Glenorchy City Council is encouraging community members to have their say by joining one of Council’s reference groups.
Glenorchy Mayor Bec Thomas said that the reference groups were an important way for people to contribute to specific issues across the municipality.
“Our reference groups are one of the ways that Council uses to gain different perspectives and hear from a broad range of people”, she said.
“We have many people in our community with lived and learned experiences that would be able to provide valuable input into Council’s decision making through participation in the groups”.
Council has two types of reference groups – core groups (established for up to four years) for matters that are long term, affect a significant section of the community and have wide ranging impacts, and targeted groups (established for up to one year) that are for shorter term issues that require specific subject matter experts.
The groups are not decision-making bodies but provide advice to Council officers and aldermen to help plan Council services and priorities.
“We currently have vacancies in our core reference groups including Access and Inclusion, Healthy Communities, Safer Communities and Arts and Culture”, Mayor Thomas said.
“The groups respectively aim to contribute to a welcoming, accessible and inclusive community; a healthy and connected community; a safe community; and to the development of arts and culture in the City”.
All the groups meet four times a year.
For people who can’t commit long term to one of the reference groups, each group may also hold various meetings or workshops throughout the year that will be open to all members of the community. Some groups may also establish short-term working groups for specific matters.
“I would like to encourage people to be involved – everyone’s views matter and we would love to hear people’s ideas and suggestions on how to meet our community goals and priorities”, Mayor Thomas said.
For more information about any of the reference groups including terms of reference or to register your interest, head to our Community Engagement webpage.