NZ Skeptics Articles

Articles tagged with "committee"

Conference Clarity

18 August 2025

In lieu of my usual blathering, this week we have an update from our chair, Bronwyn, about our plans for our conferences this year and next:

Response to a member's concern

19 February 2024

We recently had a member decide not to renew their membership, because of concerns about our submission to the Therapeutic Products Bill. They told us:

Twisting the truth

11 December 2023

It's weird not having had a newsletter out last week. Hopefully you didn't miss us too much! As our sole editor I'll be keeping to a biweekly schedule for now - although if we get more content coming our way from readers and committee members, who knows, I may be able to return to producing the newsletter on a weekly basis. For now, you can expect to read something from myself, Bronwyn and Craig every fortnight, and then we'll be recording our podcast in the days following the newsletter's release, and chatting about either our articles or something else that tickles our fancy. If you feel moved to write an article for us, just send your article to news@skeptics.nz and we'll let you know if we plan to publish it, which is very likely to be the case as we love reading all your thoughts on skeptical topics, and I'm sure our audience does too. And, once your article's been published, we'll probably want you to join us on the podcast to talk about it as well - but only if you're comfortable with doing that.

Another Year, Another Conference

27 November 2023

Apologies for the slightly late delivery of this issue of our newsletter - I'm currently tapping away on my keyboard on the ferry at Picton, waiting to start the final leg of our journey back home to Wellington from the conference.

NZ Skeptics AGM

20 November 2023

As mentioned above, during the Sunday lunchtime of the conference we'll be holding our Annual General Meeting. If you're a member of NZ Skeptics you can come along (even if you're not attending the conference) and hear all about our business. We'll also be attempting to run a livestream of the meeting in case you can't attend in person.

South Island UFO

24 April 2023

Jonny Grady, a long-time committee member, sent an image he'd taken of a “UFO” to the committee last week:

TPB submissions

27 February 2023

We've been promoting making submissions to the Therapeutic Products Bill. The NZ Skeptics committee has met and put together its official submission, and I've put in a personal submission.

AGM

29 November 2021

NZ Skeptics has its Annual General Meeting on Sunday 12th December. We'll be holding this online, and we'd encourage any interested members to come along.

Live from the Christchurch Home Show

12 July 2021

There's some classic skepticism in this week's newsletter - numerology, an American conspiracy theory and a scam that looks, walks and quacks like a Ponzi Scheme. And, as well as my usual ranting, we have a report from Barry Lennox. Barry was a committee member a few years ago, and he recently visited the Christchurch Home Show. You probably won't be surprised to hear that Barry found several stalls pushing unproven nonsense in amongst the spa pools and heat pumps.

Christchurch talk

29 March 2021

If you're in or around Christchurch, you may be interested in attending the Christchurch Skeptics in the Pub. One of our NZ Skeptics committee members, Jonathan Harper, is giving a talk about skepticism. It's at the Pegasus Arms, 6pm on Thursday 8th April. You can register your RSVP on the group's meetup page.

Reiki

1 March 2021

Mark Honeychurch recently covered a Newshub story by Sarah Templeton in our newsletter (Reiki is Here To Save Us All) about a visit to a Reiki person by the reporter. (Practitioner, in my humble opinion, is probably the wrong word).

Ring, Reiki and Natural Medicine

1 March 2021

A big portion of this week's newsletter content was contributed by NZ Skeptics Committee member - Jonathan Harper.

Interview with the entity

1 November 2014

This year the NZ Skeptics Annual General Meeting was held separately from the conference, on 7 September in Wellington. Among the business attended to was the election of a new chair-entity, Mark Honeychurch, replacing Gold who takes on the new role of Head Geek, responsible for technological support. The_ NZ Skeptic _took the opportunity to ask Mark a few questions about himself, and his vision for skepticism in New Zealand.

Proposed constitutional changes for NZ Skeptics

1 August 2011

The following changes to the constitution of the NZ Skeptics have been proposed and will be considered at the Annual General Meeting in Christchurch on Sunday, 28 August 2011. This notice is published in accordance with the society"s rules which require 21 days" written notice of any such change.

Time for a new name?

1 August 2006

Over the last few years, there have been frequent suggestions that the Skeptics organisation in New Zealand should have a new name. At present, our formal name is the New Zealand Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal Inc. Originally, this was an adaptation of the name of our sister organisation in the US, the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. The American organisation has recently changed its formal name to Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. This has been a prompt for our committee to re-open the issue here. The reasons put forward for change, both here and in the US, can be summarised as:

Chair-entity's Report 2001

1 November 2001

I'm pleased to welcome you officially to the 21st century, which I suspect will need Skeptics every bit as much as the last century, judging by the general level of activity over the past year.

George Errington

1 August 1997

THE committee notes with sadness the sudden death of George Errington. George and his wife Helen joined NZCSICOP in 1986 and have been active, enthusiastic members. He was a "behind the scenes" worker who shunned the limelight. For that reason, his loss is perhaps particularly keenly felt by the Secretary; he gave his time and creative and engineering skills generously to the increasingly onerous task of preparing this newsletter for distribution. His last contribution to the New Zealand Skeptics was to assist in devising a new system for managing our growing membership and subscription list. He will be greatly missed.

1989 A.G.M.

1 May 1990

The 1989 Annual General Meeting of NZCSICOP was held at the Science Lecture Theatre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, on 3 September 1989.

New Zealand Skeptics' 1988 Media Awards

1 February 1989

The New Zealand Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (Inc.) seeks nominations for its annual journalism/media awards for 1987-1988. Awards will be presented at the annual meeting of the Committee, held this year at the University of Auckland, August 20-21.

Some get hurt

1 February 1989

For most individuals the result of a consultation with a psychic is a good laugh. But some get hurt.

New Zealand Skeptics' 1987 Media Awards

1 February 1988

The New Zealand Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (Inc.) seeks nominations for its annual journalism/media awards for 1986-1987. Awards will be presented at the annual meeting of the Committee, held this year at Victoria University in Wellington, August 29-30.

Psychic pretender pleases sceptics

1 May 1987

Former Star news editor Josh Easby has collected . an award for journalistic excellence for his "psychic duel" with an Auckland clairvoyant.