At the Acupuncture NZ Conference dinner which was held at the Rydges Hotel in Wellington over the weekend of 14-16 August, the William Wong Doo Award was presented to Peter O'Connell of Wellington. Peter has been the Treasurer of the New Zealand Register of Acupuncturists - now Acupuncture NZ - for close on 20 years. He is a long standing member of the Council and has quietly guided the finances of the organisation through to where we find ourselves today.

Peter oversaw the purchase of the office building in Kilbirnie in 2007 and since then has ensured that such an important investment has been well maintained and looked after. Acupuncture NZ is in a very strong financial position and the reasons for that can almost solely be attributed to Peter's hard work and firm steady hand.

Nominations for the award were called for from the full membership and the Council chose the recipient from the list of those nominated. Peter was an overwhelmingly popular choice for the award this year.

The William Wong Doo Award was named after the first president of the New Zealand Register of Acupuncturists. William's son, Selwyn is still a member and presented the award to Peter at the conference dinner.