Dec 13, 2016 | Advisory committee, Citizen committees, Collaborating, Community Governance
End 2016. Time to assess where we’ve been, and how it’s gone. How did our approach to key areas of work go? Thinking to the we, the group, the team, the partners, the citizens, how did collaborations go? If they’re going nowhere, how could they be improved?...
Sep 21, 2015 | Advisory committee, Citizen committees, Community Governance, Local government, People, place & governance, Planning, Terms of reference
When you’re a council searching for a workable, enduring approach to place-based governance, it’s too easy to find yourself back where you started. In research on community governance I learned there’s no one way, no right way. Every place expresses itself...
Feb 12, 2015 | Citizen committees, Community development, Deliberative, Local government, People, place & governance, Walking
Right now there’s a council officer out there battling with a squeaky wheel. I know this from my research on local government committees, where their role was a frequent theme. The officer is usually acting in the context of strategy and plans. The committee...
Sep 17, 2014 | Advisory committee, Citizen committees, Community Engagement, Community Governance, Local government, People, place & governance, Terms of reference
In early September, I presented on improving the functioning of citizen committees’ at the SA Community Managers’ conference in Adelaide. The conference is for local government managers and the theme was ‘Active Citizenship’. I proposed three...
Nov 19, 2013 | Advisory committee, Citizen committees, Deliberative, People, place & governance, Sustainability
After two years focused on the workings of citizen committees I joined a community advisory committee myself. Melbourne’s Greater Metropolitan Cemetery Trust (GMCT) services a huge community. That’s Altona to Lilydale and Fawkner. The diversity of its...
Nov 12, 2013 | Advisory committee, Citizen committees, Collaborating, Community Governance, Deliberative
I’ve just come back from a month in the US, and loved getting into the New York Times each morning. Read a great column by Nicholas D. Kristof giving Twitter a serve in the lead up to its launch as a public company. You may know that Twitter, symbol of out-front...
