BMX New Zealand

Honorary Life Membership

In receiving an Honorary Life Membership, the member is added to the master database & is included in any sport wide communication. He or she receives the official BMXNZ Honorary Life Member broach and is invited to all AGMs as a individual non-voting representative of the sport. Any approved Honorary Life Member still racing is supplied a BMXNZ Race Licence free of charge for the remainder of their riding career.

Granting of Life Membership

The granting of Honorary Life Membership is a Board process, but the nomination comes from anyone within the sport. A nomination can come form the Board, a Region, a Club or an individual. The review of submitted nominations involves a sub-committee considering and deciding whether to qualify a nomination. Those qualified nominations are then presented to the BMXNZ Board to be ratified or challenged.

The successful nominations are then noted in the sports official records . All successful nominations are then presented at the BMXNZ AGM immediately following the decision.

The criteria to assess the extent to which the nominee has made a significant and distinguished contribution to the sport, will be through consideration of the General Principles of BMX Life Membership.

General principles of Life Membership

1. The granting of Life Membership is a great honour and should not be treated lightly.

2. Life Membership should not be considered as a competitve matter and nominees must be considered individually and on their personal attributes and achievements and not in comparison with others.

3. Granting Life Membership is a balancing exercise. Criteria is provided for guidance, vs. the overall contribution of the nominee. This is what is evaluated as a total sum. The Panel has some subjectivity in the qualifying of Life Membership applications, which will be challenged by the Board before final applications are accepted.

4. Life Membership is reserved for those whose contribution goes beyond the ordinary or even the excellence for a notably extended period of time.

Criteria to be considered in granting Honorary Life Membership

1. Length of active membership A nominee will almost necessarily have been a affiliated Club Member and involved for a significant time. While there is no 'minimum' period of membership, a long term membership commitment will be notable.

2. Positions held and length of time. The nominee should be able to demonstrate a significant contribution to the running of the Sport over a majority of those years of membership. This may be in any or many of the following areas; Organisational bodies, Eventing, sport/ club/athlete Development, Sport promotion, positive influence benefiting a large number of people within the sport.

3. History of active volunteering. The nominee should be able to demonstrate active contribution to the core activity of the sport at any level by being a regular, consistent and exceptional volunteer. This can be regional or national level influencing large number of people within the sport..

4. History of proactive riding or racing. While not a requirement, a nominee could be or have been exceptionally active in racing to promote or represent the sport & country well beyond that of a normal athlete. This representation must have had notable influence on the image of the sport for the betterment & growth not normally attainable to the sport.

Patron of the Sport

A patron is someone who agrees to lend their name & expertise to the sport as a way of supporting it & opening opportunities for the sport to gain financial, promotional or organisational benefit.

Why have a patron? A Patron can help the sport get no+ced, add prestige or lends credibility to any proposition. Ideally any of the positive attributes or connections of the patron will rub off on to the sport.

How to go about finding a Patron? Patrons can be a member of the sport, an acquaintance of the sport, an exceptional athlete, a celebrity or even a politician. If there is an opportunity for the sport be benefitted by their association, there is a opportunity to form a relatonship as a Patron.

Could the sport have more than one patron? Yes it can. Allocation of a Patron As the role of a Patron does not have any organisational responsibilities, the role can be seen to be operational and/or inspirational.

The BMXNZ Board can allocate Patron status as it sees necessary to benefit the sport.