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Wednesday, September 28, 2016

The mural's unveiled!

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A glass and ceramic mural saying, "Welcome to Drysdale" was unveiled officially today on the outer wall of the Senior Citizens Club, from where it is visible across Drysdale's village green.

L to R: Tess Grace, Mercedes Drummond, Uncle David Tournier, Kaye Clancy, Sue Van Everey, Doug Carson
The unveiling ceremony started with a "Welcome to Country" by Uncle David Tournier, from the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-op, who has been an advisor to the mural project.

Mercedes Drummond, from the Festival of Glass committee, then told the story of the mural's creation; and Sue Van Everey, President of the Rotary Club of Drysdale, led the official unveiling.

The glass and ceramic mural is an initiative of the Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association and its Festival of Glass sub-committee.

Festival convenor Doug Carson said, "The mural is the latest link in the area's long association with glass and we're very grateful to all the local people and organisations that have made it happen. We're grateful especially to the Rotary Club of Drysdale, the Bendigo Bank and Drysdale's Hello World travel agency for their financial support."

The "Welcome to Drysdale" mural unveiled!
Worth waiting for!

Festival of Glass members Mercedes Drummond and Doug Carson ran the mural project, which started in December 2013, when Bellarine Secondary College Students - led by their teacher Tess Grace and local ceramic artist Kaye Clancy - created a collection of ceramic tiles. Each tile depicts a moment in the area's past or present and the whole collection forms the mural's border.

Inside the border, at the mural's centre, is a a single large piece of 'slumped glass' saying "Welcome to Drysdale", which was made by Geelong's Wathaurong Glass Company.
L to R: Tess Grace, Uncle David Tournier, Mercedes Drummond, Kaye Clancy, Sue Van Everey.



Thursday, September 22, 2016

A glass and ceramic mural for Drysdale


The "Welcome to Drysdale" mural will be unveiled officially at 1.00pm on Thursday 29th September in Drysdale Town Square.

The mural will be fixed to the outer wall of the Senior Citizens Club, which faces across the town square and is currently blank.

The mural is an initiative of Drysdale’s annual Festival of Glass. Festival convenor Doug Carson said, “The glass and ceramic mural gives glimpses of Drysdale then and now. It’s the latest link in the area’s long association with glass and we’re very grateful to all the local people and organisations that have made the 'Welcome to Drysdale' mural happen."

A local affair
The project started almost three years ago, in December 2013, when Bellarine Secondary College students – led by their teacher Tess Grace and by local ceramicist Kaye Clancy - created a collection of ceramic tiles, each depicting a moment in the area's past and present.

The ceramic tiles form a border to the mural, which has at its centre a sign in ‘slumped glass’ saying "Welcome to Drysdale", made by Geelong’s Wathaurong Glass. Festival of Glass members in Drysdale built the mural’s steel and wood frame.

Festival of Glass committee members Doug Carson and Mercedes Drummond have led the mural project; and Uncle David Tournier of Wauthorong Aboriginal Co-op has been an advisor. The Rotary Club of Drysdale and local travel agency Hello World have supported the project financially.

Thursday, September 1, 2016

DCSCA suggests community communication strategy to Geelong Administrators

Drysdale & Clifton Springs Community Association (DCSCA) has sent a draft Community Communication policy to the Administrators of the City of Greater Geelong (CoGG).

One of the Administrators' tasks is to design a Community Communication Strategy and the DCSCA Committee has sent the Administrators a draft Community Communication Strategy that was adopted in April 2010 by the Affiliation of Bellarine Community Associations (ABCA).

The draft Strategy was produced because for years, community associations on the Bellarine Peninsula – individually and through the collective forum of the ABCA - had levelled detailed criticisms at the City of Greater Geelong over its handling of public consultation. In 2010, the ABCA decided to go beyond criticism and to propose ways to improve the council's communications with its citizens. It submitted a draft consultation policy to the council, intending that it would be the first step in a joint effort to improve the council's consultations.

The council didn't even show the ABCA the courtesy of acknowledging receipt of the document, let alone respond substantively to it. 

The DCSCA Committee has told the CoGG Administrators that the ABCA draft Strategy reflected community attitudes to community communication at the time and that it will assist them to design a contemporary community communication strategy.
 When ABCA submitted its draft Strategy to the council, it accompanied it with a covering letter summarising the draft Strategy; this appears below.

ABCA draft Community Communication Strategy. Covering Letter.
The Affiliation of Bellarine Community Associations believes that the City of Greater Geelong's public communication and consultation practices could be better than they are now; and that improving them would contribute to building a vigorous local democracy. We are keen to contribute to that process and, in that spirit, we make the following two proposals:

1. The City of Greater Geelong should develop a set of protocols concerning its communication and consultation with communities and other stakeholders; and should list specific communication and consultation targets that should be met before any proposal or report is presented to a Council meeting.

2. Each proposal or report presented to a Council meeting should include a section - ‘Communication & Consultation’ - in which the authors show that they have:
(i) communicated with and consulted relevant communities and other stakeholders in accordance with the Council’s communication and consultation protocols
(ii) met the specific targets associated with those protocols.

Such protocols and targets will enable councillors to see whether and to what extent their officers have communicated and consulted with stakeholders in the manner that the Council has decided they should; and they will enable stakeholders to see whether and to what extent their views have been taken into account in a Council proposal or report.

At present, some reports and proposals to Council list and/or summarise the results of consultations, but this practice isn’t consistent. Implementing our two proposals will give continuity and consistency to the Council’s relationships with its stakeholders.

These proposals require no new spending and this alone should commend them to councillors! Indeed, we believe that making the Council’s public communication and consultation consistent with published protocols and targets will streamline officers’ work, instill new stakeholder confidence in the process and provide tangible evidence that the City of Greater Geelong listens to its constituents and wants to promote local democracy. The outcome will be that the Council's public communication and consultation will be easier and quicker (and potentially less expensive) to perform.