Weekly column from Council Courier e-newsletter by CEO Greg Hallam on Friday, 30 September, 2016.
The LGAQ’s membership is a broad church in the truest sense of the word.
We have amongst our number the four largest councils in Australia and two or three of the smallest ones.
There are indigenous and non-indigenous councils, rural and remote, coastal communities and mining towns. The classic mixed bag. Vive la difference. We love them all.
It's for that reason the LGAQ segments our member councils into groups: SEQ, Coastal, Indigenous, Mining, and Rural and Remote.
We treat each group differently – the way they want to be. We communicate differently and respect the uniqueness of their communities.
Our Customer Franchise Operating Model is the defining thing that sets the LGAQ apart from other similar organisations.
Our members are not a number – they are unique with their own special stories and challenges.
We collect a lot of specific data about the council segments, organise ourselves internally around those segments and even measure our staff’s performance against the twice-yearly member survey results which are broken down into council segments.
Better still, the LGAQ in undertaking 1.5 million kilometres of travel around the state per annum ground truths all the facts and figures. Nothing beats kicking the tyres.
We seek to walk the walk when it comes to the Customer Franchise Operating Model.
Think of the twice-a-year LGAQ Indigenous Leaders Forum (ILF), the alternating Biennial Bush Council Convention, the Future Cities Summit or the recent Reef Councils gathering.
Cast your mind to this year’s annual conference (just a fortnight away) and the council segment break-out sessions on the Wednesday afternoon.
That session is now a real conference highlight with ministers and directors-general coming specifically to address those council groupings.
It’s you talking about your specific issues with similar councils and the key policy-makers.
And it’s your choice – your council chooses which segment it belongs to and which activities you feel are most relevant to your community. It’s your choice, not ours, so you can attend as many different events – whether it’s rural or coastal or mining or indigenous – as you like.
Just to say it again – at the LGAQ we get that Brisbane City and Boulia Shire ain't the same and we treat them respectfully and differently.
No wonder Liquorice All Sorts were my favourite lollies growing up – and still are.
Variety is, after all, the spice of life.
In signing off, we received word yesterday that Telstra CEO Andy Penn will deliver a landmark speech at our Annual Conference. He will speak about Telstra’s role in delivering Smart Communities, a perfect topic for the event, which we have themed New World Order.
I look forward to his tremendous insight into this field.