The Trust Charter is a strong founding document, but the trustees have not adopted it. The trustees reviewed it page by page in June 2025, and no hui since has had enough trustees present to adopt it. The June 2025 minutes record that the marae's funding application for solar batteries needs the Trust Charter in force. The Trust Charter also does not say whether trustees are protected from paying the marae's debts.

While the Trust Charter is not adopted, the trustees' decisions are open to question and funding applications are held up. Trustees afraid of personal liability are less likely to stay or to join. The wording of the protections needs advice from the marae's accountant or lawyer, which takes time.

Once the trustees adopt the Trust Charter, they will govern under a founding document that is in force. Trustees will know how they are protected when they act in good faith.

• Settle the wording of the Trust Charter, with the changes the trustees reviewed in June 2025, at the first trustees' hui with a quorum. Then bring it to the AGM for endorsement, as the trustees agreed in June 2025 and as clause 14.1 requires for any change to the Trust Charter.
• Ask the marae's accountant or lawyer to draft an indemnity clause (wording that says trustees will not pay personally for decisions made in good faith). The clause needs to fit Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993, the law that covers Māori reservations.
• Agree at a hui what reasonable repayment would be for trustees' out-of-pocket costs, and write it down.
• Set a five-year review cycle for the Trust Charter and name two trustees to lead it. At the same time, settle the smaller gaps:
  • how many trustees there must be
  • which decisions, besides changing the Trust Charter, need more than a simple majority
  • that the word beneficiaries in clauses 5.3 and 5.5 means the whānau of the marae listed in clause 3

• The trustees keep working under a founding document they have not adopted.
• Funding that needs the Trust Charter in force, such as the application for solar batteries, stays on hold.
• Good people keep turning down the trustee role, for fear of paying the marae's debts from their own pocket.

Four of the six people interviewed said trustees do not share one understanding of what the role requires, and three raised the issue of whether trustees are personally liable for the marae's debts. All survey respondents said the board needs more governance skill to solve problems. The 'Pou roles' document notes the duties of each job area, but doesn't specify what every trustee does, and the Chair's role is not described.

Trustees have legal duties whether or not anyone has explained those duties to them. The IRD penalties for tax returns not filed on time have left some trustees afraid of having to pay the marae's debts themselves, and that fear keeps people away. Trustees need to agree what the role involves before job areas are handed out again.

Every trustee will understand the role in the same way, including the legal duty to put the marae's interests ahead of their own. Trustees will know what they may be personally liable for.

• Hold the wānanga off-site with kai, and invite the chairs of the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee for the afternoon.
• During the day, work through the one page showing what the trustees, the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee each do, which is recommended elsewhere in this review.
• At the wānanga, talk through conflicts of interest (when a decision touches a trustee's own whānau or business). Then agree to adopt the Conflicts of Interest Policy and Register of Interests recommended in the Kupu Āwhina | Suggestions section of this dashboard.
• In the Pou roles document, write what every trustee does, and add a half-page description of the Chair's role.
• Refer to Te Puni Kōkiri's one-page explainer on marae trustees and committees. Te Whare Hukahuka can also provide a template and run a short session on trustee duties.

• Trustees keep holding legal duties that no one has explained to them.
• Pou (job areas) are handed out again to trustees who are unsure what a trustee is, and are dropped again.
• Capable whānau stay away from a trustee role that no one can describe to them.

Monthly trustees' hui have been called through 2026, and none had a quorum. The Trust Charter needs 60% of trustees present before decisions count. Hui notices go out from the Chair by email, which some trustees do not read, and hui dates moved without notice. The June 2025 minutes record a request for a text group for hui notices, to be looked into.

Decisions made without a quorum do not count until more than 50% of trustees confirm them, so matters are kept unsettled. Adopting the Trust Charter, confirming what the marae owes to IRD, and agreeing the year's priorities are all waiting for a hui with a quorum. A calendar and a group text for hui notices can be set up easily.

The trustees will meet often enough, with enough people present, to make formal decisions that count. Everyone will know the hui dates and hear about changes in time.

• Set the year's hui dates at one time, including the AGM, and give every trustee the same calendar. The Trust Charter suggests meeting every three months (clause 8.1), which may be easier to keep than monthly hui.
• Send each hui notice by group text, with the same notice by email, and a printed calendar for anyone who prefers paper.
• At the next hui, read clause 8.2 of the Trust Charter, which needs 60% of trustees present for decisions to count. Then agree how the trustees will use clause 8.3. Clause 8.3 lets a hui go ahead with fewer trustees, as long as >50% of trustees confirm its decisions afterwards.
• Before each hui, send out a short meeting agenda with one line of background per agenda item, so trustees know what each is about.

• The Trust Charter stays unadopted, and no priorities are agreed for another year.
• Bills may be paid with no hui to approve them, and the trustees cannot check.
• Trustees who do come to the meetings lose heart, and trustees who stay away are never reached.

All survey respondents asked for a better way to resolve conflict when things get heated. There have been heated moments at trustees' hui and at an AGM. When this happens, the Chair sets the matter aside to be talked about outside the hui or at a later hui. Unresolved hurt from a difficult period before the current Marae Committee is still creating tension.

Heated hui keep people away, and each unresolved clash makes the next hui harder to fill. The trustees can write a hui agreement together at the wānanga on trustee duties. Once the trustees are holding regular hui again, the hui agreement can be used straight away.

The board will have an agreed, tikanga-based way to handle disagreement. Hard kōrero will be able to happen at the table without damaging relationships.

• Write a hui agreement (a short page on how trustees raise a concern, pause a heated kōrero and come back to it). Write it together at the one-day wānanga on trustee duties.
• Read the hui agreement aloud at the start of each hui, at least for the first year.
• Consider one kōrero, led by someone from outside the marae with kaumātua present, about the difficult years before the current Marae Committee was formed, when an earlier committee walked away. That kōrero would acknowledge the mahi of the earlier committees and the hurt that those people still feel. It would not go back over who did what.
• When the Trust Charter is next changed, add a short tikanga-based way to settle disputes, which the Trust Charter does not yet have.
• Te Whare Hukahuka can share a hohou-te-rongo (take, utu, ea) process as guidance.

• Hui keep turning heated, with no agreed way to disagree.
• Younger whānau keep away from a board whose hui end in arguments.
• Every disagreement keeps falling to the Chair to calm.

The people interviewed described in different ways who runs the marae day-to-day. Some said the Charitable Trust runs the marae day-to-day. Others said the new Marae Committee does, and one said that no committee was operating. The Trust Charter lets the trustees hand day-to-day work to a Marae Committee (clause 7.1) and asks that committee to keep the trustees informed (clause 7.5), but no written report seems to reach the trustees.

The trustees answer for the marae, so they need to know who is acting in their name. Reports to the trustees, having limits on spending and clear roles all depend on one earlier step: the trustees, the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee agreeing how they work together. The summary can be drafted now and then tabled at the next hui that reaches quorum.

Every trustee will understand who does what in the same way. Reports and decisions will pass between the trustees, the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee in an agreed way.

• At the next trustees' hui with a quorum, bring one page showing the trustees, the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee. For each body, the page shows who is on it and who holds which roles. The page also shows each body's job, its bank accounts, and the reporting expected to be sent to the trustees.
• Write down what each body can decide on its own and what needs the trustees, starting with spending.
• Check the page against the Charitable Trust's deed and against the Charitable Trust's entry on the Charities Register (the government's public list of charities), which names the Charitable Trust's trustees.
• Send the finalised page to every trustee by email, on paper and in an accessible online folder. Include this as a standard document in the board induction pack.
• Ask the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee for a short written update before each trustees' hui, and ask both bodies to invite the marae trustees to their own hui.

• The trustees unable to check money and decisions handled in its name by the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee.
• The Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee acting without the trustees' formal backing.
• The Charitable Trust or the Marae Committee sets up new roles or spending limits before the trustees have agreed who does what.

No one currently seems to formally hold the Secretary's job for the trustees. A whānau member filled the gap for a time, but the Chair now sends every notice, meeting agenda and document himself. A shared online folder (a Google Drive) was set up in 2025, but few trustees learned to use it. Records from before 2024 have not been found. The Trust Charter allows a Secretary who is not a trustee (clause 5.4).

When one person keeps every notice and file, the board's records depend on that person. Several people holding roles on the Charitable Trust plan to step down, so the risk is growing. An administrator does not need to wait for anything else, and will make regular hui easier to keep.

The Chair will no longer have to do all the administration alone. Trustees will receive notices and papers on time, and will be able to find the board's documents when they need them.

• Name one person, paid or volunteer, to do the administration for the trustees, the Charitable Trust and the Marae Committee. The iwi settlement trust (the body that manages the iwi's Te Tiriti settlement) is considering setting up a shared administration service for the marae. This service could potentially do this work.
• Write down on one page who gathers and shares communications, and how. For example:
  • hui notices by text
  • hui papers by email, with a printed copy for anyone who asks
  • urgent matters by phone, and whānau news on the marae's Facebook page
• A whānau member with technology skills has offered free help. Take up that offer to set up a trustees' email address and to bring the shared online folder back into use for the board's documents. Then show each trustee in person how to find things in the folder.
• Find out where the governance records from before 2024 are held. Keep those records, with the Trust Charter, the policies and the minutes, in one place that every trustee can access.

• The Chair continues to take on this additional admin work.
• Trustees keep missing hui they did not hear about.
• New trustees start with no records they can find.

Trustees currently receive meeting agendas with little background for many items. The wording of each decision is not written out before the hui, and most big decisions come without a paper explaining the choice. Nothing written says what the Chair can decide alone. One item on the August 2025 meeting agenda already shows the practice: the agreement with the kōhanga reo that uses the marae is marked as a decision to make.

A board can make informed and more efficient decisions when it knows in advance what it is being asked to decide. This also makes the minutes clearer and actions easier to follow up. This practice can start as soon as the trustees hold regular hui again.

Each hui will produce clear decisions, recorded with agreed wording. Trustees will also know what the Chair may decide alone between hui, because that will also be written down.

• Mark each meeting agenda item with 'for information' or 'for decision', and clearly set out any proposed decision in two sentences.
• For the two biggest decisions on the next meeting agenda, send out a half-page paper setting out the issue, the options and the recommendation.
• Agree what the Chair may decide alone between hui, and the spending limit above which the trustees must decide. Write both rules on one page.

• Decisions keep being talked through but not written down, and are forgotten by the next hui.
• Trustees keep deciding without background papers or the options in front of them.

Neither the Trust Charter nor any of the five policies mentions conflicts of interest, and there is no Register of Interests. At a marae, trustees' own interests often overlap with board decisions. Whānau businesses do marae work, a trustee's household rents one of the kaumātua flats, and trustees hold roles on other bodies.

Without a written policy and register, the board cannot show that a decision involving whānau was fair. Whānau businesses, tenancies and other roles will keep overlapping with board decisions. Both documents are quick to adopt, so they can be agreed at the first hui with a quorum.

The board will be able to make decisions involving whānau openly, with the reasons recorded. Good decisions will be protected from looking like favouritism.

• Adopt a one-page Conflicts of Interest Policy and a Register of Interests (a list of each trustee's interests) and table the register at the start of each hui.
• Te Whare Hukahuka can provide a template if requested.
• In the policy, say that whānau businesses can do marae work when chosen on merit, with the reason recorded in the minutes. One trustee interviewed already supports whānau businesses doing marae work on those terms.
• Check the Trust Charter and the Charitable Trust's deed to see whether a trustee is able to also serve on the Charitable Trust or the Marae Committee. Write the answer in the Conflicts of Interest Policy. The Trust Charter already says that the trustees' representative on a Marae Committee cannot also be its Chair, Secretary or Treasurer (clause 7.4).

• A sound decision made to use a whānau business still appears to be favouritism because no formal process guided it or was written down.
• Rumours about who benefits spread with nothing to answer them.

Asked what the board's current priorities are, trustees all gave different lists and some gave none; the kaumātua flats were brought up three times. Asked what the board should prioritise, different answers were given. The aim for 2026 was to adopt the Trust Charter and then agree a strategy; but no hui has made quorum to do these.

Without agreed priorities, the board spends each hui on whatever is most pressing that day. The same few topics came up across the documents, the survey and the interviews, so a short list of priorities is close to being ready. Agreeing the list needs a hui with a quorum, and is best done soon after the AGM.

The board will have a concise list of priorities that every trustee can name and have top of mind. Each hui will be able to show what progress has been made on these priorities.

• Hold a short priorities hui soon after the AGM, and write down three to five priorities in the trustees' own words. Topics that came up again and again in this review included (i) money owed to Inland Revenue (IRD), (ii) kaumātua flats, (iii) wharepaku, (iv) wharekai and (v) marae hire income.
• Write the priorities at the top of every meeting agenda, and note beside each meeting agenda item which of the priorities it actually relates to.
• Give each priority one simple measure of progress, such as a dollar figure to reach or a date to finish by.
• Agree a date, twelve months on, to look back and refresh the list.

• The board keeps dealing with whatever is loudest at each hui.
• Funders, whānau and strategic partners cannot see what the marae is working towards.
• Whānau hear about decisions but not about where the marae is heading.

The June 2025 minutes record an Inland Revenue (IRD) penalty of $300,000 for tax returns not filed on time. The August 2025 minutes put penalties and costs above $330,000. People interviewed gave figures from $27,000 up to $300,000, and it is reported that IRD has since cancelled the penalties. Nothing in writing from IRD confirms that.

The trustees are responsible for the marae's money, yet regular money reporting to the board was rated as poorly done. IRD penalties could grow while no one has confirmed the amount owed, and a trustee who checked the Charities Register in 2026 found the 2024 and 2025 annual returns were unfiled. The figures should be agreed at the next hui with a quorum.

Trustees will share one clear and agreed financial position. Each hui will then be able to show where the money stands, so problems are seen before they grow.

• Ask the Charitable Trust's Treasurer for one dated page for the next trustees' hui. The page shows:
  • what is owed to IRD, with the latest letter from IRD attached
  • which returns to Charities Services are filed, and which are still due
  • the balance in each bank account held by the marae and by the Charitable Trust, and who can sign for each account
• Put the finance page and the bank statements on the meeting agenda of every trustees' hui.
• Record in the minutes which body approves which payments, and agree a dollar figure above which the trustees must decide.
• Ask Charities Services what the Charitable Trust must file each year to stay registered, and put the due dates in the hui calendar.

• Tax returns not filed on time could increase IRD penalties, and could cost it its charity registration.
• Trustees who fear paying from their own pocket keep worrying about the marae's debt to IRD, which no one has confirmed in writing.
• Rent from the kaumātua flats and hire fees for the marae that could pay for repairs keep going uncollected.

The Charitable Trust owns nine kaumātua flats in town, mortgage-free. About 4 flats are tenanted, 2 are ready to rent, 1 more could be made ready, and 2 have not been refurbished since 1991. The August 2025 minutes record a builder's quote above $385,000 for the Healthy Homes rules (legal standards for rentals) and other repairs. Legal action by a tenant's whānau over one of the flats has reached the trustees.

The kaumātua flats house kaumātua and could earn rent, but views differ on whether the flats are fit to live in. Repairs and any borrowing are large decisions that need agreed budgets and financial reports first, from the finance page recommended elsewhere in this review. Having a plan within six months would let the trustees decide one step at a time.

The trustees will have a plan for the kaumātua flats that they can check at each hui. Repairs will be done in an agreed order, paid for from known sources.

• Name one person in charge of the kaumātua flats. At every trustees' hui, that person reports:
  • how many flats are tenanted
  • how many flats are ready to rent
  • which repairs are under way
• Talk with Te Puni Kōkiri about funding for urgent repairs before any loan is considered, and bring the 2025 builders' quotes to the trustees.
• Write a short set of tenant expectations, and a plain process for filling vacancies and setting rent.
• If borrowing against the flats is proposed, decide it at a trustees' hui, with an up-to-date financial statement in front of everyone.

• Empty flats keep missing out on rent that could help pay for the repairs.
• Kaumātua stay in flats that need upgrading.
• The next dispute with a tenant reaches the trustees with no process to handle it, as the current legal action did.

In the interviews, the wharepaku, and the water and sewerage pipes for the wharekai, were described as old and unable to cope with a large tangihanga. None of the marae's five policies covers Health & Safety on its own. The Marae Emergency Plan was drafted with the regional emergency management office in 2025, and it is still a draft that is not yet in use.

The trustees are responsible for the safety of everyone on the marae, and a large tangihanga can come at any time. An inspection of the wharepaku and the wharekai can start now. The Risk Register can then be checked at each hui once the trustees are holding regular hui again.

The trustees will see the main risks in one place, each with a person in charge. This helps with proof around satisfying Health & Safety laws. Hazards will be found and dealt with before an incident happens.

• Have a qualified person inspect the wharepaku, the wharekai, the water and the sewerage, and report to the trustees in writing. The report should say whether the wharepaku or the wharekai should stop being used for large gatherings until the worst problems are fixed.
• Start a one-page Risk Register (a list of risks, each with a person in charge and a next step). Review the Risk Register for 10 minutes at every hui. The first rows could cover the buildings, the money owed to Inland Revenue (IRD), the kaumātua flats, relying on a few key people, and conduct on the marae.
• Adopt one page of Health & Safety rules and rules on conduct for everyone using the marae, and name who makes sure those rules are being followed. The conduct rules could also cover gang insignia, drugs and alcohol. Word the rules in such a way that they can be kept at a tangihanga without offending the whānau pani.
• Finish the Marae Emergency Plan with the Marae Committee and the Wellington Regional Emergency Management Office, which helped draft it, and decide where emergency equipment is kept.

• A large tangihanga could be held while the toilets, water and sewerage may not cope with the numbers.
• The trustees would answer for an incident on the marae with no Health & Safety policy of their own.
• The Marae Emergency Plan could still be sitting as a draft that is not operable when the Ruamāhanga River floods.

The current Chair may step down, and several people holding roles on the Charitable Trust plan to step down from those roles too. Four of the six interviews asked for rangatahi and fresh faces. The Trust Charter limits the Chair and each trustee to six years in total. The Trust Charter provides for a Deputy Chair (clause 5.3), but this role is not filled and there is no process around who follows the Chair, or for welcoming new trustees.

Much of the board's knowledge is held by the Chair and a few people with roles on the Charitable Trust, with roles likely to be vacated. New trustees need time to learn, so starting this action within the year gives them time to be ready.

The board will have a named Deputy Chair and a clear way for new trustees and rangatahi to come in. A change of Chair will not stall the marae's governance.

• At the AGM, name a Deputy Chair as the Trust Charter provides for, and agree what the Chair may decide alone between hui.
• Agree how long a trustee expects to serve, within the Trust Charter's limit of six years, and invite whānau openly to stand for vacancies.
• Pair one rangatahi with one trustee who holds a Pou (job area) for a year, so the rangatahi learns the role alongside them. Prepare a brief induction pack for new trustees saying what to read and who to go to for different information.
• Consider a monthly open day at the marae for whānau, with kai, and people there to kōrero with them about roles, the strategy, etc.

• The trustees could lose their records and administration if the Chair steps out.
• People ready to step down stay on unwillingly, because no one is ready to replace them.
• People keep saying they want rangatahi involved, but no rangatahi are asked.

The survey question on whether the marae has the partnerships it needs was rated low. Grant writing was named as a skill the trustees lack. Help is on offer: Te Puni Kōkiri appears to have funding available for urgent repairs, the iwi settlement trust is reported to be setting up shared marae administration, and at least three other Wairarapa marae in this review can share ideas and projects.

A small marae cannot fund its buildings or its administration from bookings alone. Each relationship needs a named person, or the relationship lapses between hui. Choose the relationships after the trustees agree the year's priorities, so that each relationship helps with one of those priorities.

Each important external stakeholder relationship, such as a funder or the iwi settlement trust (the body that manages the iwi's Te Tiriti settlement), will have a trustee or whānau member looking after it. The marae will draw on the funding and support that those organisations can offer.

• List the three or four external stakeholder relationships that matter most, and name who looks after each relationship.
• Ask the iwi settlement trust (the body that manages the iwi's Te Tiriti settlement) whether it has someone who works with marae, and whether that person could attend the trustees' hui.
• Keep talking with the three other Wairarapa marae having this same governance review about shared administration and shared learning.

• Grant funding rounds open and close without an application from the marae.
• The marae keeps solving problems alone that other Wairarapa marae may already have solved.

Whānau connection is the marae's strongest area in the survey, and Te Ore Ore is one of the most used marae in the district. Whānau come in large numbers for a crisis or a festival, then drift away. News goes out through Facebook and by word of mouth. One trustee does not use Facebook, several do not read email, and it isn't clear whether the marae holds a current whānau contact list.

Future trustees will likely come from the whānau who are involved. Whānau connection is already the marae's strongest area, and this work does not need to wait for anything else. Reaching whānau will be easier once someone is given the job of keeping a whānau contact list up to date.

Whānau will have regular ways to take part between big events. News from the trustees will reach whānau who are not on Facebook.

• Build a current whānau contact list from booking and event records, and send news out in ways other than just by Facebook.
• Extend the Facebook policy into a short note on communications, saying who speaks for the marae and how whānau hear what the trustees have decided.
• Put two or three whānau kaupapa on the year's calendar, such as a wānanga, a rangatahi day or an open day, beside the governance dates.

• Whānau who come for a big event keep drifting away the week after.
• Whānau keep hearing about decisions by rumour before they hear by pānui.