2020-09-08 Services & Organisation Committee Agenda

SERVICES & ORGANISATION COMMITTEE MEETING AGENDA                            8 SEPTEMBER 2020




                         NLC ATTENDANCE COMPARISON
           140000                                           127,580
           120000                              109,108
                                   101,877
           100000     89,840
                                                                         80,434
            80000

            60000

            40000

            20000

                0
                      2015/16      2016/17     2017/18      2018/19      2019/20



3.   STAFFING

NLC has one full-time staff member (NLC Coordinator), one part-timer (Centre Support Officer)
and approximately 15 casual staff.

Closure of the facility provided a unique opportunity for staff to undertake alternative duties,
assist in other areas of Council, and provide help to local community organisations. This included
manning a food collection point at NLC, producing fitness videos for sharing on the NLC and
Noosa Aquatic Centre websites and helping out a local food outlet which had suffered a loss of
volunteers and a spike in demand during COVID. Staff were extremely grateful to Council for the
opportunity to be redeployed during the centre’s closure.

4.   SYSTEMS, PROCESSES AND OTHER MATTERS

   Improvements were made to the café service delivery model in order to simplify operations.
     The café has shifted away from in-house preparation of all menu items in favour of a hybrid
     model that now sources some preprepared items from a local supplier. This has enabled
     greater menu variety for patrons and has reduced the centre’s reliance on staff members
     being available to conduct early morning food prep each day.

   The Ageing Well Noosa program launched in March in partnership with Council’s
     Community Development team, Noosa Community Support and NLC. Two gentle-exercise
     classes are offered at NLC at low cost, to encourage our over 65’s to be healthy and active.
     The initial response to the program has been excellent.

   NLC was activated as a primary evacuation centre on a number of occasions throughout
     the Peregian, Cooroibah and North Shore fire events in 2019. The centre accommodated
     between 200 – 300 overnight on multiple occasions and the team performed brilliantly
     under pressure.

     While no doubt intense, the experience was highly valuable for the team, as the Peregian
     fires were an opportunity to put theory into action following several years of not needing to
     activate NLC as an evacuation centre. Residents who sought shelter at NLC were highly
     complimentary of the team’s efforts and it was great to be able to play a critical role in
     keeping the community safe at their highest time of need.



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