Museum of Transport & Technology Society, Chair’s Report for the year ending 30 September 2025

The MOTAT Society has seen continued membership growth and continued improvement and development of a productive collaborative partnership with MOTAT and the MOTAT Board, facilitated by regular contact with the Board Chair and CE in particular through the biannual “Heads Meeting.” The Society made a Draft Annual Plan submission in January which wholeheartedly supported the museum’s Annual Plan.

The Society again worked closely with Tātaki Unlimited (Auckland Council) on the annual Board Appointments Process with advice from the MOTAT Board Chair, to ensure a highly qualified board with a diverse skillset capable of meeting MOTAT’s unique challenges. Recruitment demonstrated significant interest in the MOTAT Board, with many extremely high calibre applicants. The Board Appointments Policy, which was developed last year, was used to ensure a fair and transparent process with clear objectives.

In July, the appointments of Elizabeth Gosling and Thomas Irvine were ratified by the Society committee. Elizabeth Gosling brings considerable governance and leadership expertise as well as executive experience, particularly in tech systems and tertiary institutional collaboration. Thomas Irvine brings extensive experience in the Heritage and GLAM Sector including with Auckland Art Gallery, and governance experience with local iwi.

This year saw the inaugural MOTAT Society Oriel Bickerton Internship come to fruition. Caroline Bardua, an emerging museum professional, was selected to work on a Walsh Memorial Library project with the Ephemera and Manuscripts collection. The project was undertaken in March-April and concluded with a talk from Caroline to the Society, and an article by Caroline was included in the May issue of The Squeaky Wheel. 

The internship is designed to support the Heritage-based activities at MOTAT and was a huge success. Highlights from the post-internship review include,

• It enhanced the visibility of the library’s collections

• It improved the reputation of the MOTAT Society within MOTAT

• It signalled an important development in collaboration between MOTAT and the MOTAT Society

• It strengthened MOTAT’s connection to emerging professionals in the GLAM sector.

The Society has facilitated eleven events for its members. Highlights include a Ted Ashby sailing from the Maritime Museum, a trip to Tuakau Museum and Ted Higgins’ private print shop and behind the scenes tours of MOTAT’s rail section, and St Matthew’s in the City’s belltower. The Society has also expanded its events to include a focus on talks and presentations. This year’s included a presentation from the aforementioned Oriel Bickerton intern Caroline Bardua; a museology and curatorial talk from Malcom Duffy (Pictorial Librarian) and Hannah Crichton (Exhibitions Content Developer); and most recently David Ashman on book conservation. Thank you to the Walsh Memorial Library team for supporting those talks.

The Squeaky Wheel continues to share MOTAT Society activities and related topics with its members. After a bumper year in issues and articles for the 60^th anniversary last year, the Squeaky Wheel has resumed its biannual publication with one issue in May, and the next due to be sent out in October/November.

My thanks are extended to the members of the committee for their support and contributions over the last twelve months. The committee continues to be indebted to our secretary for managing the committee’s affairs.

- Makyla Curtis, Chair, Museum of Transport & Technology Society, 24th September 2025