2026 AGM Chair's Report
Bronwyn Rideout - 17th August 2026
Tena koutou katoa. A warm welcome to all who are attending this AGM during our conference lunch break.
I want to begin by thanking the 2026 committee for their work this year, and I want to give particular acknowledgement to the members of the committee who have made this conference possible this weekend - Hamish Dickson, Jonny Grady, Mark Honeychurch, and Craig Shearer. I also want to acknowledge Tim Atkin, James Brown, Nathan Grange, Simon Hogh, Brian Paavo, and Sara Passmore for stepping up where an extra pair of hands was most needed.
This is going to be a shorter Chair’s report than what we’d normally have at an AGM, because the year isn’t quite over yet, and we still have a few things to achieve before January. Things may appear quiet on the surface for the NZ Skeptics, but the committee has been busy. The timing and resources needed for this conference meant that since January, this has been as much of an all-hands-on-deck event as it could be for a volunteer organisation such as ours. I hope you agree that such attention has been well worth it. In March, we held our SGM to ratify our new constitution, which was a requirement to keep us in compliance with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022. The new act had several new sections regarding disciplinary processes and information requests that needed careful consideration in relation to how this society operates.
Still, we found the time to make a submission to Parliament on the Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill which, after a long wait, was published on the Parliamentary website for public reading on July 22nd.
We’ve continued to support the Wellington and Auckland Skeptics in the Pub events, and it’s always a pleasure to thank James Kerr, Craig Shearer, and Robin Capper for their commitment to keeping these events going. Our pub events are vital to keeping the skeptical community visible and accessible to New Zealanders. As part of our 40th anniversary, the committee will sponsor a special Skeptics in the Pub in November in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. Details will be shared through our website, social media platforms, as well as the newsletter and podcast
Our online “Cyberspace” meetings remain indefinitely postponed. However, we will be involved in the 3rd Global Skeptics in the Pub online, hosted by the Bay Area Skeptics. The date for that is being finalised, but for the third year in a row the New Zealand Skeptics will be both opening and closing the 24-hour online marathon for skeptics.
The release of the newsletter and the podcast on alternating weeks remains the Skeptics’ consistent output with myself, Mark Honeychurch, and Katrina Borthwick regularly contributing to both. The AI audio editing software Descript is still a great investment, increasing our efficiency in each step of the podcast production process. With the closing of this conference, we will commence planning how we can better harness the software to create content that we can put on social media. While you won’t see myself or the rest of the committee doing TikTok dances anytime soon, we won’t argue that it can be an important way to combat misformation.
Regarding our journal/newsletter, since 1986 352 skeptics have written over 2.6 million words for our Society. Between Craig, Mark, and I, our word count is equal to 9 PhD Theses at VUW (if we were writing to the max work limit of 100,000), or 13 prof docs - which have a max word count of 70,000. Our website at articles.skeptics.nz has been a valuable addition to our public outreach, making it easier to share the total 3,007 articles in our catalogue with journalists, with the possibility of being the first page of Google results when people research their woo of choice. Whether you submit an article that is 800 words or 8,000, every word we send out into the ether has the potential to keep someone from buying into that scam or submitting their free will to predators. That is an immense impact for our membership to have on the world around them.
We continue to encourage submissions from members and skeptical allies. This year, we published in the newsletter and/or talked on the podcast with the following individuals:
- Tim Atkin
- James Kerr
- Anke Richter
- Lee Traynor
- John Maindonald
- Daniel Ryan
- Aaron Davies
- Mike Joy
- “Reef Spotter”
We give special acknowledgement to Patrick Medlicott for his ongoing article submissions regarding climate change.
Not to step on Tim’s toes, but I do want to update the membership on certain money matters.
Membership is slightly lower this year, with 210 paid subscribers and, as of yesterday, 3 lifetime members. Our subscription fees ($40 annually, or $20 if you’re unwaged) remain unchanged. Our membership system (Memberful) streamlines the process of communicating with members, and collecting subscriptions when they are due.
Our insurance policy remains active. We intend to renew this policy but, rest assured, we have yet to have to utilise it. The $100K skeptic challenge is also still active but, after three years, none of the invitees have taken us up on the challenge. Nevertheless, we continue to receive unsolicited claims of psychic or telekinetic abilities, but so far nothing compelling has appeared.
This year we received a $20k bequest from the estate of John Eilif Jensen. We are slowly finding uses for the previous bequest, from the Estate of Jim Ring, and it was particularly helpful in helping to cover some of the upfront costs for this conference. We remain interested in becoming more self-sufficient with technology over time, and recording and/or live streaming future conferences, as well as potentially starting some video production for the podcast. However, there is no time pressure to make these purchases, and in the meantime the funds are being appropriately placed across term deposits.
Before I hand the mic (or the zoom) over to our Treasurer, I have some closing words.
In reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the Skeptics, I wanted to know what the likelihood was of an organisation like ours making it to 40 years. I didn’t want to crow about what a feat it was to still be here and then be hit with a few “whatabouts” (yes, the NZ Association of Rationalists & Humanists is nearly 100 years old!). We’ve got to have some evidence.
An analysis published online in 2014 from the US found that the median age of non-profits was 20 years old, but the most likely time of death of an organisation is between 6 and 15 years, and the most dangerous ages for closing down are 9 and 10. However, within the NZ charity sector, we’re unexpectedly average - if maybe even on the young side, A study published in 2013 showed the mean average age of non-profits to be 55 years, with 37 years being the median. That mean average number is somewhat bolstered by several charities that are between 100 and 165 years old. There has been no research on the subject done since then that I could find, so whether we are behind the curve or have beaten it in 2026, I can’t say. But what I can say is that what we have achieved as a community through four decades is admirable, and I hope that whatever we may eventually leave behind remains useful for future generations.
Organised skepticism persists because of our membership and other supporters who sign up for our newsletter, queue up our podcast, and attend our conferences year in and out. What we want to do from now through to 2027 is to be more active for our members, and to increase our membership. We have several ideas for how to achieve both, and it’s been heartening to hear from the locals that there is interest in revitalising Skeptics in the Pub in Christchurch. As a committee we’re always eager to help make this reality. We are also keen to develop teaching materials around skepticism, and to reengage in skeptical activism, which has gone to the wayside since the disbanding of the Skeptical Activism in the Pub meetings over a year ago.
To make that work possible, we won’t be having an NZ Skeptics 2027 conference, but we are aiming to collaborate with the NZARH as they celebrate their milestone 100th anniversary in Auckland in April 2027.
Thank you all for attending this year’s conference, and for your support of the NZ skeptics - whether it’s been for the last 2 months or 40 years.
Ka kite.
Tags: year, skeptics, conference, newsletter, committee, pub, podcast, words