2014-01-13 Deamalgamation Report Attachment

Attachment 8:   Community Engagement and Communications Plan




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Attachment 8:     Community Engagement and Communications Plan

              Noosa Transfer
             Team

                 Community Engagement and Communications Plan

         Introduction

        This program is intended to be applied during the period 22 April 2013 to 31 December
        2013.   It has a relatively narrow focus as it does not intend to usurp or duplicate the
        existing Council’s own community engagement efforts. It is intended to focus on the
        following objectives:

         1. To connect with key stakeholders, particularly Noosa Shire Council
             residents and ratepayers to inform them in relation to transitional plans;

         2. To connect with key stakeholders to enable them to express concerns, make
             suggestions or raise queries in relation to the transition;

         3. To gather and collate information from all key stakeholders and present it to the new
             Council specifically in relation to:

             e The contemporary issues that should be addressed;
             e The future needs and aspirations of the community that should be considered in
               strategic planning.
        The program has been designed cognisant of the constrained timeframes and limited
        resources available.

        Structure

        The draft Community Engagement and Communications Plan is structured with the
        following key elements:

         e   Intent — it is important that intent for the program is clearly identified as a basis on which
             to develop core messages and to ensure community understanding of objectives.
         e   Message - this is the crux of the engagement and each distinct message should be
             carefully framed to ensure that it can be relied upon as the fundamental purpose of the
             engagement.
         e   Audience — the definition of the target audience is critical as the community is inclined
             to reject information that it does not want or need. In this regard the audience may
             change depending on the message and its relevance.
         e   Participation — the degree of participation by the target audience is an important design
             element. The roles can range from a very passive receiver of information to the highly
             empowered decision maker.
         e   Mode — There are many ‘modes’ of engagement ranging from personal communication,
             to use of mass media. The choice of mode will need to carefully reflect the most
             effective means of engaging with the respective target audiences.

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