"I am sure they do not get enough appreciation for what they do, please pass on my thanks to the JPs..."

“I wanted to thank you for having a JP service at the Libraries. It makes JPs extremely accessible and they are very friendly and happy to help. I went to Bishopdale Orauwhata today and was very happy with the experience. They had two JPs working in separate rooms and it was clear that their services were in demand as at one point there were people lined up around the corner. I am sure they do not get enough appreciation for what they do, please pass on my thanks to the JPs and thank you to the Council and Libraries for facilitating this service.”

We received the above compliment via the library from a client using our Bishopdale service desk. Thank you to our Bishopdale team……..namely Allen Pyke, Carole Evans, Chris Bell, Dennis Robertson, Diane Rossiter, Doug Archbold, Graeme Barber, John Freeman, John Syme, Marge Wong, Nick Atkins, Patricia Arps, Paul Haglund , Roger Murdoch, Garth Dale and our Coordinator Jean Taylor. Special thanks to Ann Gargiulo and Barry Turner for your help on our desk and to Sandy Bragg who has recently retired.

To all our other Justice of the Peace service desk teams thank you for the wonderful work you all undertake on a regular basis.

Papanui

We have a new Saturday desk which started at Papanui library on 09 March 2019 operating from 10 am to 12 noon. Rosemary Mannering was our rostered Justice on Duty and at 10.30 am the library rang me asking for back up as there were at least 20 clients waiting in the queue.   The Justices working on this desk are our Fendalton team who are working here on a Saturday whilst the Fendalton library is closed for repair for four months. The Justices in our Fendalton team are John Syme, Steven Marshall, Siew Ngor Chen, Harry Friedel, Keith Nuttall, Rosemary Mannering, Bob Macgregor, Brian Scott, Vicki Steans, Kim Ding, Gwen Mitchell and Geoff Cain assisting as a stand in. Also joining us and we extend a very warm welcome are Terry Marshall, Tom Holtslag, Brent Philip and Wendy Doody our Oxford Coordinator who very generously put her hand up to help too.

William Lambie who co-ordinates our Tuesday team at Papanui has generously offered to help us out working on the 6th April. We thank everyone sincerely.

We are going to need some extra Justices to help on this desk please as our Fendalton team will return to that library when it re-opens at the end of July ……if anyone can spare two hours on a  Saturday morning could you please contact me, Gwen Mitchell on 0274 589 178 or email me at clareview3@xtra.co.nz

Sumner

Interestingly the number of clients using our Sumner Saturday desk dropped off from 40 odd clients to just 13 on Saturday 09th March the day our Papanui desk began. It will be interesting to watch the numbers.

Our Sumner service desk operates Saturdays 10 am to 12 noon. The demand for JP services at this desk has been huge with clients travelling from all over Christchurch and surrounding areas.

Sincere thanks to John Goodrich, Nicola Wood, Glennis Wightman, Barry Cooper, Neil Shewan and our acting Coordinator Lance Kenyon for their work on our Sumner desk. Judy Laidlaw retired earlier this year and we sincerely thank her for all her work.   Brent Philip was recently  been appointed a NZ JP after serving as a JP for 30 years in Australia and has volunteered for the desk.

We need some more Justices please to help on our Sumner desk. Please contact Lance Kenyon on 027 848 3112 email: lancerkenyon@gmail.com or myself, Gwen Mitchell, if you can spare just a couple of hours every few weeks on a Saturday morning to help.

Spreydon

Our Spreydon desk operating in the Spreydon library on a Thursday has extended their hours from 10 am to 1 pm. The team believe the desk might be better served opening at 10. 30 am and going through to 1.30 pm. This is still to be decided.

Spreydon is a small library with wonderful staff who support us so well. Murray Spackman co-ordinates this desk and works with Karolin Potter, Ralph Brown and Ian Cumming.

These four Justices do a sterling job but we need to build up the number of Justices working here.   If you could please help at Spreydon contact Murray Spackman on 027 6770 102 email: murrayspackman@xtra.co.nz or myself Gwen Mitchell 0274 589 178.

We ARE asking for a lot more volunteers at this time. What can we offer you?

• The opportunity to work with another Justice in a supported , safe, warm environment with a variety of work. For a new Justice this provides an opportunity to work alongside an experienced Justice
• Networking with other Justice
• Education and assistance if needed
• Annual Christmas morning tea just for service desk Justices plus a lot of our service desks have a regular coffee/tea catch up

We ask that our service desk Justices are Accredited and help is available to achieve this qualification if you are currently not Accredited.

Linwood

Our Linwood team have a new Coordinator , Liz Beaven who has taken over from Gwen. Liz works close by, has wonderful organisational and computer skills and we thank her for taking this role on.    We have a fabulous Linwood team made up of Murray Spackman, Annette Bunting, Sheene Ottmann, Tom Gregg, John Syme, Jean Taylor, Sandra Sharp, Davena Murray, Captain Kelvin Turner, Major Graham Medland, Peter Hines, Liz Beaven, Yvonne Hawkins and Leiola Pelesikoti from Auckland and Gwen Mitchell. Karaitiana Taiuru is joining us and we warmly welcome him.

Yvonne Hawkins and Leiola Pelesikoti from Auckland worked on our Linwood desk on Tuesday 5th March and I met them afterwards for coffee and lunch.   Leiola very kindly presented me with a handmade Tongan lei which is beautiful. Attached is a photo of Yvonne and Leiola taken after their duty on the desk.

General

Our service desks are maintaining records the number of clients they see, the number of certified copies processed, the number of Statutory Declarations, the number of Affidavits and the number of “Other” work done. For the period 01 September 2018 to 28 February 2019 we dealt with 8065 clients, worked 1240 hours, processed 18021 certified copies, handled 3536 Statutory Declarations, 245 Affidavits and 1049 Other Documents. Impressive Statistics.

The number of clients we help is why we need you to put your hand up to help us on our service desks. Our services are extremely well utilised and appreciated by the public. If you can help, one of our Coordinators is only a phone call away. Thank you.

Print off the attached Service Desk list and keep it handy so you always know when a service desk is operating and locations.  It will be updated as necessary.

Friday 15th March in Christchurch was a dark day in our history that we will never forget. Schools, public buildings and many other areas were in lock down and many events cancelled. Our libraries delayed their opening until 12 noon on Saturday 16 March so Papanui and Sumner service desks did not operate.   The libraries advertised the change on their web- site so I hope everyone knew.

Oxford

Our Oxford team made up of Shirley Farrell, Kevin Felstead, Sheene Ottmann, Robin Frahm, Bernard Kingsbury, Brian Thompson and our co-ordinator Wendy Doody work each Thursday from 11 am to 1 pm in the fabulous Oxford library.

A few weeks ago one of our Oxford JP service desk Justices, who is also in the Volunteer Fire Brigade had to quickly organise a stand in as he was called away to a fire. Most of our Oxford team working on our service desk are also heavily involved in other areas of their Communities and like all of our Justices who so freely give their time to their Communities, you are all wonderful role models and your work so appreciated in our Community.

It is a privilege to work among such a wonderful group of people. Thank you.

Gwen Mitchell

0274 589 178