Consultation Management Tool
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CONTACT: Mrs Kaylene Conrick, Director, Community & Corporate Services
Tel: +61 3 5775 8526
Email: kaylene.conrick@mansfield.vic.gov.au
Mansfield Shire: Use of Consultation Management Tool for Planning Scheme Review 2004-2005
Background Information
Title: Use of Consultation Management Tool for Planning Scheme Review 2004-2005
Location: Mansfield Shire, Victoria, Australia
Primary Sponsor: Kayleen Conrick, Director Community & Corporate Services
Organisation: Mansfield Shire Council (http://www.mansfield.vic.gov.au)
Budget: Not applicable
Project Start Date: 2004
Project End Date: September 2005
Executive Summary
In order to carry out the Shire's Planning Scheme as required by state law, given that the Shire was very small and new, staff employed assistance from a technology based tool which guided them through the consultation process and provided consistent reporting. The product utilized was called Jurat from Acttiv Pty Ltd (http://www.acttiv.com) and was implemented in November, 2004.
Project Rationale and Objectives
Mansfield Shire Council was formed in 2002 as the result of a separation from another Shire. The separation was forced by disenfranchised citizens who felt that they were not able to participate in decision making.
Mansfield Shire is largely a tourism and agriculturally based municipality, with ski resort areas in northeastern Victoria, Australia. It is a remote area, more than 300 kilometres from Melbourne. The population is comprised of urban, rural and absentee land-owners, with large fluctuations during holiday seasons and weekends.
The consultation Project began in order to forge improved and long-term relationships with the disenfranchised, under-consulted community, both resident and non-resident. The project:
- Provided better feedback to the community.
- Gained the capacity to understand the issues across the Shire.
- Targeted certain stakeholders to discuss specific issues, at the appropriate times.
What was delivered?
Although the Project is still in its early stages, all levels of Shire Management are able to see real information on outcomes and issues, in real time[Rse Consulting: What exactly does this mean? Could you find a clearer way to express the fact that the community is being consulted on a more frequent basis?]. Immediate feedback is provided to the community. Also, issues raised by the community have been included in the plans now on display to the community at large.[Rse Consulting: What plans? And how exactly are they on display to the community?]
Through use of Jurat consultation software, the Shire was able to identify resident and non-resident stakeholders and conduct the appropriate consultations. This included travelling to Melbourne to conduct consultations with non-residents. Further, the Shire was able to determine the differences between issues facing residents and non-residents, all the while factoring those issues into the planning process.
Communication Activity
- Information gathered via Jurat software was used to advise all stakeholders how the Shire was performing in terms of resolution of issues and responses to public consultation.
- Councillors were fully involved in receiving, monitoring and reviewing the information from JURAT.
- Feedback was targeted and relevant to various groups and their issues through over 400 consultations, such as Land Care, Country Fire Authority and Tourism operators.
[Rse Consulting: How were councillors fully involved in receiving, reviewing and monitoring the information from Jurat? How was feedback targeted? If the consultation was on a policy that disproportionatelt affected ethnic minorities, did this mean that the consultation was targeted at minority groups?]
Successes
- Stakeholder issues were raised many times, and the Shire was able to quantify those issues across 400 targeted consultations.
- Feedback was provided to the right groups of stakeholders at the right time, and records of those communications have also added to the success of the project.
- Use of Jurat throughout this successful process has prompted the State Government and other municipalities to learn about how Mansfield Shire managed to fully involve stakeholders in the consultation process, given the complexities of the issues at hand, previous high levels of disillusionment with the political process.
[Rse Consulting: Again, would it be possible to sharpen up the writing here. The above paragraphs are a little vague. Rather than writing that "stakeholder issues were raised many times", could we not, instead, say something like "a wide range of issues were raised through consultations"?]
Benefits to Citizens
- The Mansfield Shire process demonstrated to all stakeholders that their participation, comments and issues are all a vital part of the decision-making process. This created a virtuous circle, promoting further participation by all stakeholders.
- The process and information provided have garnered positive feedback from both Mansfield Shire citizens and the State Government.
- Stakeholders have witnessed their issues being directly addressed and incorporated into the Planning Scheme, demonstrating the tangible difference e-Consultations can make to citizens' live.
Benefits to Authority
- Mansfield Shire has fully retained stakeholder information, issues raised and other appropriate documentation within a single database, in a re-usable format. Traditionally, consultants have retained this information and it has, in the past, been lost to other organisations.
- The information gathered is useful for other strategic plans. [Rse Consulting: What other strategic plans?]
- Less consultation, smarter consultation and improved use of resources all save money. [Rse Consulting: Improved use of resources? Can you be explicit about how resources are being targeted more effectively?]
Benefits to Councillors
- Councillors now receive accurate and timely information on which to base decisions.
- Councillors receive regular reports on issues raised within their electoral areas, so the issues can be dealt with in a timely fashion.
Limitations
From a technology perspective, the time to input basic stakeholder information was significant, in part because of internal culture issues and a need for further training.[Rse consulting: How and why did you have to input stakeholder information? What information are we talking about here?]
Evaluation
The Project is ongoing and will be concluded by September 2005. To date, use of Jurat to manage the consultation processes and provide reporting (including evaluation and gap reports) has been hugely successful. It has directly saved the Shire significant financial resources; it has indirectly saved time in post-consultation report preparation. The Shire has been able to see which stakeholder groups have not participated in consultation and can now actively seek out those groups. The Project also demonstrates to the community and stakeholders that the Shire is serious about an inclusive consultation process.
Lessons learnt
- Restricting the number of people undertaking data input can help make the process consistent.
- The professional approach to all the elements of consultation has raised the Shire's profile within the municipality and beyond: now other Shires want to undertake similar projects.
- A complete database is of the utmost importance.
What could happen next?
Further training will enhance staff value and the future use of Jurat. The success of Jurat in this Project has ensured that it will now be used across the Shire in all upcoming consultation projects such as the "Towns Project."
Additional information and sources
Information about Jurat from the Acttiv Pty Ltd Web site at (http://www.acttiv.com)
Jurat is a free flowing, easy to use documentation application for stakeholder engagement, letting you keep track of what happened in your consultations. Extensive reporting (including evaluations and gap reports) and stakeholder management functionality.
Build a comprehensive knowledge bank about your consultations and your stakeholders.
Jurat is organised, pulls all the information together and is simple to use.
Jurat is a tool specifically designed to provide a strong documentation and reporting process for Stakeholder Engagement, combining high quality and world's best practice processes with easy to use logic and templates in a single software package. Jurat enables an organisation to centralise all its Stakeholder Engagement projects into a single database, share information and retain corporate knowledge as well as report globally across that organisation.
Contacts: Mrs Kaylene Conrick, Director, Community & Corporate Services
Tel: +61 3 5775 8526
Email: kaylene.conrick@mansfield.vic.gov.au
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