Informal forums in bid to lift interest

Michelle Elborn

A Tauranga City Council committee tasked with building bridges with the community will adopt a more relaxed format after failing to attract large numbers of people to its meetings.

The first anniversary of the Community Development Committee venturing into the suburbs resulted in strong support for more informal forums.

"I wouldn't beat ourselves up too much, it's early days," committee chairman Steve Morris said.

Yesterday's meeting reviewed the meetings held so far in Papamoa, Matua, Welcome Bay, Mount Maunganui, Greerton and Bethlehem in which public attendance varied from seven to 30.

Council sustainability advisor Michelle Elborn said there was strong support for the committee to continue engaging with the community but it needed to look at rebranding and marketing the meetings to increase public awareness and participation.

The committee agreed that a more informal approach was needed when it met in the suburbs. Meetings held every alternate month in the council's chamber would be the normal format.

It supported Ms Elborn's recommendation to trial new formats in order to encourage greater community participation.

Feedback from previous meetings was that they were too formal, with people feeling intimidated by councillors sitting behind tables and following formal meeting procedures.

She suggested piggy-backing on existing community meetings and to offer interesting topics and speakers. They should stress the council was there to listen and to mix up the format to suit the audience, like trying small break-out groups.

"Meetings don't always need to be outcome based ... how we market and communicate the meetings is the key," Ms Elborn said.

Cr Bev Edlin said the subject matter and timing of the meeting was more important than changing the format.

Ms Elborn agreed there was no magical formula, with different things working in different communities.

Cr Catherine Stewart said there were several occasions where the staff and councillors outnumbered the public. "Marketing is very important."

Suburban community development meetings

* Numbers of meetings since May 2014: 6

* Average cost per meeting: $180

* Average public attendance: About 15 people