There is "nothing sinister" about an external PR company being paid to write AIDS Foundation board press releases, says NZAF deputy chair Simon Robb, even though a board member is an employee of the company in question. The board has been handling all its own communications with regards to its recent proposals to change its governance structure and impose a 50% quota for Maori board members, and delivering press releases for NZAF communications co-ordinator Steve Attwood - who is normally responsible for authoring all media contact - to distribute verbatim. However, Robb has revealed to GayNZ.com that the initial announcement of the proposals were written by board member Jeremy Lambert, an employee of the PR firm Huia Communications, and that the board paid Huia for Lambert's time and expertise. "We're a voluntary board so we're juggling busy lifestyles," says Robb. "It was agreed by the board, in which we have the discretion of the Constitution to do, to contract his expertise in as an adviser for those [releases] to be drafted. But that was just a one off." The Foundation's established communications channels could not be employed to draft up the press releases, says Robb. "There's certain decisions that, as a board, we need to own, and frame up in a way that we're happy to be sent out, and then we can rely upon the resources within the Foundation to send them out," he explains. "We decided that we wanted to take ownership on these press releases to speed up the process, and Jeremy was having to balance his responsibilities as a board member with his paid employment. As a board, we decided that it's only appropriate that his employer is remunerated for doing that in work time." Robb says the Constitution allows the board to access expertise any board member may have as a consequence of "the other hats that they wear," but emphasises that this has not been an ongoing process. He describes the sum paid by the board to Huia Communications for Lambert's time as "modest".