2010 Xero Founding Sponsor of the New Zealand Bookkeepers Association
The thought of a place where all Bookkeepers could be supported was so exciting that I decided to reserve and register the name “New Zealand Bookkeepers Limited”. Early 2010 we held our first Bookkeepers meeting to discuss how to move forward, during this meeting we officially formed the New Zealand Bookkeepers Association Founding Committee. The Committee included myself, Steve Lowry, Pip Langford, Vivien Cowey, Craig Hibbert and Tanya Hulme.
It was a very exciting time, starting from scratch we set up the constitution, bank accounts, emails and website all on a shoestring budget. We put out a tender to software companies asking for a Founding Sponsor…. The rest is history, Xero has been a wonderful support in many ways, not just financially.
We held an event in Auckland at Xero, there were around 40 people who attended, it was awesome and introduced me to Julie Russell, Leeyan Stephens and Stephanie Crawford in particular who were keen to be part of this.
Xerocon 2010 was also significant as I met some of the key original players in the bookkeeping industry. It was exciting to meet so many like-minded people all in one place! I call them the “Original Bookkeepers”. They were Michele Clemens, Lisa Martin, Julie Russell (they were already running their own bookkeeping companies). I spoke of how I wanted to create more awareness, recognition, and support for Bookkeepers and how we needed a place to cement everything together.