and former volunteers and friends brave winter weather to sit down to a pot luck dinner together in New Plymouth to celebrate our successful changeover to a free-to-all internet publication of The Jobs Letter and to acknowledge the immense help and support we have had by our team of volunteers over the years.

19 September 2000

Vivian attends the Mtfjobs Admin group meeting in Christchurch.

12 September 2000

Vivian attends the Mayors Taskforce meeting which signs up a Memorandum of Understanding with Government Ministers at the Beehive. The Memorandum is an agreement that central and local government will work in partnership towards shared employment objectives.

31 August 2000

Vivian attends the Mayors Taskforce meeting with the former Maori Employment and Training Commissioners.

21 August 2000

Karl is employed by the Jobs Research Trust on a Taskforce Green Scheme.

27 June 2000

Vivian attends the Mayors Taskforce special meeting with American author Paul Hawken at the Redesigning Resources Conference in Christchurch.

June 2000

Karl starts work as a volunteer in the office.

Trust staff begin to prepare for the changeover to publication on the website when the Jobs Letter will become available to read or download for free-to-all from the Website or by email.

April 2000

Vivian launches the Mayors Taskforce For Jobs website in the internet. The website is hosted by Jobs Research Trust.

28-9 April 2000

Jobs Research Trust meets in New Plymouth. The trustees resolve that The Jobs Letter should try to be offered free-to-all on the internet and resolve that we will investigate options and take steps to reach this goal.

6 April 2000

The Mayors Taskforce for Jobs is launched by 31 Mayors in Christchurch. Vivian delivers the keynote speech – “Making Hope Possible”.


The Jobs Research Trust — a not-for-profit charitable trust constituted in 1994.
We are funded by sustaining grants and donations. Yes, you can help.