The organisation of one of New Zealand's most historic places, Tauranga's Elms Mission House, has been restructured and trimmed down.
Details of the restructuring coincided with the news that a shortage of money had led to the redundancy of The Elms' office manager Jenny Hughes whose job would be filled by volunteers.
The Elms Foundation's Board of Trustees which stood at five members at the end of last year was trimmed to three with the the retirements of Alan Coster and Paul Adams. The three remaining trustees, Ian Cross (chairman), Des Ferrow and Stephen Hatfield, announced they would retire at the end of April, to be replaced by Norah Reid (chairwoman), Pam Garrett and Gabrielle Johnston.
The Elms Foundation's board of management that consisted of 10 people has been replaced with an advisory board consisting of Mr Adams, Mr Ferrow, Mr Hatfield and Mike Sandlant. Mr Sandlant was the only survivor of the old board of management.
The board of management had been chaired by city historian Jinty Rorke until her death earlier this year. Mr Cross declined to comment on the widespread disappointment among the 67 volunteers at the redundancy of Mrs Hughes, saying he had relinquished the chairmanship early in order to let Mrs Reid take over.