FORBES
ARTS & CULTURE WORKING GROUP MEETING, 9 JUNE 2005 @ FORBES TOWN
HALL
Issues
addressed: the public consultation survey form
and the SWOT analysis of the Shire.
ATTENDANCE:
Sue-anne Nixon (Town Band and Forbes schools), Sian Dyce (Forbes
P&D), Glad Johnson (Historical Society), Len Johnson, Kylie
Grayson, Jo Erskine (NPWS), Bill Stevenson (Christian Life Centre),
Denise Sheridan-Smith (SOPHIA), Liesbet Geraghty, Bronwyn Clark
(Forbes Library), Merrill Findlay, Watson the Forbes Library Cat.
APOLOGIES:
Dulcie Lavers, Mary Laksito, Jane Bennie (Waroo), Graham Falconer,
Marg Willmott, Chelsea Ridley, Elaine Imrie, Pam Thompson, Carmen
Dundon.
Acceptance
of the minutes of the last meeting
Moved: Denise
Seconded: Sue-anne
Carried
This
meeting was chaired by Denise Sheridan-Smith. The position of meeting
chair will be rotated at future meetings as part of our commitment
to democratic processes.
PLEASE
NOTE: the next meeting will be on Monday 4 July 2005, 5.30-7pm
WELCOME
AND BRIEFING TO NEWCOMERS
Denise and Merrill briefed newcomers on the working group’s
brief history and the reasons we were committed to developing a
cultural plan to guide the Shire’s cultural development into
the future. Merrill pointed out that Councils were now expected
to develop a cultural plan and that many other local government
authorities either did the work ‘in-house’ or paid consultants
to develop their cultural plans for them. Forbes Shire Council does
not have the financial or human resources to do this at present,
so it is up to us, the community, to consult with residents about
their cultural values, endeavours and aspirations and incorporate
these into an inspirational cultural plan. Once we completed this
document we can ensure that it is presented to Council and hold
Council accountable for implementing it. We expect that the plan
will be completed and ready for adoption by Council within the next
18 months. [See the draft
time-line - pdf download.]
By
being responsible for the plan ourselves we can be sure that all
sectors of the community have an opportunity to contribute their
ideas and that their cultural needs are acknowledged and written
into the final document, Merrill said. She noted that although none
of us was an expert in this field, we have State Government guidelines
(pdf) to follow and we each bring our own range of skills to the
process.
Denise
commented that many people still found the word ‘culture’
intimidating or confusing, but it ‘clicked’ for her
recently while she was discussing a television documentary about
culture with a friend: she realised that culture was everything
that was learned, and because it was learned it could also be ‘unlearned’
or changed.
BUSINESS
ARISING
The
public consultation/survey form
Sian Dyce presented a second draft of the survey form she and Marg
Willmott and others had been working on, and advised us that Council
had approved the money required for printing and distribution of
the forms, and had given permission for the Shire logo to be included
since the Shire was sponsoring it.
Sian
explained that her main objective with the form was to ask the survey
questions in as straightforward a way as possible without using
the word ‘culture’. She wanted to fit all the questions
on one page, but found this challenging because she also had to
include space for people to state their age groups, ethnic identities
and comments etc. She sought guidance from the meeting on the layout
and other issues. She was anxious that the form be finalised and
distributed as quickly as possible to follow the recent article
in the Advocate. A list of return points etc is given on the back
of the form, and includes all the schools, the town supermarkets,
the library, the Shire Council and a number of other sites.
The
meeting agreed that the form looked clear and simple, and congratulated
Sian on her work, and after much discussion, made the following
recommendations for refinements:
- a short introduction be given at the top of the page to let people
know who is asking the questions and why;
- the age groups remain in increments of ten years, but that 70+
be extended to 71-80, 81-90 and 91-100;
- appropriate words be added to solicit people’s ethnic identity
or heritage since we needed this data to establish the community’s
cultural diversity (ie while all citizens are Australian, some identify
as Anglo-Celtic Australian, French-Australian, Vietnamese Australian
etc and/or may have been born overseas) and demonstrate that all
sectors of the community have been consulted;
- the term ‘culture’ be replaced by ‘lifestyle’
in the final question;
- the word ‘preserve’ be changed to ‘develop this
further’ in the second question;
- a few adjustments be made to the layout, such as putting a comment
box on the back along with the information about where/when to return
the form.
The
meeting delegated the completion and distribution of the survey
to Sian Dyce, Jo Eskine, Kylie Grayson and Sue-ann Nixon with the
following motion:
That
a sub-working group consisting of Sian, Jo, Kylie and Sue-anne
finalise and organise the printing and distribution of the survey
forms.
Moved: Bill Stevens
Seconded: Glad Johnson
Carried
Promoting
the survey
The meeting discussed ways of bringing people’s attention
to the survey: Bill offered to talk about it on his regular radio
program; Sue-anne volunteered to ask schools to mention it in their
newsletters; Bronwyn said she’d put a notice about it in the
library; Kylie suggested we find out what other newsletters were
published around town and offered to do this; Bill said he would
ask religious leaders to include the survey in their pew slips;
Kylie, who comes from an advertising background, undertook to do
some ‘copy writing’ for the Advocate in consultation
with Sian and others; Glad said she would raise the survey at the
next U3A (University of the Third Age) meeting; and Sue-anne took
on the job of constructing some very ‘loud’ collection
boxes for each of the pick-up points and distributing them.
At
a past meeting we agreed to invite all service clubs to have members
fill out the survey at their regular meetings, but we deferred this
issue until our next meeting.
Survey
data analysis
Sian asked about analysing the survey data: what do we do with all
the information once we’ve collected it? Jo, who is an anthropologist,
reassured the meeting that her own experience in quantitative data
analysis would ‘come in handy’ for this. Jo also has
experience in the analysis of qualitative data gained from phone
interviews and focus groups, for example, which will also be very
useful later on in our process when we organise the ‘conversation
chairs’ in the main street etc to collect ‘finer grained’
data about local culture and people’s ideas for the future.
Hopefully we can all learn more about data analysis from Jo as we
work together on this.
THE
SWOT ANALYSIS
[Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats]
See
the full SWOT analysis with all
the new additions >>
The
rest of the meeting was taken up with often animated discussion
about the Shire’s strengths and weaknesses as part of our
on-going SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats), with Bronwyn as the scribe using butchers’ paper
donated by Ron Kenny. The sheets will be kept and added to at future
meetings. We’ll also put the SWOT analysis on the web site
in the hope that it promotes discussion about the Shire’s
culture.
In
the limited time available at this meeting we collectively nominated
the following Strengths and Weaknesses. (Opportunities and Threats
will be addressed at the next meeting.)
STRENGTHS
- Caring community
- Close knit community
- The lake and the river
- Many heritage buildings
- Tidy, clean town with beautiful parks and gardens (Victoria Square
Park is of particular heritage significance in this context)
- Aquatic Centre on the Bedgerebong Road (good for wildlife as well
as water skiers)
- Many active sporting clubs
- Many different nationalities which, ‘to a certain extent’,
makes Forbes people more open minded
- Good geographic location on the Newell Highway (Bill noted that
thousands of people stop at the Driver Reviver site during holidays)
- Surrounded by excellent National parks that are used as camping
sites, especially by ‘grey nomads’
- Historically minded with an active museum and historical society
- Indigenous art works under the bridge across the lake
- An active library
- Growing town band
- Six primary schools and two high schools, including a boarding
school which brings in people from a very large catchment
- Uniquely compact CBD with diverse businesses
- A developing industrial area
- Great cooperation amongst church groups – very ecumenical
- Health facilities and a functioning hospital (babies can still
be delivered here)
- Diverse heritage from gold mining era
- Historic notables including Ben Hall, Kate Kelly (Ned’s
sister), Captain Cook’s niece, and Paul and Hettie Wenz
- A sunny climate
- Forbes History Book – a great source of information about
the community’s heritage
- Important agricultural heritage eg Burrawang Station
- Historic walking track around town
- The local cinema
WEAKNESSES
- Declining population
- Aging population
- The current drought affecting every aspect of Shire life
- No public arts/cultural amenities built in last 100 years
- Public apathy
- Inward looking
- No industry – no manufacturing etc beyond agricultural industries
so little work for non-skilled locals
- Young having to leave town for work and education – youth
migration
- Over-serviced in pubs and clubs
- Ambulance Station still a mess after the fire
- Heritage: Forbes’ people’s concern for their heritage
is also a weakness because it makes us more interested in ‘preserving’
the past than being future oriented, so the town is less dynamic
than it could be
- Not enough for young people to do that doesn’t involve drinking
- Insurance costs - both weakness and threat to public life
-
Social isolation of people without cars
To
be continued over the coming months! See the full
SWOT list.
NEXT
AND FUTURE MEETINGS
Motion:
that we have meetings on first Monday of every month 5.30- 7 pm,
starting from the next meeting to be held on 4 July 2005.
Moved: Sue anne
Second: Liesbet
Carried
At the next meeting we will be seeking volunteers to take responsibility
for the following tasks:
1. Convening the meetings and performing the role of ‘public
officer’;
2. Collecting the key from Council, opening the town hall, setting
up the chairs in a circle, closing up and returning the key to Council
the following morning;
3. Note taking/minute keeping/secretary;
4. Being co-responsible for the web site;
5. Public relations.
These
tasks have so far been undertaken by Merrill to get the working
group going. She may not be available for much of the rest of the
year, however, so is keen that others take over these responsibilities
now that the group is firmly established. Merrill expects to remain
involved with the working group and will support it in every way
she can, however.
The
meeting ended soon after 7pm.
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