Councillors have unanimously endorsed a revised Community Engagement Policy for Baw Baw Shire Council, which will guide how Council connects with and receives feedback from the community.
The Policy underwent community engagement between May and June this year, so that the local community, who this will impact the most, could influence its direction and so Council could ensure it was on the right track to engaging with its residents.
The revised Community Engagement Policy is designed to bring more people into the conversation in a meaningful way.
Baw Baw Shire Mayor Cr Kate Wilson said that Council had exciting plans in this space as it planned to grow and enhance its engagement with the community and ensure that they were further involved in decision making and direction moving forward.
"We want to work in partnership with our community wherever possible," she said.
"Everything we do is for the community so it is critical that their voices are heard, and our residents have a seat at the table when it comes to decisions that are going to impact them."
The document, which is an update to an existing Policy, was reviewed to ensure that Council is engaging with the community, including residents, business owners, volunteers and sporting club members, in a meaningful way and in a manner that provides them the opportunity to really tell us what they think.
Cr Wilson added that Council's commitment to getting this Policy right, and involving the community its development, demonstrates Council's desire to engage properly.
"We know that not everyone wants to hear from us and work with us in the same way," Cr Wilson said.
"This Policy will hold us accountable in the engagement space and hopefully build more community trust in Council's decision-making process."
"Throughout the engagement on this policy some really valid points were made, which related to the timeframes that Council would engage for, if these were long enough, and the use of Artificial Intelligence - we welcomed these thoughts and insights and made updates to the Policy to reflect these ideas."
The Policy is now live on Council's website and can be viewed here: https://bawbawshire.co/Policies-and-Documents
