Team effort for business award

TEAMWORK: Judith Karaitiana, Murray Hughes, Sue Simons, Victoria Campbell, Jonnie Henderson Newport, Gail Harrison, Deb Hill, Barry Muir, Denise Simonson, Michael Dwyer and Witerina Cooper with the awards for the Whanganui Learning Centre. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

At the recent Whanganui Chamber of Commerce Regional Business Awards, the Whanganui Learning Centre (WLC) won the Paua Not For Profit Award.
"I went to the awards with no expectation," says Gail Harrison, WLC manager. "So it was a shock and quite humbling, really."
Gail attended the awards with Jade and Sue Teki. "They have been wonderful supporters. Sue has been one of my business associates, like an adviser. Apart from my board I have a community reference group of people here in Whanganui and around New Zealand, so that when I need to sound ideas and need advice, I can go to them." Michael Dwyer and Murray Hughes sit in that category, ex officio to the board.
"Running a not-for-profit is not an easy business," she says. "I have business people, researchers and academics across a number of ethnicities. Our place is becoming increasingly multi-cultural. At any one time I would have people from the Philippines, Cambodia, China, Fiji, Cook Islands, Samoa ... so we have quite a number of Pasifika people, but we also have people who are coming out of India and Pakistan. We have a multi-cultural, multi-religious grouping and a significant Maori population.
"We've always said, if you educate a family, particularly the women, you educate the nation. Our focus is on improving the education of the 'whole of family', which is why we're working in schools."
To enter the awards, WLC presented their profile, their mission and what they had done over the years.
"I think significantly for us, we're not just one trust, we're actually three entities. We are the Wicksteed Community Trust, the Whanganui Learning Centre and we have a creative hub as well. It's our ability to work with those groups that enables us to have flexibility in what we do."
Of real importance too are the values that underpin the practice.
"It's that shared commitment that is evident right from our community of professional advisers, our board, our staff, our students and our volunteers. We have shared common values of wanting to do the best for the individual and the family. We are not for profit but we have to be sustainable and have to be innovative to maintain sustainability, but we are not about profit-making for a group of directors."
This is the second award the WLC has received this year. Gail also received ACE Educator of the Year Award.
"We have to celebrate the success of all the people who have helped us get here ... the insightful nature of the board that bought this building (232 Wicksteed St) in 2002 and which has trust in me as manager. Good governance is important in not-for-profits."
Gail says there is more to come.
"We are in development; you are going to see more things come out of the Whanganui Learning Centre. Our community has asked us to do more and we are determined to deliver."