Welcome to this edition of the SSAA NSW E-Shooter.

The stop press news for this edition is the announcement of our new CEO for SSAA NSW who we can now confirm is Andrew Macaulay.

Andrew is a lifelong shooter, having been introduced to the sport by his father and he is a member of SSAA NSW. Andrew has coached competitive rifle shooters, including his sons who are avid hunters. He is a keen hunter, harvesting game across Australia, as well as a firearms collector, and a regular pistol and occasional sporting clays shooter. Andrew’s wife is also a pistol shooter and hunter.

Andrew’s professional background in Australia and internationally covers Government relations, technology, and services businesses in primary industries, gaming, finance, print, and packaging.

Andrew is looking forward to engaging with SSAA NSW members and advancing our great sport.

As you can see Andrew ticks all the shooting boxes for SSAA NSW. He is licensed for long arms, pistols and collecting and shoots in all our main competition types, namely rifle, shotgun, and pistol. Andrew then rounds out his bona fides with his interest in hunting.

Andrew’s interest in shooting is both gratifying and important, but the most important role he will undertake for us is the role of CEO.

Governance, strong finances and strong relationships with government, regulators and the firearms industry are essential for the leading peak body for civilian ownership of firearms in NSW. Andrew is well qualified to provide the leadership required to protect our sport with skills in training and a strong respect for public safety, both of which underpin our commitment to the broader NSW community. Most importantly, engaging with our membership and continuing the strong membership communications is well suited to Andrew’s personality and skills.

I was particularly gratified by the quality of applicants for the position of CEO of SSAA NSW. The recruitment company shortlisted a large group of applicants that had the necessary skills to meet our requirements. The employment committee resolved to interview only 5 of the best of those applicants, and even then, we ended up with 6 applicants that we wished to interview.

Our brand, SSAA NSW, is respected and considered an influential company for high quality managers to aspire to work with. I wish to thank our Board for their commitment to develop and drive our high quality culture, and I thank our outgoing CEO Jai, for his huge contributions in getting us to this position which Andrew will now grow for a stronger SSAA NSW.

Andrew will start on the 22nd March and will get his induction at our Board meeting that weekend. A tough start, but Andrew is keen to jump in at the deep end.

Andrew and I will do a week of Branch committee zoom meetings ASAP to introduce Andrew to your Branch leaderships.

I wish to thank our employment committee, chaired by Rob Austin, and made up of Scott Wagner, Alison Worldon and myself. These directors are all in working life positions where they employ and manage staff and Rob has great skill in all matters HR and workplace health and safety and under his chairmanship the process was smooth and professional.

While I am thanking people, I would also like to thank our disciplinary committee and our review committee. December 2023 is the first time we have had a discipline matter under our new state CLG constitution, I believe it is also the first time the review committee (previously the appeals committee) have had cause to meet, which was in January this year.

The discipline committee is made up of SSAA NSW Board members, in this case chaired by Scott Wagner, while the review committee is made up of what I call our “wise and respected heads”. Both the Board and the Review committee are elected by the AGM. The difference is that the review committee is constitutionally empowered to override the Board discipline committee, while the previous Appeals committee model could not override the Board. This is a discipline model that ensures someone is responsible for difficult discipline matters (the Board) while the Review committee ensures that the disciplined member is protected by a second level of review.

Scott and his committee of Directors did an amazing job for our first Discipline hearing. It is a difficult task with strong legal ramifications, and if done professionally, legally, and compassionately it avoids costly legal disputes within our membership. The amount of investigation undertaken by the Board before the hearing was prodigious and as this was the first such hearing those investigations were reviewed for accuracy, completeness, and legality by a lawyer.

The appeals committee met on this matter and found the Board and the Discipline committee had investigated and proven the matters and as such the appeal was rejected. The appeals committee had to meet quickly based on review timelines and I thank them for being available so quickly, and for their diligence and integrity in this very important role.

Just a quick note on mandatory attendance. Although we have made what will likely be successful moves to reduce mandatory attendance to a total of 2 for long arms (both target and hunting combined) the regulations still have long arms target at 4 attendances and long arms hunting at 2 attendances for this year. Pistol and collecting remain the same and will not vary in the proposed change to a minimum of 2 attendances for long arms.

You have until June 30 to complete your attendances (4 target, 2 hunting, 1 collecting for long arms and as per your pistol ownership for pistol attendances) for the 23/24 financial year.

SSAA NSW is working to modify your membership so that you can opt in to auto renewal of your SSAA NSW membership. This is becoming very important as NSW firearms registry continues to develop Gunsafe.

Firearms registry Gunsafe program is being prepared to roll out for clubs and members. This program is in use for dealers but will be expanded to include firearms owners and will automatically inspect your genuine reason in real time.

If your genuine reason is SSAA membership, then the day your membership runs out means so does your license expire. Hence the need to protect you from inattention around membership and the safest way we can do that is to provide an opt in auto renewal that ensures your membership is always up to date.

I would like to finish this report with a special thankyou to our staff. Jai finished up in January and Andrew starts in March which left our staff without a CEO for a crucial period. The Audit process, the preparation for the AGM, and the issues surrounding ranges, and membership issues with registry have all continued full steam ahead. Our office staff led by Tracey and our range management led by Peter have managed increased workloads and pressure with good humour, hard work, skill, and diligence.

Andrew inherits a wonderful staff and I hope that the membership appreciates their efforts and thanks them when you have the opportunity.

Thank you and stay safe,

Lance Miller

SSAA NSW President

Andrew Macaulay – SSAA NSW CEO

The post SSAA NSW President’s Message – Lance Miller appeared first on SSAA NSW.

It has been an extremely busy year and as the last report for the year, I thought I would update you on some important matters.

SSAA Shot EXPO.

The SSAA Shot EXPO is back, and you can look forward to attending in October 2024. Save the date for the weekend of 19th and 20th October. It will be held at the Melbourne showgrounds.

Although it is SSAA NSW’s turn to host the SSAA Shot EXPO, SSAA Victoria are better positioned to co-host the EXPO with SSAA NSW.

Firstly, we will be much more cost effective if we do not use a conference facilitator. The impact of Covid has seen our preferred conference facilitator move into other employment and the SSAA Victoria staff did a great job running the last SSAA Shot EXPO along with some facilitator input. I am confident that their experience will ensure a successful relaunch of Shot EXPO.

Secondly, best facility available at the best time for our relaunch is the Melbourne showgrounds.

I wish to thank Winchester Australia for signing on as our Platinum sponsor. Clive Pugh, Winchester Australia CEO is a great advocate of consumer trade shows and was very quick to sign on to the top sponsorship level. I hope all members and all shooting sports enthusiasts support Winchester Australia, and their import brands, as a show of industry solidarity.

It is in the best interests of a successful SSAA Shot EXPO that SSAA NSW and SSAA Victoria co-host the Expo. It is likely that the 2025 SSAA Shot EXPO will be in Sydney, but will still be co-hosted by both SSAA NSW and SSAA Victoria.

Our brand in NSW parliament.

I am pleased to report that our interactions with the NSW Labor Government are strong with communication and logic being the key positive contributors. Our brand is recognised and respected because of our positive approach and our engaged membership.

Maintaining this brand strength is why we communicate with you in as many ways as we do. Keeping you informed is what helps you to be aware of issues facing our sport and your engagement makes our advocacy so much stronger.

NSW Firearms Registry.

We now have a date when Registry hope to turn on their club’s portal being July 2024. That is just 6 months away now. This portal will give registry real time updates of your memberships, genuine reason and eventually your attendances.

The importance of this date is how you achieve your genuine reason to support your firearms licence. If membership of SSAA NSW is your genuine reason, then a lack of membership will immediately impact on your licence. Currently SSAA has grace periods for membership renewal, but that has to stop based on NSW genuine reason laws.

The best way of ensuring your membership, and thus your licence does not expire if membership is your genuine reason; is to have an auto renewal for your membership. In our recent membership survey undertaken to gather your input for our strategic plan, we asked the question “who wants auto membership renewal?” and the answer was very strongly in favour, in excess of 90%.

We are working to introduce auto renewal for all members who want it. Some may not want to participate and there will be an opt out version available for those who have other methods of genuine reason.

Important SSAA NSW advocacy issues like range approvals, match approvals, licence reviews for disability to name a few important membership issues have all undergone review by Registry and the Firearms Registry Consultative Council (FRCC) and have changed for the betterment of our members. Additional reviews are still taking place and are progressing in a positive manner.

Law Abiding Firearms Owners.

We can participate in our sport and own firearms because we are law abiding. Another term used by police and regulators is “fit and proper person”. I believe our members are more focussed on being law abiding than most non shooters – we have more awareness of our responsibility.

I mention this because SSAA NSW will not tolerate bullying and/or other abuses or inappropriate behaviours. The Board must investigate and, if warranted, must action complaints of this nature from members.

You may hear rumours of activity around the Boards responsibility to protect our members. If you have any questions, please contact our office or, if you wish, contact me directly on lancem@nsw.ssaa.org.au

Also, we have taken steps nationally to minimise the effects of sex, age or disability in our national competitions. Equality is a process that requires some support and time to transition so while there is international competition that does discriminate on sex or age, i.e. have competitions that are for women only or have age restriction, we should identify competitors that can compete further in these competitions, but at our SSAA core, competitions we should try to shoot shoulder to shoulder rather than in discrimination groups.

CEO transition.

I will close with the truism that the only true constant is change. In this case the change for SSAA NSW is that Jai is finishing up with us in January to take on a larger role which is very well suited to his skillsets.

I’m very sad to see Jai go, but it is important that he continues to develop his skillsets and his potential to deliver best outcomes for him and his family. He is continuing to work very hard to transition all of his roles to our skilled staff and some onto our board members. The handover will be seamless and although he did a lot of work and held a lot of positions; that load will now be shared until our new CEO picks up the reins.

Jai gave us plenty of time to ensure an effective handover and to assist in finding his replacement. I am happy to report that we have quite a large list of potential candidates with strong skill sets and strong passion to take on this role after we interview. Our brand is very strong in the community and in the professional spaces like government. This is contributing to candidates with strong skillsets applying to be our CEO. Personally, I wish Jai the very best, we have worked very well together, and it has been a pleasure to work with him. I am sure we will remain good friends and I know that Jai intends to assist whenever we need input from him to continue the changeover, even after he has left. He will assist the new CEO to pick up the reins. Jai will continue to serve as a volunteer director with SSAA Mutual Pty Ltd for the benefit of members and the shooting sports; so he does intend to stay within arm’s reach of SSAA.

Jai leaves us in a much better place than where we were when he started.

*Our relationship with government is good.

*Relationship with the firearms registry is likewise very good.

*Our brand is strong amongst the industry and through the levels of politics and regulation that applies to the shooting sports.

*Our finances are improved.

*Our governance and our strategic vision are much stronger.

*Most importantly our communication with our members has grown and developed to the point where we have an engaged and informed membership that can collaborate on big projects when required.

Change can be opportunity. In my next report I hope to report to you more details for our next SSAA NSW CEO and management leader.

I hope everyone has a great Christmas and new Year. Please stay safe.

Best regards,

Lance Miller

The post SSAA NSW President’s Message – Lance Miller appeared first on SSAA NSW.

It is with sadness that SSAA NSW farewells Jai Rowell as our CEO effective mid-January 2024. 

Jai has been a transformative leader for SSAA NSW working with the Board and myself as President and in the past 5 years has: 

• Ensured the highest levels of governance for SSAA NSW, 
• Led the conversion from being an incorporated Association to a company Limited by Guarantee, 
• Run our advocacy ensuring that SSAA NSW is known positively across Government, Opposition, and the Crossbench to the point that SSAA NSW is regularly contacted for advice by Government and its agencies, 
• Ensured that SSAA NSW has stopped unintended consequences on proposed legislative changes, 
• Stabilised our financial base so more funds can be spent on Member benefits, 
• Secured record amounts of funding for range improvements, 
• Secured new ranges, 
• Improved the performance of various units within the organisation, 
• Introduced improved systems within SSAA NSW, 
• Assisted with the Industry Training Specialist – (Registered Training Organisation), 
• Developed a talented team of staff supporting members, 

Jai has worked above and beyond in his substantive role and has held the following roles: 

• CEO / Executive Director – SSAA NSW, 
• Company Secretary – SSAA NSW, 
• Director of SSAA National, 
• Member SSAA National Finance Committee, 
• Member SSAA National Legal Oversight Committee, 
• Member SSAA National Legislative Action Committee 
• Member SSAA National Disciplines Committee 
• Founding Director of SSAA Mutual Pty Ltd – The discretionary Mutual fund that has already seen 80,000 customers in its first 12 months operation, 
• Director of SSAA Insurance Brokerage Pty Ltd, 
• General Manager – St Marys Indoor Shooting Centre, 
• Company Secretary – SSAA Pty Ltd, 
• General Manager – SSAA NSW Auburn Shooting Centre, 
• Board Member – NSW Game and Pest Board – DPI – NSW Government, 
• Regularly appointed to ad-hoc groups within Government agencies to assist the shooting sports, hunting and game and pest management, 
• and the list goes on and on. 

The above is just a small snapshot of what Jai has achieved, and the work undertaken. With his legal and financial skills, he has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars and provided strategic direction for SSAA NSW. 

Jai is highly respected amongst the Board, Members, Branches, Affiliate Clubs and stakeholders and has been instrumental in improving the culture within SSAA NSW and the perception of SSAA NSW externally. 

Whilst we are sad to see Jai leave the role as our CEO, he leaves with the SSAA NSW’s best wishes for his new external employment opportunity. We also take this opportunity to thank his wife Belinda and sons for sharing him with us. 

Jai has indicated that he is happy to assist SSAA NSW wherever possible albeit as a volunteer. He will continue to be a member and keep up with his shooting. 

Jai will work with myself and the Board for a smooth transition and ensure it is business as usual.

Working with Jai has been an absolute pleasure, and I am sure that everyone will join me in thanking him for his fantastic service to SSAA NSW and the shooting sports. 

Jai will write to members separately soon and please do not hesitate to send him an email and join us wishing him well for the future. 

The SSAA NSW Board are meeting this weekend to discuss a transition to a new CEO, and we will keep you updated. 

Thank you,

Lance Miller

President, SSAA NSW

The post President Announcement – CEO Resignation appeared first on SSAA NSW.