Hey ! Where’s the Feedback ? ? ?

What about RCI re-vamp? Five VJ’s:- Nov, Dec (2007), Feb, March, and now April – all saying input needed.

This is SERIOUS!!

There’s been a useful trickle - and things are happening with those ideas - that will help YOU as individuals in our COMMUNITY. But it could have been a FLOOD, of feedback, fresh ideas: maybe should have been?

Maybe you think RCI is dead and should be buried?

Or, are you thinking ‘It’s just the same old people asking - and we don’t want to work with them?’

Perhaps it’s stronger than that - like ‘We reckon the usual suspects are trying for the wrong things - no point in helping them.’

Or maybe you think ‘the area’s so badly set up there’s no point in trying to change it?’ Maybe you are saying to yourselves ‘Leave me alone - I have more than enough to do already.’

OK--OK--OK! But PLEASE, your feedback is critical - so change can begin.

A Byron community volunteer said: ‘If you live in a community - you have to ‘put in’. That’s what makes everything happen!’ And it’s true. Working together, learning to know and live with people in your locality - that’s what makes a smile and a cheerful greeting, gets you a wave and a toot from that passing car. That’s where knowing your neighbours begins. That’s what lets us see the human faces of people in the area. That’s where ‘a beer, and a barbecue’ begin.

Sure, there’s a trend for self important people to make the running in community groups. Fact of human life. The trick is to keep them focused on what YOU want, not leave them to guess and get it wrong. If you scratch them you find they have genuine intent to do well for the group. Heart is in the right place…

Outsiders have said ‘We are impressed with your area: so much community input…’ In a way that’s true, because frameworks are there, organizations are there, but not enough people are involved.

Yes there are income taxes, fuel taxes, GST, rates, and more imposts. They provide the bare bones for our lives. But the cheerfulness, fun and a sense of belonging comes from community projects. If no one does this work in the community all of us allow TV and other media to set the values we live by and allow bureaucrats to decide many of the conditions of our lives. Community effort is SERIOUS and is about taking charge of important bits of our lives. Getting people together, thrashing out ideas, finding come sort of consensus, and then tackling the powers that be - not a task for the faint-hearted.

Have you the strength to do it?

Do you see a need for change? Feedback is welcome by e-mail, phone, snail mail - or whatever. Responses by e-mail to survey@villagejournal.org.au or by phone to Laurie @6688 2209, - and you can leave a letter at the Rosebank, Federal, Clunes or Dunoon stores.

Laurie Stubbs

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