Kangaroo Valley's inaugural Community Forum
1 Apr 11
As an initiative of Andrew Fitzsimons of the KV Community Association, the Forum was held at the Hall on Tuesday March 15, with one representative from every group in the Valley invited.
Some sent apologies, but more than 23 groups accepted and participated.
The simple premise behind the Forum is that we have a large number of groups in Kangaroo Valley, but many do not really know what others are doing and where our common interests might be better served.
To provide basic information each group’s representative – at a “round table” format - had two minutes to describe what their aims were, what they have achieved to date and where they go next.
This was most informative.
Did you know that the VIEW club (Voices, interest, education of women – VIEW) supports the Smith Family; or that Children’s Medical Research was started in Kangaroo Valley more than 50 years ago; or that the Preschool building is owned by the Preschool Committee (and not the Education Department); or that the Fire Brigade attends between 40 and 50 incidents per annum; or that Lions collects, splits and delivers firewood to elderly people in the Valley?
These are a few of the details that poured out.
The voices all spoke of one thing, however – the independence of Kangaroo Valley, community ahead of government.
This is a community that wants something done, so gets stuck in and raises funds and completes a task.
Almost all the groups spoke of ongoing fund raising and how the community supports them. From the Pre-School’s Winter Dance to Jeans for Genes days to cash for the Pathways Group, this community has supported its volunteers every time.
All groups spoke of the keen core volunteers and the wish for younger people to get involved – and by younger they meant anyone between 18 to 50!
One important way of galvanising people is the Web and with Lee Sharam talking about her community notices service from a large data base she has built up, we all saw how easily this method could be used to share information on a wide range of topics.
Those present agreed that their email addresses could be stored by KVCA for use to circulate information as appropriate.
Based on the responses of those present there is sure to be a 2nd Annual Community Forum in 2012 where we can review how we collaborated in 2011.
Barbara Woodney