Last night, a few interested souls were gathered together in the Waitati Community hall to hear some advice from Michael Hurley, and to discuss issues raised by this email forum.
Michael presented the current Landscape Management areas for blueskin bay and further up the coast. Michael also intimated the possible implications for the current management plan and solutions.
It was a very informative meeting, and interesting to note that the DCC has not yet considered the encapsulated bay communities as area of special value within the Landscape Management Areas. However, the plan is up for review, and whilst this review may possibly focus upon the possibility of removing restrictions to development in the area, it is an opportunity to advocate for our community wishes to the City.
I certainly gained some insight into the consent process, and I think that there was a general mandate that forming an incorporated society around the values of promoting sustainable sympathetic development in the region would be a good thing.
This body would then be able to act as a focus for discussions with the DCC, giving a "persona" for them to deal with. It would also allow for possible funding application, should we wish to contest a consent through to Environment Court. I understand that without this body, an individual going to Environment court would run a personal risk of carrying court costs, from a failed action. There is also some merit in forming the body as early as possible, as one cannot be formed late in the argument just to go to environment court, if not involved in the earlier objections.
For those of you who couldn't make it, or were inadvertently missed out on the informal invite process, I am sorry we didn't have your input.
However, I understand that there is a community meeting in approximately 3 weeks, and that Michael will be "helping" us through the process of registering the incorporated body in the interim prior to this. It would be great to have enough people to form this body at that time (15 I understand), and if we can have some easy discussion on what the reasonably broad aims / goals / objectives / policies of such a group might be that would be grand.
As always, if I have missed the point or gotten something wrong, I am happy to be corrected.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
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Hello everyone
Further to Lee’s email. I’ve attached two files to facilitate discussion of what we now need to do in terms of setting up the Incorporated Society. The first file, “Setting up an Incorporated Society – primer.doc” contains two parts: common features of an Incorporated Society and a flow chart showing the incorporation steps. The second file, “Illustrative Examples – primer.doc” contains two parts: a hypothetical Constitution (a useful template for us to follow) and a guide to the clauses within the Constitution. Please carefully consider what I have written in the first file (in italic).
Setting up the Incorporated Society is a 10 step process taking ca. 2-3 months. We are now up to step 2 which involves deciding upon a name and drafting a Constitution (which will have to be ratified at a later date). I think the most prudent way to go about this is for us to sit down together and compile the name and draft Constitution. You will need to have read the two files before then. Possible dates for this next meeting are Sunday (Nov 20th) afternoon or Monday (Nov 21st) evening or Saturday (Nov 26th) morning or Sunday (27th) morning. Please let me know within the next couple of days what date is most suitable for you and I’ll book the Committee Room in the Waitati Hall accordingly.
I have provisionally booked the week beginning Monday (Dec 5th) for the formal Public meeting where all of the Blueskin Bay Community is invited, and please remember that this Public meeting will have a strong educative element to it so I will be liaising closely with Bruce Richards (resource consent planning manager, Planning Dept, DCC) in order to have an appropriate staff member from the Planning Dept along to highlight the legislative framework and show meeting attendees how to engage in the process. We will need to have completed steps 3 and 4 before this Public meeting (see second attached file for explanation of these steps).
One last thing. If you wish to be removed from this mailing list or know of people who want to be added, then please let me or Lee know.
Cheers
Michael
(If you want a copy of the files talked about here - email me)
I totally disagree with making the forming of an incorporated society a big public event. Personally I can not make a commitment to something which will try to include the whole community and risk imploding with the wide range of views that would result from such a group.
I think we would be much more wise to move more carefully on this one, identify the issues and objectives we as a core group wish to support, selectively invite others with like ideals to join us. We are not a beautification society but one set up to do some serious work.
Certainly inform the rest of the community about the process but I'm not sure there is a rush for this unless we find out Willowridge is moving faster than we think. Rather than lots of meetings I would think we can pool ideas on a name and objectives via email then get together to finalise these.
As far as the process of incorporating a few people could work on the details of this and report back to the main group. I would like a dialogue with some of the people from Plain Sense to get their views on small group of activists vs. a group attempting to represent the wider community.
Geraldine.
Hi all,
Well, I can see that forming a "clique" of "invited members only" can have it's down sides, as can the possibility of inviting all-comers.
Given that my friend good friend and neighbour, Dave Charters, has indicated his frustration at not getting the emails informing of the first meeting, I am certain that others might feel "excluded". I certainly know that I would feel the same, and I imagine that you or others would too, especially if you have been active in approaching the DCC to complain both in writing and verbally over the current Opeke development.
We will all have to think about what kind of transparency we want at some time before the public meeting.
In the interim, Michael is correct that we at least need to bash ahead with the concepts of what the society shall be called, and what it's constitution should be.
Here are some loose ideas from me to start the ball rolling:
Name?
Blueskin Bay (?and North Coast?) Incorporated
or
The Blueskin Bay (?and North Coast?) Incorporated Association.
or
The Blueskin Bay (?and North Coast?) Incorporated Residents Association. (Would this limit us to residents only issues - is that a problem?) - also the BB IRA - perhaps not a good choice?
or
The Blueskin Bay (?and North Coast?) Incorporated Community Society. (Would this cause confusion with the Community Board?)
In any case, I would really like the name to have "Blueskin Bay" in it, as at present this shapes my identity in the community, and I feel it is an underrepresented geographical population within the DCC Land Plan.
I do not want to be aligned with a political organisation, so would like to shy away from labels such as "Environmental" "Green" "Social" etc. within the Name.
My preferred Name would be something close to:
The Blueskin Bay Incorporated Association of Residents.
I will fire off an email discussing the proposed "constitution" when I have some more time later.
BAY WATCH
Yes, that is the name that we agreed on.
Frivolous? - possibly.
Humorous? - hopefully
Inclusive? - easily
Memorable? - you bet!
Serious? - I think that our actions should be a guide in that.
As far as the meeting went - here are my short notes.
Peter Woods spoke both as a new and welcome resident to the area, and on occasion as DCC rep.
He confirmed that he is happy to be part of the bay, and even considered Golden Bay in his plans. - we are flattered he chose to share our home.
Peter confirmed that he is happy to be a conduit to DCC, and sees no conflict with joining an incorporated society to maintain the values intrinsic to this area.
After some comments from each of the 8 people attending, we decided on BAY WATCH as the name. We will try this out for a while and see if it sticks, but it is growing on me already!
As for the Aims and Objectives for the Society?
We rolled around some defining words that each wanted represented, and tried to boil it down to a single structured aim.
Aim (strategy)
The Society is committed to maintaining or improving the current character of the area and community in a sustainable manner.
Other words to try and incorporate into the Objectives included:
'ownership' 'value' 'improvement' 'develop sustainably'
'inclusive' 'protect & enhance the natural flora & fauna of the area'
I will try to put these into some coherent space for the constitution in the next few days, a first run at these is:
The objectives of the Society will be to;
Advocate for sustainable development which retains the intrinsic character of the Area, Community and Environs:
Promote the values of ownership, tolerance and inclusiveness within the community.
Advocate towards protecting and enhancing the natural flora & fauna of the area.
Act as an identity and a conduit for communication with the local political and governing bodies.
Act as an identity and a conduit for liaison with potential developers in the area.
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