Bob Tait MIA’s first Honorary Life Member

by MIA NZ on 24 Aug 2009 Past President Bob Tait has been awarded the first honorary life membership of the Marine Industry Association of New Zealand.

The award follows a nomination at the association’s Annual General Meeting during the Marine Industry Conference in Queenstown in April and has now been approved by the MIA Executive.

The association says the awarding of the Life Membership reflects Bob Tait’s nearly 20 years of active involvement with the MIA, formerly the BIA. This included two years as vice president, seven years as president (2001-2007) and several years as chairman of BITO, during which the modern apprenticeship scheme was introduced.

'There are people in our community that put their hands up and there are people who don’t,' he says simply. 'I’ve had fairly good life so if I put some energy back in and make life easier for people, I will assist and lead and do it – whether it’s a community club or rugby club or the marine industry.'

As president, Bob Tait oversaw the ICOMIA conference coming to New Zealand, the MIA moving to offices in Westhaven, the purchase of the Auckland International Boat Show and the Christchurch Boat Show, the joint venture between the MIA and Mystery Creek for the Waikato Boat Show and the lobbying to have visiting yachts excluded from paying GST.

'As MIA president, an appointee needs to be a good communicator, be visible to the industry and the members, have a fundamental understanding of business and the industry and have excellent support from his or her spouse,' he says. 'It is also essential to have a strong team of people within the executive, the sector group committees and staff.

'All of this is about strategic planning: what you do today has to reflect the long term, so the decisions you make today are good for three to four years. Then you just review them so that, strategically, you are not making decisions from the hip.

'You can see what benefits arrive from those decisions or whether there is too much risk element – because you’re dealing with the members’ funds. So the decisions made on behalf of 500 members are quite important to ma and pa businesses and to the larger industry companies that contribute to the industry.
'You also need the support of the infrastructure of industry – the boating media, for example. Without their support, things don’t gel. The association with the Australian BIA, American NMMA, ICOMIA – government departments, local bodies and similar associations – they all make us even stronger.'

He remembers urging the MIA executive to join ICOMIA when the fees were around 3000 Euro.

'Look what we’ve achieved,' he says. '[MIA president] Ian Cook is on one of those boards. We got ICOMIA to select Auckland as a venue for its annual conference – that was basically because Peter Busfield and I and our wives, Rachel and Jill, visited ICOMIA conferences overseas, promoting our industry and flying the flag. The benefits of that will continue for a long time, especially as New Zealand companies continue to do work for customers and companies that are strategically based around the globe.'

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