Project Leadership in the Great South Coast

LGSC ran the annual Skills Program Day for the 2015 Leadership Program at the Port Fairy Community Centre on Friday 17th of April.

Our team of exciting emerging community leaders were introduced into the realms of Project Management and clearly identified how people and leadership are acutely intertwined.

The day opened up with a foray of flair from facilitator Corrinne Armour. Corrinne’s enthusiastic and flamboyant style set a high energy tone about what it means to be a choiceful leader, and how to develop ones individual’s capacity as a leader.  

The group were taken on a sobering journey through project management and the tools available to define, overcome and run successful projects. Good communication emerged as a core theme.

Through this Corrinne brought participants back to earth, and walked the emerging leaders through reflections on success and failures, discussing resilience and how to use negatives as useable learning experiences to encourage growth, courage and strength into the future.

The Program Day ended with groups passionately pitching and discussing their community projects, all of which will reward and enrich our communities.

Demogene Smith

Visit Warrnambool Street Art Website

As part of the Ngatanwarr Welcome Mural project you can now visit www.warrnamboolstreetart.com/ngatanwarr-welcome-mural to read about the project, Adnate the artist and link to Gunditjmara significant info/sites including:

• The Gunditjmara Land Justice Story
• Eumerella Wars
• Framlingham Aboriginal Reserve
• Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve & Worn Gundidj Visitor Centre
• Moyjil Aboriginal Place (Point Ritchie)
• Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape
• Lake Condah Indigenous Protected Area
• Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area
• Deen Maar Indigenous Protected Area

The project has been led by a steering group consisting of Leadership Great South Coast, Warrnambool Art Gallery, the F Project, Gunditjmara Aboriginal Cooperative and South West TAFE.

Strategy Program Day

Look to the future, contribute to society and “think big” were the challenges posed by our Strategy Program Day presenters.

Karen Foster, Great South Coast Group Executive Officer provided an overview of the Great South Coast Strategic Plan and challenged participants to become involved by putting forward ideas and actively participating in implementing the plan. The plan sets out strategic goals to attain economic growth, improve connections, sustain natural assets, strengthen communities and increase collaboration across the Great South Coast.

Bruce Anson from Great South Coast Group and Regional Development Australia encouraged participants to “think big” using the illustration of Tullamarine Airport being built in an era where few planes were flying resulting in a major international freight and passenger terminal, a true strategic vision at the time.

Martin Ellul from Regional Development Victoria similarly provided a local example of how the Committee for Portland in collaboration with Great South Coast Group successfully lobbied to establish infrastructure allowing cruise ships to berth at the Port of Portland, providing a huge injection into the local economy.

Mike McAllum, Futures Architect from Global Foresight Network, left heads spinning when he challenged structures and strategies of the past and present stating that we have undergone a network revolution as monumental as the agricultural and industrial revolutions which makes current business models and planning completely outdated.

In essence Mr McAllum challenged participants not just to think outside the box but to get rid of the box! With technology progressing at such a rapid pace in the last decade it’s time for vision, for recognising information gathering is no longer where the power lies it is with sharing of information and thus a move from competition to collaboration is needed.

It will be interesting to see how the leadership program participants respond to these challenges and the impact this has on community project ideas coming forward for 2015.

Thanks to our Program Day sponsor, Warrnambool City Council the Lighthouse Theatre staff.

Ngatanwarr ‘Welcome’ Mural – Preserve Past, Embrace Tomorrow

Launch 20 March Cnr Merri and Kepler Streets Warrnambool @ 5pm – Join us

Congratulations 2014 LGSC Project Team Paul Lougheed, Marcus Clarke, Allan Miller and Carolyn Woods and Project Steering Committee, including Gunditjmara, F Project and WAG for contributing to the artistic landscape in Warrnambool.

Artist www.adnate.com.au See our Gallery Page for progress images