Strategic Plan

1. This strategic plan has been developed to record and articulate First Light Community Foundation Limited's (First Light) purpose, strategy and commitment to industry best practice.

2. First Light is a non-profit company that is licensed to operate gaming machines to raise funds for authorised purposes. First Light has held a class 4 operator's licence since May 2012. As at May 2018, First Light had four Hawke's Bay-based gaming venues,
three in Wairoa and one in Hastings. 



3. First Light is governed by a board of four directors. All four directors have a very strong connection to the Hawke's Bay and a long history of being actively involved in various local community and sporting projects. The day-to-day administration of the Foundation is managed by Tracy McKay. Tracy has a total of 14 years' experience in class 4 gambling administration and management.

4. First Light's vision is to operate gaming machine gambling in a responsible manner that minimises harm, while maximising the benefit to the local community.



5. Harm is minimised by ensuring each venue operator takes their supervision and intervention roles seriously. Our venue operators are supported with specialist harm minimisation training. Our high-turnover venue has state-of-the-art facial recognition technology installed to help with monitoring and enforcing exclusion orders.

6. The community benefit from the gaming machine gambling is maximised by ensuring 100% of the funds generated in an area are returned to high-quality grant recipients who provide a real and positive benefit for that same area. The benefit is also maximised by ensuring that community groups located in the same areas as our venues are encouraged to make funding applications, and when compliant applications are received, there is a very high likelihood of funding being provided.

7. First Light's core values are:

a. Acting responsibly: We ensure that our venue staff take their harm minimisation
and supervision obligations seriously and are committed to providing them with
the best possible training and best possible tools to carry out their harm
minimisation and general compliance duties;
b. Acting in the best interests of the local community: We return 100% of the
funding locally and ensure the funding decisions are made by locals who know
their local community; and
c. Acting with integrity: We act openly and honestly in all our dealings.

8. First Light's mission is to ensure high-quality local funding is made while the harm from
gambling is minimised.

9. Over the next 12 months First Light aims to:

a. Provide greater support to local community groups by expanding the number of licenced venues by one;
b. Develop a stronger working relationship with Te Rangihaeata Oranga Trust (the leading provider of problem gambling treatment services in the Hawke's Bay). In particular, we will work with the counsellors to ensure that exclusions are promptly entered into the facial recognition database and that the photos taken are of sufficient quality to enable the facial recognition system to work accurately;
c. Make the grant application process easier to use for applications, by monitoring applicant feedback and providing the supplier of our online grant application service (Brand Advantage) with feedback on the improvements that can be made; and
d. Provide our venues with high-quality gambling equipment and harm minimisation tools.

10. Over the next three years First Light aims to:

a. Provide greater support to local community groups by having seven licensed venues;
b. Have in place a strong working relationship with Te Rangihaeata Oranga Trust and have imbedded an efficient system for issuing, monitoring and enforcing multi-venue exclusion orders;
c. Have in place an industry leading modern, efficient and easy to use online grant application and audit system; and
d. Have in place at our venues high-quality gambling equipment and harm minimisation tools.

11. Over the next five years First Light aims to:

a. Provide greater support to local community groups by having eight to ten licensed venues;
b. Have implemented state-of-the-art harm minimisation technology in all its venues, including tools such as facial recognition and interactive electronic signage;
c. Be seen as one of the major funders of Hawke's Bay community groups, with a reputation of being approachable and easy to deal with; and
d. Have in place at all our venues modern, high-quality gambling equipment and harm minimisation tools.

12. Evaluation of operating in accordance with our mission and goals will be done by:

a. Monitoring venue growth and venue churn;
b. Noting the improvements that are made from time to time in relation to the multi-venue exclusion process and monitoring the accuracy and efficiency of the various technological tools used to support our venue staff to undertake their harm minimisation duties;
c. Monitoring the improvements made to our grant application and audit system and regularly reviewing the ease of use of the system; and
d. Monitoring the age and performance of the gambling equipment located at our venues.