Telecom New Zealand is currently looking for one of our staff members to join the Board of the Telecom Foundation.
The People’s champion will sit on the Board alongside Tina Symmans and three high profile New Zealanders and work with the Foundation to increase the future opportunities for Kiwi kids. Not to mention that being an important link between our Telecom people and The Foundation to make things happen.

There were 61 applicants and the field has been narrowed down.
The chance to sit on the board all comes down to popular staff vote from now.  So why should you vote for me?

You might already know me or you might recognise me.
I’m the loud blonde on the 5^th floor of Blue Tower.  I’m ^TS on the Telecom Online Response Team, I’m the Principal Infrastructure Designer for Integrated Design and in my spare time, I’m a PADI Dive Instructor which means I’m regularly telling people what to do … so I’m telling you to vote for me for the Telecom Foundation!

I’m a very energetic and enthusiastic kind of girl.  It could be said that I am very suited to this role at the Foundation because I am still a big kid myself.  But this passion stays bubbling because quite honestly – I’m all about people!!
Working with, working for and more importantly helping out.

My manager said it rather well in my reference for the Foundation application;

What is that special something that Tara has?  Well if we could distil it out I’d bottle it and give a shot to all my team, because her energy is bringing a new sense of life to our team, and it’s inspiring us to make positive change at Telecom.  I would summarise this special something as ‘Genuine commitment to Telecom and it’s people’.

Genuine, that word goes a long way in my book.  Without it we lose our passion and focus and the job becomes just that, a job.  Observing Tara in her role as Principal Designer, I can see she believes the hype, she believes that we can better than we are today, that we can become agile, that we have a real future in the marketplace.  That’s a hard sell in the current climate but she manages.

Secondly she is strongly attuned to the needs of people, in the earthquake she was the first n the team to re-shuffle her workload and pick up some voluntary duties with the ORT team.  When there’s word out about on the social networks about something Telecom has supposedly done, she’s right on the pulse working to set the record straight, or see the right thing done by our customers.

Finally, she has a large network online which she uses not only to assist Telecom but her personal endeavours as well.  He external role as a diving instructor keeps her firmly planted in the real world and not completely consumed by the needs of Telecom.

I would really like to help shape a future for the children of New Zealand where they all have some of the opportunities that I had growing up – and even more.

I spend a lot of my time outside of work encouraging people to face their fears, to challenge themselves and to try for something a little different.  To aim for their goals.

I’d like to see our Kiwi kids having the chance to fulfil our life’s dream of good food, good education, good friends and good opportunities.

I work hard at what I believe in and I truly believe in what the Telecom Foundation is – and has to offer.

I would really love for you to vote for me so that I can take your ideas and your dreams along to the Foundation – because I know that we are all proud of our company and our country and we all want the best for our kids. The future engineers, developers, customer care specialists, CTO’s and CEO’s.

And if it isn’t me, our Telecom champion will have my full support. And yours as well, I’m sure.