This week was the first official meeting of the the Selwyn Education Support Staff Group for this year.

Many thanks to Rolleston College for hosting this group.

The group is for all support staff at Selwyn primary and high schools – office administrators, teacher aides, librarians and technicians to meet together. The aim of the group is to make friends, support each other, share information and professional development. For this meeting we were so amazingly fortunate to have local, but internationally renowned lawyer, author, and father of four Steven Moe come and speak to us.

Steven worked for more than a decade on corporate transactions worth billions of dollars while based in London, Tokyo and Sydney, until it was time to come home in 2016. His return led to writing many legal books that have been downloaded thousands of times and he has become a sought-after speaker and advisor with a unique blend of expertise.

Steven is a frequent contributor to print media (Stuff, Spinoff, Idealog) and host of Seeds podcast with 360+ conversations, founder of Seeds Impact Conference and author of the Startups Legal Toolkit and Capital Raising For Founders (downloadable at www.parryfield.com). He has assisted many hundreds of charities and for purpose groups ranging from very large national tier 1 charities to those just beginning.

He is the creator of the Charities Healthcheck which has contributions from 100 other leading industry experts.

Steven is nationally recognised as a leading expert on governance, a busy facilitator for the Institute of Directors teaching people about legal risks and how to stay safe, and also host of the IOD podcast Board Matters which is in its second season now.

During his talk – which was the catalyst for a great discussion – he read from one of his books, Seeds. This was very apt as the Rolleston College whakataukī is "He kākano i ruia mai i Rangiātea – The seed will not be lost".

He also read us his new book which is due to be officially published in March, The Apple Tree. It's a beautiful book with a powerful and inspirational message for everyone, and illustrations by local artist Cricket McCormick.

All the attendees were generously given a signed and numbered copy of the book which also makes a beautiful gift to give to someone who has inspired you in your own life.

With a team of 80 lawyers at Parry Field Lawyers if you need a local lawyer you can contact Steven at stevenmoe@parryfield.com.

Selwyn Support Staff Group

Denise Carrick and Suzanne Norton, Kaiwhakatere