Meeting Held: October 8, 2000 1:30 pm
21 Laidlaw Way Flat Bush Manukau City

Attendees: Scott Macindoe - Chairman, Paul Barnes, Peggy Barnes, Geoff Green, Ray Everson, Sandra Goudie, Bob Burstall, Bill Ross, Bill Cooke, Diane O'Sullivan
Apologies: Grant Dixon Keith Ingram

Agenda: option4 website, option4 primary objectives, Finances Marketing/Advertising/Promotion Draft Submission

option4 buisness: Paul Barnes explained that option4 is a number of ideals and principles which are firmly based on the 1989 Moyle promise. option4 has certainly not been derived from the Soundings document. The rights working group has been grossly misrepresenting option4 at public meetings and are misleading the public when they present option4 as a mix and match of the three options included in the soundings document. It was suggested that the rights working group should limit its introduction to the content of the soundings document and leave its comments on option4 untill after option4 has made its presentation.

option4 now has in excess of 40,000 supporters/ submissions.

option4's primary objective was confirmed as being, "to carry the four non-negotiable principles of option4 all the way through the rights redefination process and to have its principles enshrined in legislation."

There was some concern raised regarding the Recreational Fishing Council and its position both during the submission process, and the following anaylisis and interpretation process which will weight the advice given to the Minister of Fisheries or select committe who will determine the outcome of the soundings process. There was also concern regarding which group would participate in the process at the higher levels. Would the RFC speak on behalf of all recreational fishers including option4?

Bob Burstall stated that "The Recreational Fishing Council will develop its policies from the Soundings process and the submissions that are received, and that, as with any business, it must be negotiable on its issues". Bob also stated that "the RFC constitution will be restructured upon completion of the process in order to reflect the views of the public submissions". The RFC will be selecting an independant review team for the submissions. Bob commented that if option4 does its job well enough during the formall submission process that the RFC would adopt option4 as its policy.

It was agreed by the group that option4 needs to be involved in the post submissions process and should have representatives on the Rights Working Group, or whatever body arises to collate or interpret the submissions. This is necessary to ensure transparency of the process and to ensure non-negotiable means not to be negotiated!

Diane O'Sullivan made the point that the two representative groups are distinct in that the RFC represents a portion of recreational fishers while option4 represents the general N.Z. public, whether they currently choose to recreationally fish or not. Being two distinct entities they should both represent their members at the higher levels of the Soundings process.

It was agreed by the group that option4 should be represented proportional to its member base. It was also agreed that Paul Barnes should represent option4 during this process.

The option4 objective is: To enshrine in legislation the non-negotiable principles and ideals that option4 holds in terms of the publics right to fish.

option4 Strategy: While there is a deadline in place for submissions, set by the Ministry of Fisheries at 30 November, 2000, option4 will present all submissions which it has gathered by this date but will continue to grow its mandate beyond this 30 November date as the process will continue right through to March 2001.

A draft submission will be formulated by Paul Barnes and presented to the option4 group by October 22, 2000.

The submission will include:

• A critique of the Soundings document
• The objectives of option4
• The principles of option4
• A proposed structure for the management of the recreational fisheries

A draft letter to the Minister of Fisheries covering the reasons why option4 should be represented during the review process and requesting a meeting with the Minister of Fisheries will be formulated by Diane O'Sullivan and presented to the option4 group by October 17, 2000.

It was agreed by the option4 group that we need to ascertain a written assurance that all option4 submissions will be counted as individual submissions rather than just one and that option4 requires a detailed explanation of exactly how the process will be carried out.

Marketing/Advertising/Promotion:

The current status of the option4 group is that we currently have around 45,000 supporters/submittors. This number includes the 29,143 members of the Big Game Fishing Council who, at their recent AGM in Gisborne, voted unanimously to support option4. The remainder of the submissions are held by the N.Z. Fishing News.

Submissions and donations for option4 are being received by NZ Fishing News on a daily basis and Grant Dixon of Fishing News has undertaken to supply option4 submission forms/booklets to all Sporting Goods stores. Already we have several sport shops claiming in excess of 1000 signed submissions each on hand. These will be collected within the next few weeks.

It was agreed by the option4 group that its goal will be to collect 250,000 submissions as this figure is similar to the number required for a Citizens Initiated Referendum and will be well recognized by Government.

Sandra Goudie has organized the Thames/Coromandel area and supplied the option4 group with the names, locations and contact numbers of the individuals currently collecting submissions within these districts. Sandra has also undertaken to do the same within each region around New Zealand and will keep the group informed on her progress. Bill Ross will be assisting Sandra with this project.

Peggy Barnes suggested contacting the Sporting Goods Association and the Retail Merchants Association with a view to setting up a meeting to discuss the issues currently facing New Zealand regarding the threat to recreational fishing and the possible capping of the growth of businesses within the recreational fishing industry.

Ray Everson informed the group that currently there are 23 Pit Stop outlets with the option4 submission booklets on hand but required further booklets to cover the entire 55 outlets.

It was decided by the group at this stage that there is a great need for a national co-ordinator/secretary for option4 to ensure all opportunities are investigated thoroughly and to take advantage of public meetings, club meetings, media, schools, shopping malls, RSA's, Cosmopolitian clubs etc. Bill Cooke is looking for someone to fill this role.

Bill Ross offered to organize photocopying of A4, Black and white, option4 submission forms and get them into shopping malls. Scott Macindoe and Geoff Green will be putting together a press release which will be drafted and submitted to option4 spokesman and project leader Paul Barnes before finalizing.

Geoff Green presented a draft copy of an option4 advertisement to be printed in 5 magazines with an estimated readership of 600,000.

option4 Website: Scott Macindoe is in the process of overhauling the option4 website to include questions and responses put the Ministry of Fisheries. The website will also include a list of major supporters and donations which will be updated as information becomes available. A list of all meetings to date and upcoming scheduled meetings will also be posted on the site along with Sandra's list of regional co-ordinators and contact details.

The next meeting will be held: Friday October 27, 2000 10:00 am - 1:30 pm N.Z. Fishing News Level 7 45 O¹Rorke Road Penrose, Auckland