Devonport Business Association’s recent AGM heralded substantial changes around the board table. The DBA has been extremely lucky to have been guided by the immensely capable Dianne Hale QSO over the past seven years. A deputy mayor of the former North Shore City Council for almost a decade, then member of the Devonport Takapuna Local Board for six years, Dianne has been an irreplaceable asset on the DBA board. Her energetic commitment to this voluntary role, over the challenging recent years in particular, is wholly admirable.
Taking her place for the year ahead is Rob Vickery, an internationally active local professional who first joined the board in 2022.
“I am honoured to become the next Chair of the Devonport Business Association. Dianne Hale has set a very high bar for me to hit, and I’m excited to continue building the DBA on the foundations she has most expertly laid.
“I’m a proud Devonport business owner and believe that the success of our company, Hillfarrance Venture Capital, can in part be attributed to our location on Victoria Road. As it is for many businesses here, our clients enjoy making the trip from the CBD to see us, and entertaining them in our beautiful village is always a pleasure.”
The AGM also farewelled Sue Johnson and Laura Foote who have both fully earned long service awards, while welcoming new board members Philip de Lisle, Nick Turley and Liz Sloan.
The school holidays plus Auckland Heritage Festival 2023 that run into early October include Devonport’s creative Flotilla event, encouraging the creation of a ‘flotilla’ of origami boats. (Visit flotilla.nz for a visual introduction to this fun holiday activity.)
Designed by DBA board member Bruce Grant, the significance of Flotilla and its place in the Heritage Festival’s celebration of ‘Peace, Love and Protest’, is currently displayed in the northern-end windows of the Devonport Library. Our seaside village played a nation-leading role in Auckland’s nuclear-free protests during the 1970s and '80s, not least with Devonport Borough Council’s nuclear-free declaration in 1981. Bring your tamariki to the library to collect their own origami boat templates and learn about that history from the timeline and evocative photo display.
