Modernising Tennis Hub

The Incorporated Societies Act of 2022 is a catalyst to accelerate our collective efforts to modernise tennis. In recent years we have turned around declining club membership but we cannot be complacent. We know that working as a joined-up system and engaging participants through digital channels are vital means for tennis to thrive. The Modernising Tennis Plan was launched in 2020 to ensure that everyone's safe, everyone's involved and everyone's connected. The changes we now wish to introduce through the re-registration process will move tennis ahead on all three elements of the plan.

Over the past 12 months, the leadership group for tennis in New Zealand has been working on a framework for new constitutions that will meet the requirements of the Act and strengthen our tennis system, both to grow and to keep our tennis community safe. Beginning with a series of change proposals, a Working Group convened in 2023. Tennis New Zealand has this year developed the changes alongside the Regions, Associations, and other tennis leaders. These changes were formalised at the Tennis New Zealand SGM on 12th December 2024.

Clubs are the heart of our tennis community. Changes to the system have been designed to reinforce the delivery of services to you both nationally and regionally, to support your growth and sustainability. As well as reflecting feedback from Club Presidents such as yourself, these changes have also been influenced by other sports and have drawn on the work that Sport New Zealand has done preparing the sector for the new Act.

This Information Hub has been built to share the details of the changes. It outlines the overall changes and, in particular, the changes for clubs.

Your Region/Association and Tennis NZ are here to support you through this change process.

We know that most clubs have been waiting to re-register as Incorporated Societies under the new Act. We thank you for your patience. Your club can now download a ready to use constitution template with supporting guidelines, enabling you to re-register before April 2026. The template complies with the Act and aligns to the Modernising Tennis changes.

We look forward to working with you to ensure that tennis continues to thrive in the changing landscape of sport.

If you have any further questions please reach out to chrism@tennis.kiwi

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Members of the National Governance Forum May 2024 hosted by Tennis Southern.

Why Does Tennis Need to Change?

We have known for some time that tennis needs to adapt to changes in participation preferences. The Modernising Tennis Plan and the changes outlined in this Hub all continue to address the trends that our sport continues to see. Surveys over recent years by Sport New Zealand, Tennis NZ and others have found:

Barriers to getting involved in tennis include time availability, cost, others to play with and the need to be a club member.
Participants rated tennis as below average on convenience, an attribute associated with other growing sports.
Potential exists for different types of relationships with tennis participants - a survey of lapsed members found that 50% of them still played tennis and 80% wanted 'pay for play' options.
Over 90% of our clubs want to attract more participants and 50% want to make court access easier for casuals.

Governmental and societal expectations on sport have also increased around the duty of care to keep participants safe.

What's Driving This Change Now?

1. TENNIS NZ'S MODERNISING TENNIS PLAN

The changes we are making continue the work of the Tennis NZ's Modernising Tennis Plan, for a sport where:

everyone’s safer,

everyone’s involved,

& everyone’s connected.

These changes are a further step in our collective journey that has already delivered national benefits including Clubspark and Book a Court systems, a national participant database, Safe Tennis Register, Coach Registration and the World Tennis Number. These changes, along with the new changes we wish to introduce are designed to make the running and promoting your club easier and for the tennis system to comply with the requirements of the new Incorporated Societies Act and the Sport Integrity Act.

2. NEW INCORPORATED SOCIETIES ACT 2022

The previous Incorporated Societies Act dated back to 1908.

The new Act requires organisations to have stronger member processes, different mechanisms for committee members and for club officers, enhanced record keeping systems and clear dispute resolution processes.

Re-registration under the new Act is required to happen by April 2026.

Sport New Zealand is engaging with the Companies Office to make re-registration as simple as possible.

Tennis New Zealand will deliver templates for all parts of the tennis system, including tennis clubs.

Click here to learn more about the changes to the Act