A note on planning from the Presiding Officer
04/02/10 18:04 Filed in: MC News
Just a quirky suburb?
You may have noticed through the Village communications feed the request for community members to submit their personal vision for the Village.
This action was initiated by the Village Management Team as a response to the need to recognise that that we are 8 years old and we now have over 100 people living here.
Why are we doing this?
The vision of the Village needs to be revisited, affirmed and or modified as the first step for Whole of Village Planning. It is imperative that the vision is predominantly derived from and reflects the people who actively live, or are intending to live, in the Village – a reflection of their hopes, dreams and aspirations.
Without this vision it is arguable that we will just become a quirky suburb!
The management team has committed to, as the highest priority for this year, the commencement of whole of village planning.
What does this mean?
Firstly, it doesn’t mean that all projects will come to a grinding halt whilst we plan. We must continue to identify simple ‘no brainer’ things that can be completed with minimal fuss. Secondly, every aspect of the village will be considered in its relationship to the village as whole. And thirdly, the recognition of scale is critical, i.e., the level at which planning occurs; and in our case we are determined that planning will start with empowering the individual at the Neighbourhood Group (NG) level and then moving through to our region, recognising that we have a place in the broader community and that to succeed we will need to manage our external relationships accordingly. Permaculture Principle number eight reminds us that we need to ‘Integrate rather segregate’. This means that by putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other’
To do this the Management Team late last year developed some simple guidelines to undertake Whole of Village planning:
- A 10 year vision with a rolling 3 year plan
- Planning will occur within, and themes will be developed from, each Neighbourhood Group
- A simple planning toolbox will be used to help (not constrain) these Groups
- Planning themes will be generated from the community itself
- Reporting of the plan will be as graphical as possible
Overall process
1. Identified village facilitators will work with NG’s to outline their agreed aims for their NG, the Village as a whole and for the Region in which we live. Key themes from the NG perspective will be identified and prioritised. An immediate ‘Doing’ project will also be identified.
2. Each dataset (information) from the NG will be reviewed by the functional areas (NEC, Works etc) to ensure that they are compliant and feedback given to NG.
3. The functional areas (NEC, Farm, CDC, BDC etc) using the new information from the NG will also complete a similar strategic planning process. External ‘experts’ can be used to at this point to provide any information or expertise that we do not have.
4. The MC will then synthesise the NG and functional area information into a master plan consisting of all the key themes and desired outcomes. This plan will be highly visual and will be easy to understand. It will also be designed so that we can easily understand how we are tracking towards our stated aims.
5. A Whole of Village plan will then be taken to a community General Meeting for approval. This provides a mandate and direction for the Management Team and Functional areas
6. In the interim an activity(s) that has been identified as ‘low hanging fruit’ can be undertaken. In addition a nominal amount of $1,000 will be provided to each NG who completes this process in the specified time frame.
Time frame
1. NG’s completed their plans by Sunday 21st March
2. Functional areas completed by the end of March
3. Whole of Village plan completed by end of April
4. Approval sought at a General Meeting (date to be set – but not long after)
This is going to take time and commitment from everybody, and the way in which we work together is in essence the core of what is community.
So, hopefully I have provided an update as to where the energy of the management team will be focused in the short to medium term. More detail will follow as soon as we have finalised our approach. In the interim I would like everyone to prepare themselves for participating in Whole of Village planning by simply asking yourself and your family and your children the following questions:
- What does my house and NG look like from here on?
- What does the village look like from here on?
- How do I interact with my community - in the Village, within Aldinga, and within our bioregion?
A good place to start the creative juices flowing is by reading the excellent examples of personal visioning on the Village website. Thank you for the inspiring visions from Adrian Oakey, Paul Worsman, Bridget O’Donnell and Tricia O’Donovan. If you have one, send it in.
As indicated, whilst we do Whole of Village planning, the village still needs to run and projects will need to be completed. Again I would like to ask that every Villager reflect on their personal contribution to the Village. From my perspective we are currently enduring the SOFA syndrome at meetings, working bees and social events ….i.e. its the Same Old Faces Again (SOFA)
There are numerous ways of interacting and contributing to the Village so if you are just simply paying your levies as minimum …entertain getting off your SOFA and ensure that we are not just a quirky suburb but a live and vibrant Community that is striving to meet its stated vision!
Care of the Earth, Care of the People, and Living Creatively Together.
Brad Nott - Presiding Officer
You may have noticed through the Village communications feed the request for community members to submit their personal vision for the Village.
This action was initiated by the Village Management Team as a response to the need to recognise that that we are 8 years old and we now have over 100 people living here.
Why are we doing this?
The vision of the Village needs to be revisited, affirmed and or modified as the first step for Whole of Village Planning. It is imperative that the vision is predominantly derived from and reflects the people who actively live, or are intending to live, in the Village – a reflection of their hopes, dreams and aspirations.
Without this vision it is arguable that we will just become a quirky suburb!
The management team has committed to, as the highest priority for this year, the commencement of whole of village planning.
What does this mean?
Firstly, it doesn’t mean that all projects will come to a grinding halt whilst we plan. We must continue to identify simple ‘no brainer’ things that can be completed with minimal fuss. Secondly, every aspect of the village will be considered in its relationship to the village as whole. And thirdly, the recognition of scale is critical, i.e., the level at which planning occurs; and in our case we are determined that planning will start with empowering the individual at the Neighbourhood Group (NG) level and then moving through to our region, recognising that we have a place in the broader community and that to succeed we will need to manage our external relationships accordingly. Permaculture Principle number eight reminds us that we need to ‘Integrate rather segregate’. This means that by putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other’
To do this the Management Team late last year developed some simple guidelines to undertake Whole of Village planning:
- A 10 year vision with a rolling 3 year plan
- Planning will occur within, and themes will be developed from, each Neighbourhood Group
- A simple planning toolbox will be used to help (not constrain) these Groups
- Planning themes will be generated from the community itself
- Reporting of the plan will be as graphical as possible
Overall process
1. Identified village facilitators will work with NG’s to outline their agreed aims for their NG, the Village as a whole and for the Region in which we live. Key themes from the NG perspective will be identified and prioritised. An immediate ‘Doing’ project will also be identified.
2. Each dataset (information) from the NG will be reviewed by the functional areas (NEC, Works etc) to ensure that they are compliant and feedback given to NG.
3. The functional areas (NEC, Farm, CDC, BDC etc) using the new information from the NG will also complete a similar strategic planning process. External ‘experts’ can be used to at this point to provide any information or expertise that we do not have.
4. The MC will then synthesise the NG and functional area information into a master plan consisting of all the key themes and desired outcomes. This plan will be highly visual and will be easy to understand. It will also be designed so that we can easily understand how we are tracking towards our stated aims.
5. A Whole of Village plan will then be taken to a community General Meeting for approval. This provides a mandate and direction for the Management Team and Functional areas
6. In the interim an activity(s) that has been identified as ‘low hanging fruit’ can be undertaken. In addition a nominal amount of $1,000 will be provided to each NG who completes this process in the specified time frame.
Time frame
1. NG’s completed their plans by Sunday 21st March
2. Functional areas completed by the end of March
3. Whole of Village plan completed by end of April
4. Approval sought at a General Meeting (date to be set – but not long after)
This is going to take time and commitment from everybody, and the way in which we work together is in essence the core of what is community.
So, hopefully I have provided an update as to where the energy of the management team will be focused in the short to medium term. More detail will follow as soon as we have finalised our approach. In the interim I would like everyone to prepare themselves for participating in Whole of Village planning by simply asking yourself and your family and your children the following questions:
- What does my house and NG look like from here on?
- What does the village look like from here on?
- How do I interact with my community - in the Village, within Aldinga, and within our bioregion?
A good place to start the creative juices flowing is by reading the excellent examples of personal visioning on the Village website. Thank you for the inspiring visions from Adrian Oakey, Paul Worsman, Bridget O’Donnell and Tricia O’Donovan. If you have one, send it in.
As indicated, whilst we do Whole of Village planning, the village still needs to run and projects will need to be completed. Again I would like to ask that every Villager reflect on their personal contribution to the Village. From my perspective we are currently enduring the SOFA syndrome at meetings, working bees and social events ….i.e. its the Same Old Faces Again (SOFA)
There are numerous ways of interacting and contributing to the Village so if you are just simply paying your levies as minimum …entertain getting off your SOFA and ensure that we are not just a quirky suburb but a live and vibrant Community that is striving to meet its stated vision!
Care of the Earth, Care of the People, and Living Creatively Together.
Brad Nott - Presiding Officer