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Governance

The AA Research Foundation governance structure has been set up to support its mission with a two-tiered structure.

Mission

The purpose of the AA Research Foundation as specified in its Trust deed:

To undertake research to significantly influence Government policy settings, particularly in regard to driver education
To investigate road safety areas where current understanding poor or falsely assumed to be known
To coalesce diverse road safety research efforts in order to create momentum and purpose
To carry out research in areas not currently explored by Government
To conduct applied research which can be implemented to the benefit of AA Members
To partner with researchers and Government agencies to ensure research findings are adopted and actioned (following the NZAA KiwiRAP model)

The Governance structure has two tiers - the AA Research Foundation Trustees and the AA National Council. This means:

AA National Council approves Research Programmes and projects
AA National Council appoints Trustees
Trustees limited to two National Councillors plus President and meet before National Council
Trustees maintain oversight of expenditure and efficiency
Trustees report and make recommendations to National Council
Expert steering groups examine and direct research and report to Trustees

The trustees of the AA Research Foundation are Mr Bruno Petrenas (Chair), Mr Geordie Cassin and Mr John Williamson.

The AA Research Foundation's objective is to maximise the benefit of the Membership dividend represented by its grant.

To achieve this:

The governance of the Foundation is intended to be as light on resources as possible in order to obtain maximum possible benefit.
Wherever possible the Foundation will seek partners from agencies which implement the research or have a financial or in-kind interest in the outcome of the research. This is in part to leverage AA funds but also to obtain buy-in from those agencies affected by the research outcomes, and ensure funding is applied.
The engagement model is one of “partnership” and is based on the highly successful KiwiRAP implementation model. Thus, to an extent, success is “shared” and “co-owned” but greatly increases the likelihood of research findings and funding being applied and implemented.
The Foundation is fundamentally concerned with making positive improvements to road safety in New Zealand as part of the Decade of Action on Road Safety. Programmes must have the potential to make a significant difference to the numbers of New Zealanders killed or injured on our roads.
The intervention logic of the Foundation is to act as a catalyst for change where no other catalyst exists. This means drawing together existing resources and interests and coordinating these with respect to agencies.