Anthroposophy Hawkes Bay Annual General Meeting, 25. July 2026
Committee Chair Annual Report
Reporting Period: April 2025 – March 2026
It has been a full and busy year for the HB Branch over this 12-month period.
The Centre has been used for many different activities and events, which is heartwarming to experience, however, room bookings have declined, which will affect our future income significantly.
The Committee is now down to three members, which is the legal minimum (Angela is not available for re-election at the AGM, thank you Angela for your time given to the Committee!).
If one of the three remaining Committee members is not available for the monthly meeting, we legally cannot meet.
We do need more members to come forward and offer their services to the Branch by joining the Committee.
We need people who are able and willing to contribute to the tasks the Committee has to attend to, i.e. it’s not just a matter of joining the Committee, but to be active in this role.
If the present situation of the same small group of members attending to all aspects of the running of the Centre continues, it may become untenable for these people to go on without more support.
The financial situation does not help either, taking into account the running of the Centre cost is close to $100 PER DAY, and fewer people are making contributions.
For both these reasons, at some stage, we may have to have a conversation on the sustainability of the HB Branch in its present form.
As mentioned, there was a myriad of activities and events during the year, some ongoing such as weekly study groups, weekly open library with Fran, Christian and Seasonal Festivals organized by the Festival Group with the help of others, Art displays, monthly Committee meetings and monthly class lessons.
We also have regular room bookings for Art Therapy with Eva and Pastel Art with Kathy, Homeopathic Clinic with Angela, Taikura’s Te Kakano Play Group, Social Eurythmy with Sue, Speech and Drama Classes for Taikura students with Ruth Strong, Speech and Drama Trainings with Astrid and Reiki and Tibetan Bell Meditations with Shu Shimaoka.
We have two paid positions, cleaning (Cecile) and gardening (Jen).
The events during the year started off in April with the Kolisko Conference “Great Expectations” at Taikura, co-organized and catered for by branch members.
April also saw our AGM taking place.
In May Michelle gave a talk about her recent visit to the meeting of country representative at the Goetheanum in Dornach, and visits to other places in Europe.
Eva Knausenberger also gave a talk in May on “The Threefold Principle in Social Organisations and in Daily Life and Society”.
The winter months were a bit quieter however, a “maintenance and Centre refreshing vibe” was noticeable with further insulation work done (floors in all rooms and walls of the front room have now been completed, which also necessitated a clean out of piles of rubbish from under the house, and the repainting of one wall in the main room), painting of the Art Room and the cutting back of tree growth from Taikura’s car park and gardens to avoid the trellis on top of the fence twisting and breaking (This needs to be done urgently again! Any volunteers please?!).
“The Representative of Man” painting has a new curtain and the foyer has new, comfortable chairs to sit on as well as blankets for the members who feel the cold more than others.
The Eurythmy Store Room has been re-organised to allow more room after more and more items were “parked’ there over time and the kitchen cupboards have been re-aligned (unstuck) and painted.
We had expensive plumber visits for unblocking the pipe from the kitchen sink (Please do not put coffee grinds down the sink, it blocks the pipes)! The water connection at the toby also needed to be repaired. We ask members not to park their cars in the space to the right of the totara tree out front. The weight of the cars damages the pipes).
Rebuild valuation and electrical reports, and resulting electrical repairs, needed for insurance purposes, have significantly increased our insurance costs this year. The cover is now for approximately $1.8 million rebuild value as per the valuation report however, as in previous years, the insurance does not cover us for natural disasters due to cost of the additional premium and the need for yet another report to ascertain if the building meets at least 34% of the earthquake strengthening requirements.
We finished last year with a deficit and budget projections forecast an even larger deficit for this year (see Treasurer’s financial report).
We ask ALL members to please remember to make financial contributions to the HB Branch, which are separate from the ASNZ contributions.
In June we had “The Festival for the Dead”.
In August Michelle gave a talk on the theme “Spiritual Foundation of Morality” and the Committee held a series of Saturday morning meetings to review the Branch Rules and bring them up to date. This review will be part of our AGM.
In September several members traveled to Tauranga for the ASNZ AGM and Society Day.
We also had a talk by David Urieli on “The Journey from Death to a New Birth”.
Other talks included Andrea Beech’s “Walking the Camino and side visit to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao” and Norbert Mulholland’s talk on the “Representative of Man” and the “Planetary Seals” paintings in the main room which he had painted exactly 30 years ago at the time of the talk.
October saw the recital by Astrid and friends of “The Canticle to the Sun” and “The Story of his most wonderful Miracle performed in Gubbio - of taming the fierce and dreaded Wolf”.
In November we had a lecture by Thomas Mayer on “Living with the Deceased and the Effects of Materialism on the Afterlife” followed by a three day seminar with Thomas Mayer and Agnes Hardorp on “Meditation”.
Ian Trousdell gave a talk on “Knowing Reality” and we had a book stall at the Taikura Fête were members’ unwanted books were sold to raise funds for the library to purchase new books.
In December Norbert Mulholland gave a talk on “Christian Rosenkreutz and Rudolf Steiner”.
During January the Centre was closed.
February saw the beginning of “Coffee and Conversations” with Chris Bacchus, an informal way to welcome new people into the Centre and give them a basic picture of what’s happening at the Centre.
“Earth Radiating Spirit” was an event celebrating the world-traveling 1:3 size model of the copper double dodecahedron as a symbol of unity, renewal and connection.
The month concluded with a Speech Training Course with Penelope Snowdon and a talk by Van James on “Humour and Rudolf Steiner”.
In March we had a series of talks by Cleone on “The Evolution, Development and Destiny of Animals”.
We have new members joining the HB Branch, Sabina Bacchus, Stephen Diedericks, Matthew Frear and Camille Iona.
Three members passed the threshold: Daniel Brent, Robert Simpson and Kristina Friedlander.
Gerrit Raichle
Committee Chair Anthroposophy HB