Meeting
of the Forbes Arts & Culture Working Group
Monday 5 September 2005, held at the Forbes Town Library
5:45pm – 7:00pm
ATTENDANCE:
Denise Sheridan-Smith, Juliet Hodder, Kylie Grayson, Sian Dyce,
Jo Erskine (NPWS), Bronwyn Clark (Forbes Town Library)
APOLOGIES:
Merrill Findlay
Elaine Imrie (Upstairs Gallery),
Meeting
convened by Kylie Grayson.
1.
No new attendees at the September 5th meeting.
2.
ACCEPTANCE OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
Amendment
to previous minutes as follows:
Sian
Dyce requested that there be a minor amendment to the last paragraph
of section 7. (page 2). The paragraph should read “Sian believes
the Group needs to be conscious of not pushing any one person’s
particular interests as the only aim in the cultural plan”.
Moved:
Juliet Hodder
Seconded: Denise Sheridan-Smith
Carried
Acceptance
of the last minutes as a true account of the last meeting of the
Working Group.
Moved:
Sian Dyce
Seconded: Jo Erskine
Carried
3.
PROGRESS REPORTS
3.1
Sian Dyce informed the group that following on from discussion at
the previous Working Group meeting regarding the Paul Wenz book
project, she had raised the issue at the latest Promotions &
Development Inc. meeting. At this meeting, Councillor Rhonda Keane
had suggested that Forbes Shire Council may be prepared to purchase
the book.
Kylie Grayson confirmed that Council had passed this request at
the latest Forbes Shire Council meeting and agreed to purchase the
book.
3.2
Kylie Grayson provided the latest update concerning the ‘running
costs’ of the work group. The working group’s submission
letter missed the August Council meeting and will be tabled at the
September meeting. It was agreed that as a proposal of actual costs
had not been presented in the original letter there may be the opportunity
to resubmit the letter, with costs, for the next meeting.
Action
5/9/05:01: Kylie Grayson to review the previous letter and append
a proposal of administrative costs associated with the running of
the Working Group.
3.3
Suggestion was made to Bronwyn Clark that the Working Group use
the Library facilities as the preferred venue for the monthly Working
Group meetings. It was agreed by all that the Town Library was a
much more conducive environment for conducting the meeting, and
that it had several advantages over the concourse of the Forbes
Town Hall. Bronwyn Clark agreed that this would be a feasible arrangement,
provided there was no conflict with other arrangement made of the
Town Library. Bronwyn suggested the Working Group contact Peter
Smith of Council to formalise the arrangement.
Action
5/9/05:02 Juliet Hodder to contact Peter Smith and request permission
for the Working Group to conduct future monthly meetings at the
Town Library.
3.4
The group expressed a thank you to Kylie Grayson for writing the
article to accompany the group photograph that had been published
in the Forbes advocate.
4.
SURVEY
The
group discussed at length the progress of the data analysis from
the survey. Kylie Grayson informed the group that Merrill Findlay
has a personal contact situated in Melbourne that would be prepared
to undertake the qualitative and quantative data analysis. This
contact has a university interest in undertaking the work. All present
confirmed that this would be a very positive progression in the
analysis of the data collected at Survey.
It
was also discussed that prior to the completed surveys being sent
to another location, that it would be ideal to collate the fundamental
data. Jo Erskine informed the group that this was already underway
and that enlisting some help with the data entry would be helpful.
Action
5/9/05:03 Kylie Grayson, Sian Dyce and Juliet Hodder to spend some
time in the coming weeks to assist with inputing some of the raw
data.
It
was discussed that once the fundamental data was collected the surveys
would be forwarded to Melbourne. All surveys are to be photocopied
prior to posting, and the originals are to be sent via registered
mail.
Action
5/9/05:04 Juliet Hodder and Kylie Grayson to organise for the photocopying
to take place, and the original surveys to be posted to Melbourne.
Further
discussion regarding the surveys lent to several initial conclusions.
Some of these being:
• Brief initial analysis seems to indicate that females (60+
YoA) are predominantly the majority of respondents.
• At this early stage it appears that many respondents feel
that no real changes are necessary, and the majority are seemingly
satisfied with what services, opportunities and activities are available
in Forbes.
• The Working Group will be required to investigate additional
measures to capture more in depth information, to evaluate the current
feedback, and look at further exploratory questions to encourage
a broader cross section, and greater feedback in the next consultative
process (ie, couch sessions, street interviews)
Sian
Dyce informed the Working Group that Merrill Findlay is in possession
of the original survey questionnaire, and that is it in fact a much
broader and more in depth document than the version that was distributed.
Jo Erskine felt that it will be crucial to establish a ‘goal
scenario’ before any further evaluation of the relevant line
of questioning is undertaken.
The group felt that it was essential to obtain authentic/accurate
information in the next line of community consultation. There was
much contemplation of how best to ‘persuade’ people
to make conclusions regarding cultural development and change. How
to legitimise and enable people to articulate their feelings regarding
Forbes’ current cultural environment. It was agreed that ‘face
to face’ contact will enable a greater understanding of the
Working Group’s objectives by the people.
Kylie
Grayson recognised that we may need to gain some momentum by looking
at forming sub committees’ of the Forbes Arts and Cultural
Working Group.
Juliet
Hodder suggested that the Working Group should look at the value
of incorporating Action Item Lists that will be formulated based
on outcomes from the Monthly meetings. This would enable individuals
to completed designated tasks outside of the monthly forum and allow
for a much more rapid progression in the realisation of the Working
Groups objectives.
Action
5/9/05:05 Juliet Hodder to create an Action List for distribution
with minutes.
4. PLANNING OF COMMUNITY CONSULTATION
The
Working Group discussed the possibility of conducting phone interviews
as a means of community consultation. All in the group agreed that
this is an intrusive measure, and that the preferred means would
be face to face consultation. It was agreed that there was a need
to further discuss this mode of consultation at the next monthly
meeting, but that it would be reasonable to propose that some face
to face community consultation should occur in the 2nd or 3rd week
of October. The Working Group also discussed further investigation
would be required into the practicality and usefulness of conducting
community consultation later in the afternoon during the weekdays
(eg, 4:30pm) as opposed to purely Saturday mornings.
Action
5/9/05:06 Kylie Grayson to contact Richard Barwick to find out what
needs to be cleared with Council to have a ‘street stand’
in terms of insurances, permits, setup regulations etc.
Upcoming community events were discussed by the Working Group as
a possible means of conducting additional community consultation.
Examples of these are the Forbes Show (Weekend of 9th & 10th
September) and the Ipomea Art Show (Weekend of 24th & 25th September).
Action
5/9/05:07 Sian Dyce to speak with Narelle Oomen to establish a possible
contact regarding the upcoming Ipomea Art Show in view of the Working
Group potentially having some visibility during the event.
The
Working Group examined the ‘Arts out West’ calendar
and agreed it may be useful to harness upcoming events as a means
to canvass participants for further community consultation.
Kylie
Grayson proposed to the Working Group that it may be useful to make
contact with the new English and drama teacher at Forbes High School,
who has been involved in organising various arts related events.
Action
5/9/05:08 Kylie Grayson to find out the performance event that will
take place at the Forbes High School in the coming weeks.
Sian
Dyce noted that it may be helpful to utilise some of the events
held by the Community Youth Centre as a means of reaching a younger
target audience.
Action
5/9/05:09 Sian Dyce to speak with Chelsea Constable (Community Development
Youth Worker) regarding upcoming events.
5. SWOT ANALYSIS
Added
to the ongoing SWOT Analysis are the following:
OPPORTUNITY
- Housing estates. Private and Government development activities.
Parkes - Burgeoning retail market, major growth
OPPORTUNITY
– The Forbes Society (a legal society named in honour of Francis
Forbes, first Chief Justice of NSW).
6. OTHER BUSINESS
Kylie
Grayson informed the group that Merrill Findlay has suggested that
we examine a Future Trends Analysis. The Working Group discussed
who, what and where data regarding future trends may be collected
and collated in Forbes. It was suggested that the data from the
Forbes Shires Council’s Social Plan may provide some Future
Trends information.
Action
5/9/05:10 Kylie Grayson to do some internet searching regarding
Future Trends and report back a future meeting. Kylie to also contact
Richard Barwick to see if there is any information available in
the Social Plan.
Discussion
arose around the Working Group having access to the Government Guidelines
for producing a Cultural Plan as a steering/working document for
future monthly meetings.
Action
5/9/05:11 Juliet Hodder to reproduce copies of the ‘Cultural
Planning Guidelines for Local Government’ for distribution
to all attendees at future meetings.
Action
5/9/05:12 Kylie Grayson to produce a legible document that contains
the current SWOT Analysis. This will be a compilation of all the
analysis taken from previous minutes
7. NEXT MEETING DATE
Denise
Sheridan-Smith informed the Working Group that school holidays would
commence as of the last week of September and first week of October,
and that the next meeting is due to fall on a public holiday.
Wednesday
5th October 2005
Venue: Forbes Town Library.
Moved:
Sian Dyce
Seconded: Kylie Grayson
Carried.
Meeting
closed: 7:00pm.
Minutes by Juliet Hodder
|