Listen up, old dudes...

An official WYC'D update from Morgs Hunter-Bell, as promised. Questions will no doubt be answered in comments. Seems some of the WYC'D mob intend to end up on the Youth Council after all. Whether that fits the Diva's plans is another question entirely. As is where the $50,000 goes - all to the "political" division, all to the "social" division, or will there be a Mayoral lolly scramble?

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Whanganui Youth CollecteD (WYC'D) is more than likely not what you think. After some misinformed comments, I've been invited to clarify the situation.

I’ve posted part of the story here previously – the call went out at the start of the year for any youth interested in making things happen to meet up. Out of that WYC’D was formed as an autonomous collective with open/rolling membership which would deal primarily with Events planning. We agreed that a Youth Council was something worthwhile, and are working to help the WDC establish the YC for 2006.

At this point, a select group of us that are more interested in the "Youth Council"ly things will 'buddy up' with councillors from the Community Development Committee to learn some of the ropes of council procedure, basically prepare for the eventual Youth Committee/Council. In the last round of Council meetings for 2005, the ("Interim") Youth Committee will have a proper public meeting. The key presentation / discussion will be the results of our survey, as well as issues involving the formation of a Youth Council for early 2006.

Jeremy Loader and I have been busy lately outside the regular group meetings (which consistently have attendance between 12 and 20 people, depending on what else everyone has going on), mostly in our effort to find local business sponsorship to help fund our survey. We have Council funds to print with, but we thought we'd give businesses a chance to put their name on a worthwhile cause. Everywhere we went had friendly, helpful people who wanted to help out, but couldn't commit due to existing projects, etc. So we've gone ahead and used a small portion of our Council-appropriated funds for printing.

Right now, after our first week of issuing our forms, we already have over 1,000 surveys filled out. We've still got many schools to hit, as well as setting up key 'drop-off points' and some more community organisations that deal with non-school youth. Our target was set at 5,000 and it looks like we'll hit that easily.

I should explain what exactly the survey is about (it's an inevitable question). Without leading the participants to any 'pre-determined' answers, we have three simple, open questions in relation to Whanganui's relevance to youth:

• What do you like?
• What don't you like?
• What do you want?

We are issuing this survey because we realise that while we have some good ideas about things to put in motion, we're by no means fully representative, and thus look to the wider youth community to provide us with solid directions.

We’re all very excited about the coming months. Surveying and results tallying, gearing up the Youth Committee, and working out some events.

Okay, there it is, hope you enjoy it. By the by, if you’d like to stop by one of our meetings some time please feel free to do so. Whether it’s to come have a chat or just see how we operate, you’re more than welcome. We’ve certainly had our share of guests and visitors over the recent months, always time for more.

Have a good one,

Morgs

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Update (8.30pm): We asked Morgs the following questions, to clarify some of the points in his report above.

LawsWatch: Our spies tell us, as you've no doubt seen on the blog, that Sue urged a youth committee be established as a separate, "political" entity to WYC’D. WYC’D organise the "social" stuff and fundraise for it, while the "actual" YC will be drawn from secondary schools and Ucol as well as "community youth representatives". Is that what you'd envisaged all along? If so, do you get the $50k ("you" being WYC'D), does the "political" YC, or what?

Morgs: Yeah, we’ve been faced with confusion from a lot of people, generally because it seems like it should be complicated, but it’s really very simple. We have indeed had this plan in mind from the get-go. Sue wasn’t so much urging that this be the case, but rather urging that everyone understand that this is the case. The confusion originated with the Council setting out and saying "we’d like a Youth Council, let’s form a group of youth who want to do that", and what they met with back in May was a group who were cool with helping establish it, but not necessarily automatic members. We believe that it would be unfair for us to translate directly across and become the Youth Council, there needs to be a wider range for candidates. We had long discussions as WYC’D about how best to set it up – working out the application process, etc. and believe we’re on the right track now.

LawsWatch: There seems to be so much "diVision" going on at present - two youth councils being just the latest manifestation. Correct us if we're wrong, but it's usually the "political" YC's in other cities that do the "social" stuff as part of their mandate - e.g. making sure there are adequate Council-backed (and maybe subsidised by sponsors) facilities for young people etc. This two-headed approach seems a tad unsual?

Morgs: The function separation is an important one. The YC will operate within Council structure, 6 week meeting cycle, all of that, and be dealing with both youth-focused policy and any other youth-relevant issues that go through other areas of the Council. WYC’D will be working close when it comes to being a "get out there and do it" group, without the guidelines, connotations and taglines that come with Council affiliation. Funding goes where it’s needed. Next year, that will be decided on by the Youth Council/Committee. For now it’s under WYC’D (as "Interim" YC) domain and we’re trying to use as little as possible now with view to bigger things in the future. WYC’D as a community organisation is able to acquire funding from other sources if/when need be.

There is no division, or "two youth councils", we’ve had a clear plan from the start. It’s just a shame that people have heard bits of it and gotten confused.

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LawsWatch comment: While Morgs and the other young people involved in this venture have come in for a bit of flak on the blog for being "too PC" and so forth, one thing that seems to us to be undeniable is that they're entirely open, honest (at least insofar as we can tell) and willing to explain their plans, answer questions and front their critics. They're even asking open questions on their surveys (much harder to collate than a yes/no referendum, but a better way to obtain an accurate understanding of what people really want). Contrast all that with the "grown up" Council and the Mayor.

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