Our recent Let’s Nut it Out day in Southern Grampians Shire was a great success. 40 community members from towns across the Shire gathered to nut out their projects with peers and mentors.
The Southern Grampians Shire Council recognises there are many leaders in their community and saw Let’s Nut it Out as an opportunity to provide additional training to take projects and ideas to the next stage.
“We saw this as a day to support our community leaders, both established and emerging. Encouraging people to get together and build capacity for projects, events and initiatives they are involved in.” said Michael McCarthy, Director Shire Futures.
People attended with all sorts of projects in mind – examples included creating a bean bag cinema, building a monumental park, rolling out an early years literacy program and creating a new outdoor festival to raise money for the CFA and SES.
Local mentors attended to assist in the nutting out of project challenges. Mentor skills ranged from small business startup, marketing, getting more people on board, funding and working with volunteers.
Here’s some pearls of wisdom from each of the mentors:
Caroline Kissel of Kiss and Run Open Range Eggs
Stay honest, transparent, generous and willing. Learn from your experiences and mistakes.
Kylie Schurman, Royal Mail Hotel, Dunkeld
A failure to plan your marketing is a plan to fail. Target your marketing as much as you can, a lot of wastage in marketing if not targeted enough.
Naomi Turner, Woolly West Fest
I was able to build my reach by creating little armies and a team leader in each town. Volunteers are not free. If you don’t have money, give them something else such as fun, creative outlet, an excuse not to do homework!
Linda Grant, Fundraising Specialist
Have the project developed before you apply for funding. Use the expertise around you to create a business plan and read the funding guidelines.
Tracey McDonnell, Standing Tall, School Based Mentoring Program
Be authentic, don’t be afraid to say you don’t know and have a go. Be passionate.
Clinton Thomas, Southern Grampians and Glenelg Primary Care Partnership
The people sitting around the table are the right people. Create a shared agenda, you’re wasting your time if you don’t. No amount of emails and social media can replace a face to face conversation.
