Brian Anderson The Western Front www.sunlive.co.nz

Leadership positions were offered in this column earlier this month. I have had a number of requests for more information and for a fuller job description. I must remind you that, from the Davos Conference, these new positions would have to be innovational and the potential applicants for the position of leaders within the community must be able to operate outside our conventional wisdom.

It is obvious our heavily-structured councils with a strong centralised and regulatory environment are prime examples of fossilised conventional thinkers. To offer a recipe and a full job description for these new leaders would be missing the point of the exercise. Unfortunately, council's recent attempts to foster community leaders are also missing the point.

This week, council has advertised a series of breakfast meetings for aspiring community leaders. The speaker, Peter Kenyon, is an internationally acclaimed social capitalist who will talk on developing a caring, sharing, vibrant and sustainable community. It remains to be seen what might happen if a leader were to leap to his feet in the meeting and attempt to lead the community. Of course the ides presented could work, but I am not sure whether council is geared to a full on relationship at this level, with community leaders debating community economy and direction.

Another group, Inspiring Communities, is available online at inspiringcommunities.org.nz and is very active with ideas for self development of vibrant communities. I was very impressed with their ideas, but I was very disappointed when I asked how these vibrant communities would fare if they tried negotiating with regulatory councils for change. The answer I was given was they don't get into that side of things at all. As with all of the other council lead initiatives, there will be real problems for any leader who attempts to exert influence on a council at the planning level and steps outside of the conventional wisdom.

The Community Partnerships Sub Committee envisages small groups in the community appealing to the sub committee who, after due deliberation, will filter out their requests for council. The committee minutes record cosy conversations with police, Neighbourhood Watch, Rotary, hall committees and similar established groups. This concept of ‘leaderful communities' is still missing two vital ingredients; a cohesive community and a community recognised leader. There is plenty of room for small isolated leaderships at the club level, but absolutely none at the full community planning level. There is no format for a genuine community leader to have a say or be given any authority. This committee is only collecting stamps to justify its existence and is reinforcing divide and rule for the council.

There is nothing to suggest yet that any local initiative and leadership from within service towns like Katikati and Te Puke will ever see the light of day. Beware of these current council initiatives. All indications are they will continue to support the current regulatory regime. Our new leaders will need to be accepted by council, operate in a climate of clear and open communication with opportunity for public debate and a commitment from council to delegate powers to these leaders. Without that, our new leaders will be pied pipers with no flute and no music. As with the little town of Hamelin, there is no evidence the burghers of our councils are ready to face any music.

Applications emailed to [email protected] close on March 15. A synopsis of your non conventional plan can be published in this paper if you wish. Previous applicants need not apply.