New Zealand Sign Language Week Highlights Inclusion at Fonterra Clandeboye
Last week marked New Zealand Sign Language Week and a South Canterbury tanker operator is sharing what it's like to be deaf in a busy Fonterra depot.
MICHAEL SPAANS has been elected as the new director on the Fonterra Board of Directors.
Spaans, aged 50, lives in Hamilton and farms at Te Aroha. He was a Shareholders' Councillor from 2000 to 2008 and is currently a director of DairyNZ and several other dairy sector companies.
Shareholders voted to re-elect incumbent directors Malcolm Bailey and Ian Farrelly, says returning officer, Warwick Lampp, of electionz.com Ltd.
Shareholders Scott Montgomery and Gerard Wolvers were elected unopposed as members of the Directors' Remuneration Committee.
In the Shareholders' Council elections Rosss Wallis was elected in Ward 8 – Hamilton and Vaughn Brophy, Ward 21 – Coastal Taranaki.
Both are new Shareholders' Councillors.
In the 11 other Shareholders' Council wards where elections were due, nominees were elected unopposed. The councillors in those wards are:
Ward 3 - Northern Wairoa Penny Smart
Ward 6 - Hauraki Julie Pirie
Ward 9 - Morrinsville Malcolm Piggott
Ward 12 - Cambridge Kevin Monks
Ward 15 - South Waikato Ian Brown
Ward 18 - Otorohanga Duncan Coull
Ward 24 - Southern Taranaki David Werder
Ward 27 - Southern Manawatu Richard Syme
Ward 30 - Northern Central Canterbury Ange Ward
Ward 32 - Southern Canterbury John Gregan
Ward 33 - Otago Ad Bekkers and Ivan Lines
All successful candidates will take office at the close of the annual meeting on Wednesday, November 27, 2013.
OPINION: Farmers around the country are welcoming the proposed reform of local government.
A move to boost farmer uptake of low methane emitting sheep is underway.
Silver Fern Farms has tackled the ongoing war-induced shipping challenges to mideast markets by airlifting 90 tonnes of chilled New Zealand lamb and beef to the United Arab Emirates.
The primary sector is leading New Zealand's economic recovery, according to economist and researcher Cameron Bagrie.
Dairy industry leader Jim van der Poel didn't make much of the invitation he received to the recent New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards in Rotorua.
Farmers around the country are going public big time, demanding their local district, city and regional councils come up with amalgamation plans that meet the needs of rural communities and don't allow urban councils to dominate.

OPINION: The old saying 'a new broom sweeps clean' doesn't always hold up, if you ask the Hound.
OPINION: This old mutt went to school to eat his lunch, but still knows the future of the country, and…