The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers Principal Sponsors Pulse Hotu Manawa The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers Pulse April 2008 Hotu Manawa 11 years of awards Conference 2008 Rates model results
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Hotu Manawa The New Zealand Society of Local Government ... File&Folder_id... · by Michael Ross, took the scenic route through beautiful Central Otago and Southland, to arrive refreshed,
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The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
Principal Sponsors
PulseHotu Manawa
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
News
Lakes heaven45 South turns it on in Queenstown
Feedback from evaluations at the conclusion of the retreat were positive, with plenty of suggestions for next time. One person made the comment: “I can’t understand why more SOLGM members don’t attend these retreats. I consider it the best value for money, networking and development I have experienced.”
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By Michael Ross
Honda rider
In seven years of owning my Honda, I have never had to experience the ignominy of picking it up off the road. In covering 1600km in three days, I guess you would have to expect some excitement! But more on that later.
The first ever SOLGM “Beat to the Retreat” gathered in Geraldine around lunchtime on the Friday before the Queenstown retreat. We had come from points around the South Island and one of our number had ridden down from Wellington.
The weather was hot and dry as we headed through the rolling downlands to Fairlie. Over Burkes Pass and the McKenzie country greeted us with a characteristic norwesterly blast. I thought at the time that this would bring some
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Michael Ross, Eugene Bowen and Brian Lester rest the saddle sores.
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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excitement – and so it did.
After fueling at Tekapo we headed up the steep climb to the Mt John Observatory, where a new café has opened. The wind on top blew the froth off our lattes as we sat and contemplated the advancing dark clouds from the south.
The rain began once we dropped down to Lake Pukaki, having enjoyed the freedom of the private road on the Meridian canal. Despite a patient wait at the Wrinkly Ram in Omarama, it did not relent and continued all the way down the Waitaki Valley to Oamaru.
We were all soaked when we arrived at home. However Susie had done a great job on the dinner and with a few of Steve Green’s Carrick Pinot Noir on board, we were soon back in full spirit.
Given the programme for the next
day – Saturday – the nightlife in Oamaru was forsaken for a relatively early bed.
Saturday 1 February – Oamaru-Invercargill-Te Anau
Saturday dawned fine and clear. We headed down the coast road to Kakanui and Waianakarua, and then took to the coast again from Karitane, Seacliff and Warrington before avoiding the Northern Motorway into Dunedin – preferring the challenges to the windy Mt Cargill road over the summit and down into Dunedin.
Another round of coffees, this time at the Otago Museum Café.
On south to Brighton, and again we followed the coast through to Taieri Mouth and up and over the newly sealed road to Lake Waihola. Terrific views, good cruising and a minor woops as one of our number lost
traction in the loose chip and left a mirror on the roadway.
“Good thing that thick black leather,” he reckoned.
Further south in Balclutha. We lunched at Peggydale with some old friends who were keen to join our group and show us the way through their patch – the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins and on to Invercargill. This is a great ride and requires full concentration to stay in sync with the tight corners all through the Catlins State Forest. After a quick re-fuel in Invercargill we continued on for refreshments at the Pavilion at Colac Bay – part of that great sweep of the Southern tip of the South Island – where the big westerly swells seem sent directly from Australia.
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
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Along Te Waewae Bay, through the town of Tuatapere then over Blackmount, down past the Takitimus and into the Te Anau basin. We stopped at the Manapouri Tavern, the western-most bar in New Zealand, before knocking over the final leg of the Saturday ride into Te Anau itself. Another 600km day – lots of country and some wonderful stretches of kiwi roads – with no traffic in sight and hot weather to boot.
A few single malts and then out to the restaurant. A lot of laughs and smiles over the journey so far and intense discussion around the merits of one bike against another – and of course the road surface – as per brief. And the waitress – what waitress?
Sunday 2 February – Te Anau-Milford-Queenstown
Nature calls or looking for directions? Members of the motorcycle road trip take a break on the road to Queenstown.
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
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The clouds were starting to roll in on the Sunday morning so we headed west early on the Milford Road, keen to avoid any more rain (Friday had cured us of that!). We flew through some of the most spectacular country you can possibly experience. Indeed, Peter Mitchell in his book Great Escapes rates it as the best ride in the world. I would agree, apart from that switchback on the climb back up to the tunnel, but more on that later.
Brunch in the Milford Café, another coffee and the rain stayed away. We took the obligatory shots of the view, but our focus was the road – the sweep through the next bend with the bike heeled right over in seeming defiance of natural balance. But that is all part of the thrill of it, until that is, you decide to look backwards and lose your concentration on the task ahead.
Beat to the retreatSOLGM bikers take two-wheel track
Which is why I ended up picking my ego and my bike off the chip seal by the mouth of the Homer Tunnel.
A bit of Joan’s duct tape on the cowling and we were away again, down the other side of the tunnel. Down the past the Hollyford, over the Cascade Saddle and down the Eglington Valley and back into the great open space of the wonderful Te Anau basin.
A venison pie at the Bracken Hall Café in Mossburn was next on the
list, before heading north through to Five Rivers, Garston, Kingston and finally to our hotel in Queenstown.
We were there – 1560km, lots of coffees and laughs later. We’d done it. A great high-speed inspection of some of the best roading infrastructure New Zealand has to offer the keen local government manager.
Next time – will you be there? Let’s see how the repairs go, but I would do it all again, just like last time, in a flash!
We flew through some of the most spectacular country you can possibly experience. Indeed, Peter Mitchell in his book Great Escapes rates it as the best ride in the world.
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Janice NadewNew Marketing and Communications Advisor
Page 1 of 2
Janice Nadew joins our team at National Office as Marketing and Communications Advisor on 21 April.
She brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in this new position. Janice has worked in advertising, marketing and corporate communications both in the private and not-for-profit sectors.
Janice holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Organisational Communication from De La Salle University in the Philippines, and a Master of Arts Degree in International Communication from Macquarie University in Australia.
Before joining the Society, Janice worked with the New Zealand Childcare Association, where she took on various marketing and communication projects that
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
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Janice NadewNew Marketing and Communications Advisor
business goals.
“I look forward to this new challenge and having the opportunity to make a difference,” she says.
She is also enthusiastic to learn about management and best practices in local government. She believes that empowering these communities will contribute to a better New Zealand.
Janice moved to New Zealand with her husband in 2006 to have a more relaxed lifestyle. She has spent most of her life in the Philippines, her home country, and lived in Australia for a couple of years while completing her post-graduate studies. She also lived in Ethiopia for a few months to gain work experience in development
Page 2 of 2
MWH International Conference Attendance Awards announced
On 31 March, the SOLGM Executive awarded two MWH-sponsored awards, to attend the Local Government Managers Australia National Congress on the Gold Coast on 25-26 May, to:
• Tamsin Evans, Strategic Projects Manager, Kapiti Coast District Council; and
• Antoinette Campbell, Community Services Manager, Hastings District Council.
The awards are each valued at $1050 plus GST. SOLGM greatly appreciates the sponsorship by MWH of these awards to assist SOLGM members widen their horizons through attending international events for local government managers such as this Congress. In June, applications for the three MWH-sponsored awards to attend the ICMA Conference in Richmond, Virginia, on 21-24 September, will be called for.
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s there might also be some shift in rates from lower-valued properties to higher-valued properties as a result of the abolition of the UAGC where this mechanism is currently used.
• In provincial and rural New Zealand
s the recommendations generally create shifts from urban ratepayers (both residential and commercial) to the rural sector.
• Overall, it appears that the commercial sector would be the clear “winners” if these recommendations were implemented, with the rural sector the clear “losers”, and the impact on residential property owners is more mixed.
The full report can be downloaded
from www.solgm.co.nz/Other+
SOLGM+Good+Practice+Material/
Rating+Inquiry.htm
The Government has also sought
reports from officials on a wide
range of the other groups of
recommendations made by the
inquiry.
the impacts of implementing these
recommendations would be. The
headline results were:
• In metropolitan New Zealand
s the recommendations generally create shifts in rates from the commercial/industrial sector to the residential sector and, to a lesser extent the rural sector;
s the extent of the shifts varied from moderate to extreme in nature, depending on the extent to which existing rating systems resembled those envisaged by the inquiry;
s this headline shift in incidence can be traced to the abolition of differential rates (in most metropolitan local authorities commercial properties are currently paying a higher rate in the dollar than residential);
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Guidance Notes on Candidate Pen Portraits
1 Candidates are required to provide a Pen Portrait with their Nomination. This must be provided within the application period ending 30 April 2008 – by mail (fax is not acceptable).
2 Pen Portrait (first person) statement of a Candidate’s
• relevant qualifications for the position
• industry, SOLGM and/or other professional society experience and leadership
• personal attitude to the position and ability to serve actively
• intentions, or aspirations, for the future development and work of the Society.
3 The Pen Portrait should be approximately 250-400 words in length. It may include a passport photo of the candidate. It shall not exceed an A4 page.
4 Presentation: Pen Portraits are photocopied from the original material supplied by the candidate. They must be presented on plain white paper, neatly typed, borders of 2.5cm, preferably in
font Arial size 10 (this font and size),
or using a similarly sized, sans serif, alternative. It should be mailed, unfolded, not faxed. It should be displayed as follows:
5 Heading: centred, in capital letters, in bold type, size 12:
PEN PORTRAIT
(CANDIDATE’S FULL NAME)
[turn down one line only]
Details . . .
Call for Nominations for President and Two Vice Presidents
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familiar with this. It can be accessed
at http://www.lgnz.co.nz/projects/
LGandMaori/index.html
Local Futures
Dr Claudia Scott attended the meeting to discuss the guidance products the Local Futures project is developing and the potential for SOLGM to play a role in maintaining the products after the project’s funding ceases.
The project is currently developing guides on:
• assessing strategic performance;
• community engagement/consultation; and
• strategic tools.
For further information about Local Futures go to: www.localfutures.ac.nz
Strategic Planning Working Party
Plenty on agenda
Page 3 of 3
Roading New Zealand Conference
Sustainability and People
Duxton Hotel, Wellington
26 August 2008
• International environmental best practice for the construction
and maintenance of New Zealand roads.
• How sustainability and economic growth can happen for New
Zealand infrastructure.
• Valuable secrets of holding and recruiting people into your
organisation and into our sector.
• How we can change the culture of the sector to have everyone
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What’s hotOver the past three years the Good Practice Toolkits website (www.solgm.co.nz) has grown to host an increasing range of information and good practice material.
With a greater range of material available, traffic has increased. Visits averaged 1645 a month in 2004/05, 3320 a month in 2005/06, 5099 a month in 2006/07, and so far for 2007/08 visits are running at just under 6500 a month.
Monitoring of the site provides an interesting barometer of “what is hot” at any particular time.
November 2007
The major new releases were:
• the new Risk Management and Legal Compliance module on Bylaws (early in the month);
• Dollars and Sense, the Guide to Financial Management Under the Local Government Act 2002, (mid
month); and
• the revised Risk Management and Legal Compliance Privacy Act module (late in the month).
The 2009 and Beyond suite was comprehensively the most popular content group, providing six of the top 10 downloads. The rest of the top five content groups were all recently published Risk Management and Legal Compliance modules. The NZIFRS Questions and Answers document (developed following NZIFRS Preparedness seminars in late 2005) made a spectacular return to popularity.
Top content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond
2. Risk Management and Legal
Compliance Bylaws module
3. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Resource Consents module
4. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Dog Control module
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance draft module on Decision-making under the LGA2002
Top downloads
1. Performance Management Frameworks – “Your Side of the Deal”, complete guide.
2. “Dollars and Sense” – Financial Management under the Local
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Government Act 2002, complete
guide.
3. Pulse November 2007.
4. “Piecing It Together”, complete
guide.
5. Living through the LTCCP, full
version.
6. Legal Compliance Programme
contact list.
7. NZIFRS questions and suggested
answers.
8. Living through the LTCCP,
section 1.
9. Performance Management
Frameworks – “Your Side of the
Deal”, section 1.
10. Code of Good Practice For the
Management of Local Authority
Elections and Polls, Chapter 3
- Electoral Officers and Electoral
Staff.
December 2007
December saw publication of the SOLGM Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister of Local Government.
The 2009 and Beyond guidance suite continued to be overwhelmingly the most popular content group, and provided five of the six most popular document downloads. There was also a strong showing from the pages on the New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards. Like Keith Richard, the NZIFRS Questions and Answers package just refuses to lie down and die.
Content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond.
2. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards – general pages.
3. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards 2007 entries.
4. Shared Services.
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance draft module on Development Contributions.
Downloads
1. Piecing It Together, complete guide.
2. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, complete guide.
3. Dollars and Sense, complete guide.
4. Pulse – November 2007 edition
5. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, chapter 1.
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study from 2004 International Leading Practices Symposium.
8. Legal Compliance Programme contact list
9. NZIFRS questions and suggested answers.
10. Pulse – August 2006 edition.
January 2008
With the Christmas break no new material was published during January. 2009 and Beyond material continued to dominate as top content group and provided five of the top nine document downloads. The Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister proved very popular, and the 2007 New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards continued to do good business. The NZIFRS Questions and Answers are still up there (at this rate it will be appearing in the next series of Dancing with the Stars).
Content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond.
2. Leading Practices Symposium 2006.
3. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards 2007.
4. Risk Management and Legal Compliance draft module on Development Contributions.
5. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme, general information pages.
Downloads
1. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, complete guide.
2. SOLGM Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister of Local Government.
3. Dollars and Sense, complete guide.
4. Piecing It Together, complete
guide.
5. City of Corpus Christi case study for 2006 International Leading Practices Symposium.
6. Living Through the LTCCP, complete guide.
7. NZIFRS questions and suggested answers.
8. Legal Compliance Programme contact list.
9. Performance Management Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, chapter 1.
10. Pulse – November 2007 edition.
February 2008
New releases in February were:
• the key presentations from the 2009 and Beyond Seminars;
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Community Plan Conference; and
• revised Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme modules on
s Property Sales, Leases and Acquisitions, and
s Building Consents.
2009 and Beyond material remains at the top of the heap as top content group and with three of the top 10 downloads. Publication of material from the Community Plan Conference pushed the Strategic Planning Working Party’s page into second place while Simon Markham’s presentation of “Significance under the LGA” from the 2007 Community Planning Conference, featured strongly among the downloads. The revised Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme –Property module also made a strong start. Meanwhile, the “Queen Mother of
good practice guidance products”, the NZIFRS Questions and Answers, just keeps on keeping on.
Content groups
1. 2009 and Beyond.
2. Strategic Planning Working Party (includes Community Plan conference).
3. New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards 2007.
4. Risk Management and Legal Compliance Programme, general information pages.
Frameworks – Your Side of the Deal, complete guide.
4. Pulse – November 2007 edition.
5. NZIFRS questions and suggested answers.
6. SOLGM Briefing Paper to the Incoming Minister of Local Government.
7. The “S” Word Again! – How to Determine Significance; A Local Authority Case Study”, Simon Markham, Waimakariri District Council (from 2007 Community Plan Conference).
8. Financial Management Working Party Newsletter February 2008.
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Strategic management and policy skills featured in the Deloitte Study on Recruitment and Retention as priority areas for skills development in the local government sector.
SOLGM Opus Business School has responded by working with the School of Government, Victoria University, to create 31/2-day intensive training programmes in strategic management and in policy development, which are tailored for the local government sector.
Both courses focus on imparting skills and knowledge relevant to the workplace, and include practitioners and academics as presenters and facilitators.
Strategic Management will be offered for the first time on 19-22 May and Policy Analysis and Advising will run for the third time on 20-23 October. The programmes
can be undertaken for professional development or alternatively, for academic credit (with assessment). Programmes will be at the Victoria University downtown Pipitea campus in Wellington.
The intensive 31/2-day format was selected to make the courses more accessible to local authorities throughout the country.
The strategic management programme will be coordinated Dr Lance Beath of the School of Government, Victoria University. Dr Beath has extensive experience as a practitioner, teaches several courses on the Masters of Strategic Studies at Victoria University, and has undertaken research on strategy and strategic decision-making in local government for the FRST Local Futures Project.
The strategic management
programme will have a strong practical element – involving workshops on strategic issue-framing and strategic tools and techniques relating to strategic management and decision-making.
A broad overview of the theory and practice of strategic management will be provided which includes relationships to strategic planning and thinking, the role of leadership in strategy development, managing for outcomes, and performance management.
The policy offering is coordinated by Professor Claudia Scott, Professor of Public Policy at Victoria University of Wellington and at the Australia and New Zealand School of Government. Dr Scott has had long-standing teaching and research interests in
Strategy and policy courses target skill shortages
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local government and is currently Project Leader of the Local Futures Project.
The course provides participants with hands-on practical experience in building skills in policy analysis and advisory work. The workshop format of the course will build skills in problem definition, clarification of goals and objectives, development and evaluation of options, assembling of information and evidence, and issues surrounding policy implementation and evaluation.
Participants will work in syndicates on a policy issue and develop an outcomes matrix of policy options for decision-makers, which is presented for discussion and critique.
Cooperation between SOLGM and the School of Government, Victoria
University, in this initiative reflects their common interests in building skills and capabilities in the local government sector.
n For further information contact: Con Flinkenberg, [email protected] (04) 978-1281
Cooperation between SOLGM and the School of Government, Victoria University, in this initiative reflects their common interests in building skills and capabilities in the local government sector.
Strategy and policy courses target skill shortages
The electronic magazine from the New Zealand Society of Local Government Managers
PulseApril 2008
Hotu Manawa National Office DiaryThe diary is a brief list of the “headlines” of what National Office has been up to since the previous edition of Pulse. So if you have ever found yourself wondering what those people in Wellington do with their time, here is the answer.
NOVEMBER
Friday 2
• New Risk Management and Legal Compliance module on Bylaws published
Monday 5 and Tuesday 6
• 2007 RMA Planning Technicians/Administrators Training - Christchurch
Friday 9
• “Dollars and Sense” the guide to financial management and the LTCCP published
Monday 12 and Tuesday 13
• 2007 RMA Planning Technicians/Administrators Training - Auckland
Wednesday 14
• National office hosts visiting Study tour from Korea
Thursday 15 and Friday 16
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar – Rotorua
Monday 19
• Revised Risk Management and Legal
Compliance module on Privacy Act published.
Monday 19 and Tuesday 20
• 2007 RMA Planning Technicians/Administrators Training - Wellington
Thursday 22 and Friday 23
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar, Auckland
Thursday 22
• President and Chief Executive meet new Minister Mahuta
Monday 26 and Tuesday 27
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar – Christchurch
Tuesday 27
• Risk Management and Legal Compliance Working Party meets
Thursday 29 and Friday 30
• 2009 and Beyond Seminar – Palmerston North
DECEMBER
Monday 3 and Tuesday 4
• 2009 and Beyond Seminars (Dunedin)
Wednesday 12
• 2007 Electoral Officers Forum - Election Debrief
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The Local Government Industry Training Organisation’s national certificates are an essential tool for ensuring local government employees are effective, efficient and complying to industry standards. The purpose of LGITO is to facilitate training for local government staff to enable them to achieve qualifications specific to the local government industry.
Our vision is to be a key contributor to the local government sector performance by improving its people. We will do this by:
• embedding a learning and achievement culture in local government;
• providing learning pathways for local government employees; and
• developing and maintaining local government specific unit standards and qualifications.
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Page 3 of 3
Improving the people in local government
The LGITOThe National Diploma itself will also
be formally registered on the NZQA
Framework following clarification
of transition arrangements that will
identify how previous and current
building officials training courses
can cross-credit towards the new
diploma.
The LGITO is currently arranging
the start of a second project related
to building officials to develop a
National Diploma around inspection
of medium to large buildings. Some
of the unit standards in the small
buildings qualification will also
appear in the medium to large
building qualification, thereby
creating a path to achieving both
qualifications. Both qualifications
will comprise elements of existing
training courses for people in the
building design and construction
industry as much as possible, so
that building inspection for local
authorities becomes one of the
career options for these people.
SOLGM, Local Government
New Zealand and BOINZ will
again be involved in a steering
group to oversee development
of this qualification, along with
representatives from the Local
Authority Building Managers
Group, the Department of Building
and Housing, the Institute of
Building Surveyors and a provider
representative. The steering group
will be chaired by Craig Stevenson, a
member of the LGITO board.
For more information about how
LGITO qualifications can add value,
please visit www.lgito.org.nz or
contact General Manager Kevin
Wafer on (04) 978-1240.
The LGITO is currently arranging the start of a second project related to building officials to develop a National Diploma around inspection of medium to large buildings. Some of the unit standards in the small buildings qualification will also appear in the medium to large building qualification, thereby creating a path to achieving both qualifications.
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Hotu Manawa A competitive insurance market
Change afoot?foreshadowed premium increases for
domestic classes of insurance while
other industry leaders are beginning
to talk about increasing commercial
rates.
Internationally the economic
environment is dishing up some
potential challenges for the
insurance market. The subprime
mortgage crisis will undoubtedly
bring significant claims to the
insurance market. Already some
underwriters have reported losses
due to their own exposure to the
credit market. XL Capital reported
a US$1.5 billion after-tax change in
their Q4 2007 results, and Swiss
Re, the world’s largest reinsurer, has
reported a CHF1.2 billion pre-tax
loss.
The subprime mortgage crisis will
bring claims against banks and
financial institutions, the real estate
industry, property valuers, financial
advisors and the like with the
Professional Liability market bearing
the brunt of these claims.
The equity and capital markets are
also experiencing turbulence which
will impact the insurance market.
In the past two years, underwriters’
loss ratios have increased due to
declining premium rates. Their
investment returns have been
increasing, which has enabled
them to post record profits despite
a softening insurance market.
Investment returns are likely to be
much lower in 2008, with not only
the stock market steadying, but also
the Federal Reserve reducing official
interest rates in the USA.
Investment guru Warren Buffet
warned recently at the Berkshire
Hathaway results announcement
that the times of record profits for
insurers and reinsurers had gone.
During the past decade the capital
Internationally the economic environment is dishing up some potential challenges for the insurance market. The subprime mortgage crisis will undoubtedly bring significant claims to the insurance market. Already some underwriters have reported losses due to their own exposure to the credit market.
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markets have been quick to respond
to the insurance market’s need for
replacement capital after major
losses. As recently as 2005, the
capital markets provided more than
US$50 billion of replacement and
strategic new venture capital in
response to the massive insurance
losses from hurricanes Katrina,
Wilma and Rita.
There is a squeeze on capital
globally and some doubt about
whether the capital markets can
respond to the market’s need
for replacement capital from
increasing loss ratios or from a
major catastrophe. If rates continue
to decline, underwriters’ capital
bases will decline from attritional
losses; reduced capital will affect
their ability to write new business.
Demand might begin to exceed
supply – at this point we will see a
rise in insurance rates.
There is some pressure in the
Directors & Officers Liability market
with several large class action
suits under way. These claims are
forcing underwriters to reassess
their underwriting guidelines. We
are seeing some underwriters
being more cautious in accepting
high-profile clients. Capacity will
tighten and there might be a rise
in premiums in the second half of
2008.
We continue to see aggressive
strategies from underwriters of SME
and Middle Market Property and
Casualty lines. With all the talk in the
market about an upward movement
in late 2008 or early 2009,
underwriters are trying to position
themselves to take advantage of
improved market conditions. Those
There is a squeeze on capital globally and some doubt about whether the capital markets can respond to the market’s need for replacement capital from increasing loss ratios or from a major catastrophe. If rates continue to decline, underwriters’ capital bases will decline from attritional losses; reduced capital will affect their ability to write new business.
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with the market share will be better
rewarded.
In the major corporate market there
is less competition as many of the
accounts have been tested in the
market during the past five years.
The desire by underwriters to lock in
clients with long-term agreements is
increasing and JLT is recommending
to several clients they now consider
this hedging mechanism.
The major corporate market is
heavily impacted by Merger &
Acquisition activity. Underwriters
who are “on the losing end” of a
transaction are keen to replace
lost income, but the opportunities
to do this with new client wins are
diminishing.
The London market continues to
be active in the Asia Pacific region.
Lloyds Syndicates has opened
its own offices in Australia and
Singapore, and is adapting to the
local market conditions. Lloyds also
continues to support numerous
underwriting agencies in Australasia,
writing Property and Casualty
business.
The largest and/or more complex
risks still rely on participation from
London and European insurers and
reinsurers. The underwriters in those
markets are pushing for greater
market share in the top end market,
which is comforting to clients in this
sector.
While JLT is not anticipating the
same level of reductions in 2008
as we have seen in recent years, we
do envisage underwriters will seek
to offer broader policy coverage to
differentiate from their competitors.
With the predicted change in market
conditions within the next 12 months,
JLT believes its local authority
clients should be reviewing their risk
exposures in detail and will assist
them with this. 2008 is the ideal
time to ensure the policy coverage
totally reflects your needs.
A competitive insurance market
Change afoot?The largest and/or more complex risks still rely on participation from London and European insurers and reinsurers. The underwriters in those markets are pushing for greater market share in the top end market, which is comforting to clients in this sector.
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Queenstown Lakes District Council has selected Infor Public Sector’s Hansen 8 Asset Management System to improve processes and manage the maintenance for its water and parks assets.
These assets include the council’s water, sewer and storm systems, and all parks facilities, open spaces, national parks and nature reserves. The QLDC project implements a new computer-based maintenance management system, along with supporting business processes to improve the operational efficiency of five key areas:
• on-demand work order management;
• asset tracking;
• asset inspections;
• performance assessments; and
• performance reporting.
Infor Public Sector’s Hansen 8
Queenstown Lakes invests in new technology
New systemproduct is fully integrated to meet the operational needs of local government. It comes from more than 20 years of experience working with more than 500 organisations that manage local government operations.
Hansen 8 is browser-based and built on Microsoft’s .Net technology. This supports security, globalisation, personalisation, and a highly scalable yet robust business and workflow framework. It delivers standardised HTML and XML to client PCs using Microsoft ASP .Net and AJAX-like technologies. There is no need to install, configure or maintain client side software, deploying endless updates and software versioning to PCs.
Hansen 8 will run from any supported internet client using a standard Internet Explorer 6 or higher web browser.
Implementation began in February and will run in three phases, which are scheduled to be substantially completed this year. In the initial phase, core business processes and related service levels will be established and mapped, the architecture for the asset register will be implemented, data needs will be assessed, and the Hansen 8 Asset Management System software installed.
The second phase will migrate and capture data to populate the asset register established during Phase 1. Advanced system configuration, administrator training
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and development of the interface to council systems will occur concurrently.
In the final phase, there will be training for end users, and the new maintenance and management procedures will go live.
“We are looking forward to using a single data source for all of our pipe and park assets that will also interface well with our existing ESRI GIS system,” says QLDC Chief Information Officer Kirsty Martin. “The Hansen 8 Asset Management System will allow the QLDC to better manage our assets, from planning and monitoring to evaluating and reporting.”
The project is being jointly implemented by Infor Public Sector and MWH, who will help the council with needs assessments, system analysis and developing functional specifications.
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Queenstown Lakes invests in new technology
New system
Infor Public Sector’s Hansen 8 will help to manage Queenstown Lakes District assets, such as at Rose Douglas Park, Arrowtown.
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Council-Community Relationships
This category is to highlight
work by local authorities that
demonstrates excellence, innovation
or sector leadership in community
engagement in the planning or
execution of the project. This
might relate to almost any area of
local authority activity, provided it
includes a key focus on community
engagement. This is essentially the
same as the previous Community
Relationships category.
Building Organisational Capability
This category focuses on
organisational capability building.
This might include human
resources, technology, process/
systems development, or any other
projects which focus on building
organisational capability and which
demonstrate excellence, innovation
or sector leadership in that area.
Taking a Sustainable Development Approach
A sustainable development (SD)
approach involves thinking broadly
and in an integrated manner about
the implications of options, decision
and actions, and taking a long-term
view. This is relevant across the full
range of local authority activities.
There is no limit of the subject
matter of projects that could be
entered in this category. However,
entries will need to make clear how
they have applied an SD approach,
and how this has made a difference
in terms of both the actions taken
and the results that flowed from
them.
Joined Up Local Government
This category is seen as
encompassing entries across a wide
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
New lookA sustainable development (SD) approach involves thinking broadly and in an integrated manner about the implications of options, decision and actions, and taking a long-term view. This is relevant across the full range of local authority activities.
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range of areas of local authority
activity. The defining characteristic
is that a key feature of what
is being done involves joining
together with one or more other
organisations to pursue a common
priority. This could include shared
services projects with other local
authorities, or partnerships with
government agencies or community
organisations.
For 2009, the Joined Up
Government category will be
replaced by one on More Effective
Local Regulation.
This category will focus on projects
that demonstrate sector leadership
and excellence in one or more
aspects of the local authority’s
regulatory activities. Entries might
relate to any aspect of regulatory
activity, from consent processing
to compliance activities, or systems
design to strategic alignment.
While decisions have not yet been
made on categories for 2010, there is
likely to be a category on Improving
Customer Service.
Along with the change of categories,
it has also been decided that
projects that have previously been
entered under the old awards
format will be eligible for re-entry
where the project has continued
to evolve or where there has been
further evaluation that can better
substantiate successful results. This
reflects a longstanding concern that
projects entered in the awards have
often been too recent for successful
results to be substantiated.
Thanks to those Chief Executives and
other stakeholders with whom we
consulted during the review of the
awards and who provided valuable
feedback and suggestions.
Look out for the call for entries by
the end of April.
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
New lookIt has also been decided that projects that have previously been entered under the old awards format will be eligible for re-entry where the project has continued to evolve or where there are results from further evaluation that can better substantiate successful results.
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2007 was the 11th year of the New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards. This makes the awards clearly the most long-running, and arguably one of the most successful streams of SOLGM’s good practice work programme.
With the decision to substantially redesign the awards for 2008 and onwards, it seems timely to look back over their history.
Since the inception of the awards the announcement of the winners has been a feature of the SOLGM Conference. The accumulated collection of awards entries represents a growing library of good practice from across local authorities large and small. All entries since 2004 – 110 in total – are available as downloads from www.solgm.co.nz. Executive summaries describing all projects back as far as 1999 are also
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven yearsavailable.
SOLGM is grateful for the ongoing support of New Zealand Post as sponsor. New Zealand Post’s association with SOLGM and the Management Excellence Awards began in 1997. The SOE’s objective then, as it is now, was to demonstrate to local authorities that the pursuit of excellence, exemplified by the Management Excellence Awards, aligns with the ideals and objectives of New Zealand Post and that in working with us councils could rely upon the highest possible standards of service.
“New Zealand Post is proud to have been associated with this programme through which creative and innovative solutions to real local
government problems have been recognised and shared across the sector, contributing significantly to ‘good practice’ in local government management,” says Don Day, Manager Local Government Relations for New Zealand Post.
Over the period as a whole, 285 projects have been entered for the awards. The largest single year was 2005 with 42 entries, the smallest was 1999 with 11. About two-thirds of all local authorities have entered the awards at some time over that period. There has been a solid core of about 10 local authorities that have been regular entrants.
Particularly in more recent years, a significant number of entries have related to joint projects among groups of councils. It has been
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common for some councils to enter more than one project in a year, and occasionally a single project has even been entered into more than one award category. Some councils have clearly built the awards into their programme of organisational development and service improvement initiatives.
After an initial period of evolution, the format of the awards has been largely stable. For the first two years there were no specified categories for the awards and finalists were selected and announced in advance of the SOLGM Conference.
The division of the awards into four categories dates from 1999, when the categories Technology Advance, Customer Relationships, Management of People, and Process Management were introduced. In 2000 the Customer Relationships category was re-designated as
Community Relationships. The four categories have been essentially the same ever since.
A special commendation was introduced in 2005 for local authorities which were first-time entrants in the awards. In 2007 this was replaced by a special commendation for small councils (with a population of 20,000 or less).
Similarly, the arrangements for the judging of the awards have, after an initial settling-down period, been very stable. This has involved a panel of general judges supported by a specialist judge for each category. These judges have been drawn from
Horizons Regional Council and Palmerston North City won the Supreme Award for their “After Hours Contact Centre” in 2005. This shared services initiative has continued to grow and thrive.
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local authorities, from New Zealand Post as sponsor, Local Government New Zealand, government departments, the Office of the Auditor-General and Audit New Zealand, and other organisations with an interest in public sector management.
SOLGM and New Zealand Post would like to thank all of the individuals who have given their time to play a part in the judging of the awards over the years. Deserving of special mention is David Chapman of the New Zealand Institute of Management who has been a judge
of the awards since from their inception.
The first winner of the awards in 1997 was New Plymouth District Council for its project on Creating a Customer Service Centre. The other entrants in the first year were Christchurch City (four entries), Manukau City (two entries), Franklin District, Hamilton City, Hutt City, Masterton District, Matamata Piako District, Tauranga District (not yet City), Upper Hutt City, Wanganui District, and Wellington City and Wellington Regional Council (not yet Greater).
The tendencies for the greatest number of entries to come from the metro local authorities and for some of the larger councils to make multiple entries hence date from the very beginning of the awards.
The second year of the awards saw
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
Long-serving judge David Chapman of the New Zealand Institute of Management.
Auckland Regional Council’s website for children was awarded a commendation in the Community Relationship category in 2004.
the number of entries drop away to 11. Auckland City Council won for its Property Information Systems project. Two commendations were awarded, to Auckland Regional
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Council for its Ridewell Business Unit project and Hurunui District for Going Outside the Square – an
approach to communicating with ratepayers in the annual plan. Environment Waikato, Kapiti Coast
District, Waikato District, Western Bay District and Waitakere City also all participated for the first time.
1999 was a breakthrough year for the awards with the number of entries rising sharply to 32. This was the first year where the now familiar format with the four categories and overall Supreme Winner was used. Environment Waikato
won the Process Management and Supreme awards for its project One in a Hundred Year Flood. Since that
time entry numbers have ranged from a low of 17 in 2004 to a high of 42 in 2005. 2002 marked the point at which a majority of local authorities had entered at least once.
Throughout the 11-year period, participation in the awards has been strongest among the metropolitan local authorities. This dated from the very start of the awards in 1997 when 12 of the 17 entries were from metropolitan local authorities. Only one of the metropolitan local authorities has never entered. Five – Waitakere, Dunedin. Auckland, Wellington and Manukau – have averaged better than an entry a year.
Provincial local authorities were initially slow to pick up on the awards, but participation across the
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
Peter Hebden of New Plymouth District presents “Real Service Real Time” at the 2006 Leading Practices Symposium. “Real Service Real Time” won the Technology category of the awards in 2004.
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group grew steadily over time. New Plymouth and South Taranaki Districts have been the strongest supporters of the awards among this group.
Among regional councils, the ARC and Environment Waikato have been regular entrants, but nearly half of the regions (including unitaries) have never entered. The level of entries from rural councils has always been lower than for the other groups.
Surveying the subject matter of the entries over the years reveals both continuity and evolution. Entries relating to planning processes, both at council and community level, have always been a feature. The advent of the LTCCP since 2002 has seen a change in emphasis in these.
Infrastructure projects have been a regular feature throughout, particularly in smaller and middle-sized districts. The balance of technology projects has gradually shifted from engineering towards IT. Process redesign projects around consenting functions have frequently been entered. Other areas of focus, such as human resources projects and customer service enhancements appear to have waxed and waned over the year.
Shared services projects involving more than local authority have become more prominent. The strong participation of local authority libraries has been a consistent feature, particularly in the technology category.
Since the inception of the four
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven years
Waitakere Central – 2007 Supreme Award winner. Page 5 of 6
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categories in 2000, the Community Relationships category has consistently drawn the largest numbers of entries. It was the most heavily subscribed category in every year except 2007. This seems to reflect the greater breadth of the type of projects capable of falling within it.
The Management of People category has been the least entered overall, but unexpectedly was the largest category in 2005. One of the aims of the rejig of the awards (see separate article page 47) is to have a set of categories capable of accommodating projects across a broader range of local authority activity.
The call for applications for the new-look awards is expected to be out by the end of April.
New Zealand Post Management Excellence Awards
Eleven yearsTHE WINNERS1997 – New Plymouth District, Creating a Customer Service Centre
1998 – Auckland City Council, Property Information Systems
1999 – Environment Waikato, One in a Hundred Year Flood
2000 – Wellington City Council, Wellington City Libraries “E-City”
2001 – Auckland Chief Executives’ Forum, Shared Services – Councils of the Auckland Region
2002 – New Plymouth District, Taranaki BioBoostTM 6-3-0
2003 - Environment Waikato, Clean Streams Waikato – and Manukau City Council, New Settlers Policy and Action Plan (joint winners)
2004 – Kapiti Coast District Council, Developing the Kapiti Coast: Choosing Future Community Outcomes and Community Plan
2005 – Palmerston North City Council / Horizons mw, Local Government After Hours Contact Centre
2006 – Dunedin City Council, The Activity Management Plans
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Page 1 of 4
Councils ill-prepared to evaluate plan effectiveness
RMA plansMeasuring the Effectiveness of RMA Plans: A New Plan Outcome Evaluation (POE) Methodology
Authors: Lucie Laurian, Jan Crawford and Neil Ericksen1
The Resource Management Act
mandates that councils monitor
“the efficiency and effectiveness of
policies, rules and other methods in
[their] policy statement or [their]
plan” by 2008.
Yet, by and large councils have
not begun to develop evaluation
programmes for their plans and
are ill–prepared to conduct any
evaluation of plan effectiveness,
let alone efficiency. This is largely
because it is very unclear whether
and how this can be done.
Councils cannot be blamed:
nowhere in the world are the
outcomes of local and regional
plans systematically evaluated
(see Figure 1 over page). While the
social, education, and health policy
fields of analysis have well accepted
programme evaluation methods,
the environmental and planning
fields have no such ready resource.
Planners do not experiment with
control groups, and thus cannot
describe the impact of a planning
intervention “all else being equal’
because all else is never equal with
regard to time and place-specific
RMA plans.
So how can district and regional
planners identify whether or not
plans are achieving their intended
outcomes? Since 1995, the Planning
Under a Co-operative Mandates
(PUCM) research team at the
International Global Change Institute
(The University of Waikato) has
progressively studied the quality
of district and regional plans, their
implementation and their outcomes.
At each phase of this research,
they had to develop the evaluation
methods, because there were no
1 Dr Lucie Laurian is Assistant Professor, Urban and Regional Planning Program, University of Iowa and an IGCI Associate assisting with the research programme on Planning Under Cooperative Mandates (PUCM) since 2000; Jan Crawford is Director of Planning Consultants Ltd (Auckland) and PUCM Objective leader for environmental outcomes (2003-2007) and, since 2007, the PUCM Practice Development Programme (2003-2009); Professor Neil Ericksen is PUCM Programme Leader (1995-2008) and former Director of the International Global Change Institute (IGCI) at The University of Waikato, where PUCM is based. Others on the PUCM Phase 3 team contributing to the reported research were: Dr Peter Kouwenhoven, IGCI researcher on PUCM and creator of the RAP method; Dr Greg Mason, who applied the RAP method in several councils; and Maxine Day, formerly of Lawrence Cross Chapman & Co Ltd (Thames), who helped develop and apply methods in Papakura District Council.
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Hotu Manawa ICMA annual conference, Pittsburgh, October 2007
RMA plansready-made methods available
internationally.
Applying the plan quality method
developed in Phase 1 to more than
50 regional and district plans, the
PUCM team found that the quality
of plans (their internal consistency,
clarity, factual bases, etc) varied
substantially across councils and for
a variety of reasons (Ericksen, et al.,
2001; 2003).
Applying the plan implementation
quality method developed in Phase
2 to six district plans chosen from
Phase 1 councils for the range of
plan quality and capacity to plan,
they found that district plans were
not consistently or well implemented
through the resource consent
process.
Some plans referred to innovative
policies and methods for solving
problems, but then councils relied
on traditional, and perhaps less
effective, methods, in practice (Day,
et al., 2003).
This raises these questions: Do plans
achieve their outcomes? When do
they achieve the best outcomes? Is
consistent implementation sufficient
to produce the desired outcomes?
Are other factors, not related to the
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Figure 1. This diagram highlights the typical evaluation gap when implementing the rational-adaptive model of planning in Western countries. In New Zealand our research showed: 1) notified district plans were not of high quality and therefore incapable of achieving their intended outcomes; 2) implementation methods in resource consents often did not reflect the policy intentions of the plan; and 3) lack of monitoring hindered evaluation of the effectiveness of plans, which the RMA requires councils to do.
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plan, more influential?
The RMA requires councils to report on plan effectiveness by August 2008, but this might not be possible because we cannot improve planning practice without knowing what works and what doesn’t, and whether plans yield their anticipated environmental outcomes.
In addition, without a full understanding of causal relationships, we cannot understand which outcomes are actually attributable to plan interventions.
The PUCM team thus devised in Phase 3 of the research a Plan Outcome Evaluation (POE) methodology to address these questions. It was designed to be robust and applicable in a wide variety of contexts, whether or not monitoring data is available (since it often is not).
The POE methodology is composed of three methods, applied in three sequential steps.
• Step 1 is a qualitative analysis of the internal logic of plans to assess whether we can logically expect them to deliver EERs (Expected Environmental Results).
• Step 2 is an analysis of data relating to indicators that track the outcomes that plans seek to improve.
• Step 3 is a qualitative analysis by local experts, through a modeling exercise, of the factors that influence the outcomes.
These experts (including council personnel) collectively develop a model of the factors and interventions (plan and non-plan) that directly and indirectly affect the outcome of interest for the particular district or region.
This exercise can be conducted through workshops using the Rapid Assessment Programme (RAP) software support system. (For more details see Crawford, et al., 2008 along with http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/publications/download/RAPhowitworks.pdf.)
Combined, these three methods in the POE methodology tell us:
• whether the plan is capable of achieving its desired outcomes;
• to what degree and why the desired outcomes are achieved;
• which factors influence these outcomes; and
• which planning interventions are the most likely to yield favourable outcomes in the future.
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methodology in three districts and for three issues: water quality, built heritage protection, and ecological and landscape protection. The applications and findings are described in detail in Crawford, et al. (2008), available at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/pucm/Publications-Phase3.htm along with other PUCM publications.
The POE methodology is now available for application in all councils, and a practice guideline on the use of the POE methodology will soon be published.
For more information about building local government capacity to evaluate plans, their implementation, and their outcomes, keep informed about the training offered by Jan Crawford and Lee Beattie through the PUCM Practitioner Training Framework provided by the International Global Change
Institute (The University of Waikato), The University of Auckland, and associated parties.
This training programme will be described in more detail in a forthcoming Pulse magazine. As well, practice guidelines for making quality plans and evaluating plan implementation are available through the PUCM website as Chapman, et al.
(2003) and Day, et al. (2005).
References:
Chapman, S., Crawford J., and Ericksen, N., 2003: A Guide to Plan-Making in New Zealand: the Next Generation. PUCM Planning Practice Guide, No. 1. The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Crawford, J., Day, M., Kouwenhoven, P., Laurian, L., Mason, G., and Ericksen, N., 2008: Achieving Anticipated Environmental Outcomes: How Effective is the District Plan? Report on a Methodological Pilot on the Evaluation of Plan Outcomes Regarding Water Quality in Papakura District available at http://www.waikato.ac.nz/igci/pucm/Publications-Phase3.htm.
Day, M., Backhurst, M., and Ericksen, N., et al., 2003: District Plan Implementation Under the RMA: Confessions of a Resource Consent. (Second PUCM Report to Government.) The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Day, M., Backhurst, M., Laurian, L., Crawford, J. and Ericksen, N., 2005: Monitoring Plan Implementation in New Zealand. 2005). PUCM Planning Practice Guide, No. 2, The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Ericksen, N., Berke, P., Crawford, J., and Dixon, J. 2003; Planning for Sustainability: New Zealand under the RMA (book). The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
Ericksen, N., Crawford, J., Berke, P. and J. Dixon, 2001: Resource Management, Plan Quality and Governance. (First PUCM Report to Government.) The International Global Change Institute, The University of Waikato, Hamilton.
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excellence expertise on a one-off
or short to long-term contract
basis.
• Sharing knowledge and ideas on best practice with other councils which are using the PESA criteria.
• The opportunity to participate in the annual PESA study visit programme to the USA. So far, about 35 council managers have participated in this study visit programme and some places have already been booked for the 2008 study visit.
The 2008 application document for
the Performance Excellence Study
Awards is at
www.businessexcellence.co.nz –
click on “Awards”.
n For further information on the council programme or to secure a subsidised in-house PESA briefing, contact:
Errol Slyfield, Business Excellence NZ, ph (04) 473-2400 or 0274 510 400, email [email protected]
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Brain foodBy Jim CrookHorowhenua District Council
Even before the ICMA Conference
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had
officially begun I’d had a huge steak,
drunk both good American beer
and Australian wine, met varied and
interesting people and was honoured
with genuine hospitality. A good
start, I thought.
Ensemble Ptijatelji’s colourful
dancing was an interesting
beginning. It was followed by the
formal “presentation of the colours”,
the singing of the American
national anthem and prayers then
a stimulating man, Bill Strickland,
talking about the “art of leadership”
and patterns of imagination. It was
different, inspiring, interesting and
his efforts were making a significant
impact on people’s lives not only in
the USA but now further afield.
I enjoyed the
session in making
the community
active participants
rather than
passive
bystanders to
gain practical
solutions and
priorities within
an ability-to-pay
framework. It was
a practical, mature
approach that was
also evident in
the performance
management presentation and
benchmarking sessions. Find and
stick to one business tool was the
message if you don’t want to alienate
the staff and give the impression of
panic. People like consistency.
I had expected leadership to be a
major theme at the conference and
indeed it came up a few times, none
more intriguing than how important
it is to develop a positive community
“brand”. Critical for prosperity, every
A trip out to Fallingwater, Pennsylvania, after the ICMA conference. Pictured with Jim Crook (far right) are, from left, Michael (Australia), Daniel (England) and Trudy (USA).
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From the SOLGM Opus Business Schoolmanagers with little background in
the LTCCP could also find this useful.
Managing Customer Relationships
Venue: Princes Gate Hotel
1057 Arawa St
Rotorua
When: 3 & 4 April 2008
Venue: Sudima Hotel
Christchurch Airport
Cnr Memorial Ave and Orchard Rd
Christchurch
When: 1 and 2 May 2008
Venue: Hawke’s Bay Club
Cnr Marine and
Browning St
Napier
When: 24 & 25 July 2008
Venue: Scenic Circle Southern Cross Hotel
Cnr Princes and High St
Dunedin
When: 6 & 7 November 2008
Who should attend
These workshops will be valuable to anyone in a local authority who has direct contact with the public or whose role involves delivery of information and services to internal customers.