Update - 23 February 2009

BAG NEWS…………..

We were advised last week of a successful funding application to facilitate some community development workshops as part of the Blueprint for the Bush, Strengthening Rural Communities, Our Place, Our Future funding initiative. This project will deliver workshops in project management, leadership, communication, time management, and governance to any interested community members, with a target audience of those currently holding voluntary committee positions. Project outcomes will include Certificate of Attainment qualifications for participants, a resource kit, and an increased community capacity for sustainable development and growth. Details are still being finalised with the Department and I will keep you updated as this project progresses.


The Fostering Rural Innovation and Change workshop that I attended last week provided some great ideas and thought provoking psychology for encouraging innovation and change in rural communities. This workshop confirmed (what I already suspected!) that the Booringa community is well placed to undertake change and foster innovative projects and ideas due to the recent BAG organisational restructure, including: new and younger committee members, a smaller group for decision making and a turbulent operating environment (in our case, following amalgamations and the organisational restructure of council). Communities are often driven by the ‘wisdom of the elders’ and in a rapidly changing world, we still defer to that wisdom, though it is increasingly irrelevant. It is part of the conservatism of rural communities. This is healthy and normal, but a deterrent to change. To overcome this and ensure survival and growth, consideration should be given to the characteristics which support innovation and change in rural communities.

The characteristics which support innovation in a rural community, which BAG will look to pursue in more detail, are:

· Availability of resources and services
· Availability of technologies for delivering those resources and services
· Quality of management and promotion
· Availability of experts or specialists
· Clusters of specialists
· Continuing professional development of specialists
· Decentralisation of decision-making
· A supportive managerial attitude towards change
· Freshness of leadership
· Adequate administrative capacity
· Communication – both internal and external.

Congratulations BAG, many of these have already been identified and worked on!


BAG PROJECT UPDATES………………


Main Roads have advised us today, that they will not be attending our March General Meeting. Approval is still being sought from the Minister to formally consult with community on this project, which they have advised they expect shortly. Main Roads have assured us that they do want to talk to the community, but only once they have been formally approved to do so. The Working Party will continue to liaise with Main Roads and will keep us updated.


The process for establishing a dentist in Mitchell is becoming more structured. Contacts have been made with Rural Health who are supportive and have been assisting with advice as to the many hurdles to jump! The next step is to get the key people together in a meeting in the near future. It would be great to gauge some idea of how many people would be willing to pay for the services of a private dentist in Mitchell ….. please reply with your comments.


We have discovered that Neil Turner now sits on the board of SunWater, who are responsible for the water storage facility at Mitchell, officially known as the Neil Turner Weir! We have written to Neil in his capacity as a SunWater board member, to determine if he is sympathetic to our cause.


The number of Chrisco Hampers purchased in our local community has concerned members of the Existing Business Sub-committee. It also raised an idea for locally supplied Christmas Hampers that could be paid off throughout the year, in a similar fashion to the Chrisco Hamper business model. Some more investigation is needed to see if this would be a worthwhile venture for BAG to pursue. Interestingly though, a price comparison undertaken on a basic hamper from Chrisco and the same items purchased at full retail price locally showed that the Chrisco Hamper is actually more expensive …. some food for thought there!


GENERAL COMMUNITY information ………….


Clean Up Australia Day is on this Sunday 1 March 2009, starting at the Mitchell Showgrounds. Clean-up is from 9am – 11 am, followed by a BBQ at the RSL Complex. Get your friends together and enter a team. Teams of 4 will compete for prizes in the following:

· Scavenger Hunt
· Most Rubbish Collected
· Best Site Clean-up
· And the coveted ‘Oscar’ Award.

Everyone is invited to attend. FREE iceblocks for all children. BBQ and Drinks will be on sale. Don’t forget your hat, bag and gloves. This Clean Up Australia Day is proudly hosted by the Mitchell Campdrafting Association.


FREE Get Active Queensland Accreditation Programs (GAQAP) and Beginning Coaching General Principles workshops will be held in Roma on Saturday 14 March and Sunday 15 March 2009. These workshops are a great learning opportunity for coaches, officials, administrators, instructors and volunteers operating at the grassroots level. The GAQAP provides teachers, school staff & volunteers, community members, tertiary and senior school students with FREE training that can lead to accreditation in coaching, officiating and sports first aid. Courses offered include – Netball Coaching, Swimming Teaching, Rugby League Coaching, Athletics Coaching , Netball Officiating, Touch Coaching, Inclusive Sports & Physical Activity, Sports Strapping. Registrations close on Friday 27 February 2009. Registrations are online at http://www.sportrec.qld.gov.au/school_community/gaqap.cfm



Thank you to everyone who has replied to me with information requested in these email updates. Please keep those great ideas coming!!


Until next week! :-)
Cheers,
Sharyn.

If you’ve missed an update, please visit http://booringaactiongroup.blogspot.com

Update - 16 February 2009

I am continually amazed at the strength of the community spirit that lives in the Mitchell and surrounding area. The positive feedback on our first email update was overwhelming! Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply, and for your encouraging comments.

The February BAG General Meeting was held last Wednesday and provided the opportunity for the Management Committee and Working Party Coordinators to provide an update on project progress to members. The outcomes from our meeting include:

• The Department of Main Roads will be attending our March General Meeting on Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at the BAG Cottage in Ann Street, starting at 7.00 pm. Members and non-members are welcome to attend to hear from Main Roads what the proposed plans are for Mitchell and to provide community feedback.
• The loss of our full time Youth Worker has been identified as a significant issue for our community. BAG is looking to explore options to help address this issue. If you have any ideas or feedback on this, we would love to hear from you.
• A representative from the Department of Natural Resources and Water recently inspected the weir and was as horrified as we are with the amount of sand. It is hoped that this may cause some pressure on Government to assist with a project to remove the sand.
  

I will be attending a Fostering Rural Innovation and Change Workshop in Toowoomba tomorrow. The outcomes from this workshop include strategies to assist with developing the capacity of rural communities, and understanding why some country towns are resilient and thriving, and why some with similar attributes are in decline. I look forward to bringing this information back to the community.

Many community groups would have received the Community Grants Program / Community Ongoing Assistance Program Application Forms from council recently. Booringa Action Group acknowledges that this is a complex form to formalise current council support, and is happy to assist local groups with their applications, including providing letters of support. Please feel free to contact me if I can help with this.

The council’s name change looks to be going ahead …. See http://www.ecq.qld.gov.au/asp/index.asp . The Electoral Commission has finally proposed to determine that the name of the Roma Regional Council be changed to Maranoa Regional Council.

Council has advised that the correct phone number to use for all council enquiries is: 1300 007 662

If anyone is interested in undertaking study towards a career in child care, the Federal Government has removed all TAFE fees for diploma and advanced diploma child care courses. The following web site may be of assistance www.oececc.gov.au .

BAG is still looking for someone to assist with the options for developing a website. If you have an interest or some experience with website development, please contact me.

Booringa Action Group is now offering a photocopying service to the community. Copying is free for up to 10 pages! For more than 10 pages, the following charges apply:


Price per copy for BAG Members

1 – 10 pages Free !
11 – 50 pages 25c
51 – 250 pages 20c
251 – 500 pages 15c
501 – 1000 pages 10c
1000+ pages - by negotiation

Price per copy for non-BAG members

1 - 10 pages Free!
11 - 50 pages 30c
51 - 250 pages 25c
251 - 500 pages 20c
501 - 1000 pages 15c
1000+ pages - by negotiaion

Free Business Seminars
Sam Thrupp from Telstra has advised that in association with The Chamber of Commerce and Industry Qld they are holding Free Business Seminars across Queensland. The global financial crisis has dominated world headlines over the last 12 months and the implications are now taking a toll on Queensland business. Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland and Telstra are inviting businesses to attend the free Surviving Tough Times Seminar. Topics will include:
· How has Queensland's economy been affected and how are other businesses coping?
· How does today's financial crisis compare to previous downturns?
· What should businesses do to safeguard their operations?
· How to capitalise on the opportunities of a downturn?
· Tips on how better use of telecommunications can deliver productivity improvement, efficiency and costs savings.
The Roma Seminar is being held on 10 March 2009, from 5.00pm to 7.00pm at the Maranoa Club.
Other details can be found at: http://www.cciq.com.au/Business-Connections/Surviving-Tough-Times.aspx

We are actively seeking to increase membership! If you are interested in supporting BAG, please consider joining. Membership fees are still only $10 . Please email me for a membership application form.

If you’ve missed out on any of the BAG Email Updates, these are now available at http://booringaactiongroup.blogspot.com .

Until next week! :-)

Cheers,
Sharyn.

Update - 9 February 2009

Welcome to the first edition of a planned weekly email update from Booringa Action Group (BAG). This first message is to provide you with a quick summary of where we are up to, but future updates will be much shorter (I promise!), and will cover various topics that we hope will be of local interest.

What has BAG been up to?

• Following the change of BAG management in mid 2008, a new Strategic Plan has been developed. Five sub-committees have been established to implement the plan. The sub-committees are Communication, Community, Existing Business, New Business Development, and Tourism.
• Late 2008 the Community Sub Committee of BAG developed a comprehensive response to the Queensland Government’s Department of Infrastructure and Planning Draft Maranoa and District Regional Plan that stated Mitchell was not expected to grow and only maintenance levels of service would be provided to the town. The Maranoa and District and Regional Plan, once finalised, will become statutory (law) and act as the reference point for all future State Government policy.
• Businesses in the region have been surveyed and the results collated. A summary of the findings will be communicated at a function in April 2009.
  A modern photocopying/printing machine has been purchased with a grant received from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund. This machine can supply a cost effective printing and photocopying service to BAG and community members.
• BAG has initiated contact with the other community groups / progress associations throughout the new amalgamated Shire and a working party, consisting of the presidents of each of these groups, is meeting to strengthen the role of these groups in the region.
• BAG contributed to the success of the 2008 Christmas in the Park.
• BAG Management reviewed a list of some 30 projects that would offer a benefit to the Booringa community. The list has been prioritised and work has commenced on a selection of these projects.

What is BAG currently working on?

Projects have been considered and work has commenced on the following:

• A Child Care Centre for Mitchell – a team is following the progress of an application for funding for this. BAG was to receive notification about being on a shortlist for this Government funding in December 2008, but as yet no information has been forthcoming. Another option being explored is the preparation of an application to be a partner in the establishment of a new centre, and the team is working on this proposal.
• A Dentist for Mitchell – it is proposed to utilise the existing medical centre and staff to support the functioning of a Dentist. Dr Martin Byrne supports the project in principle and now Queensland Health need to come on board to progress arrangements.
• A large, secure, notice board is to be erected in the main street displaying a complete list of major events in the region for the benefit of locals; and also tourists, so they can plan further travel to the region to coincide with future event dates.
• A project team is investigating the opportunity of using the sewerage treatment farm as an enterprise.
• The BAG Communication Sub-Committee is in discussions with Council regarding the Booringa Bulletin. The Bulletin is a significant expense to Council and BAG is investigating if an alternative model could deliver a more economically viable product.

What’s next?

• BAG is developing a strong working relationship with Council and aims to be a reference point for Council in gauging community wants and needs.
• If community members would like to raise a proposal or concern with Council, consider BAG as a vehicle to support your quest.
• BAG is working on a new Corporate Image.
• BAG is planning a function to launch our new image, reveal the results of the business surveys previously conducted, and update all on the status of projects.

How can you help?

• BAG has a large number of projects that would have a significant positive impact on the liveability of the region.
• You can participate in projects via email. Time is something most people lack and as such we are changing the way projects are undertaken so that participation in projects can be done using technology such as email. That means you can read an update about a project from the team leader and make comment or contribute via a reply email or other method, when and where you can. Some meetings are still held, but your input can be contributed prior.
• We are continuing to look for members for the following projects:

Child Care Centre
Sewerage Treatment Farm project
A project addressing the sand in the weir
Sourcing a Dentist for Mitchell
Construction of a BAG website.

If you can help, please just drop a quick email reply and we will be in contact.

If you have your own ideas for projects in the region, then contact BAG to support you. BAG doesn’t need to own projects …. Our aim is to simply see the lifestyle of those in the region improved.

For more information on BAG, please contact Adam McEvoy, BAG President, on 4623 1141; or Sharyn Garrett , BAG Executive Officer, on 4623 7814.

Until next week! :-)

Cheers,
Sharyn.