ATROCIOUS DESIGN

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DESIGN EXCELLENCE

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The Concept of ‘Community of Ownership and Interest’

Communities of people have many items in which they share a sense of ownership - for example roads, schools, a health service, even a landscape. Those with such an interest form the Community of Ownership and Interest – its COI – for those items.

All too often a COI's shared ownerships and interests are down played and may even be belittled or denied –particularly when contentious or complex issues are involved. However, recognising the layerings of ownerships and interests, and the social cum cultural dynamics involved, can offer a way forward in dispute resolution plus better, and more inclusive, understandings of 'place'.

If we listed items that had a COI we would include items and locations that were owned by the public – public places and spaces – such as a park, or a river, a monument and/or memorial; an institution and/or a heritage building; a museum; a water supply and/or a forest; a festival and/or a ritual; clearly the list is as endless as the kinds of attachments people have for places, things and events. And the there is the issue of 'cultural property' and 'cultural knowledge' where there are subliminal layers of 'cognitive ownerships' that increasingly come into play with the changing ways Indigenous cultural material – Australian & other – is currently being understood.

Indeed, individuals within a place’s/event's/space's/knowledge system's COI will almost certainly have multiple layers of ownership and interest in it. The ‘truth’ in the ownership and interest here is ‘cognitive,’ a matter of ‘lore’ rather than ‘law’ – that which is taught; hence to do with wisdom; concerning cultural knowledge, traditions and beliefs. It pertains to cognition, the process of knowing, being aware, the acts of thinking, learning and judging. If we take a museum as an exemplar, museums are to do with cognition – musing; the contemplative; the meditative. If we look at courts, then they are to do with power over conduct; enforcement and authority; control and regulation, guilt and innocence – none of which have a place in musing places, nor much to do with musing.

Furthermore, members of the COI should be understood as having both rites and obligations commensurate with their claimed ownership, expressed interest and their relationship to the institution and its overall enterprise.

A member of the COI may also be referred to as a “stakeholder” but stakeholdership in its current usage has generally come to mean a person, group, business or organisation that has some kind vested or pecuniary interest in something or a place.

Typically, 'stakeholders' assert their rights when there is a contentious decision to be made. However, 'stakeholders' are rarely called upon to meet or acknowledge an obligation. Conversely, members of a COI will have innate understandings of the obligations that are expected of them and the rights they expect to enjoy – indeed, there are likely to be stakeholders in the COI mix.

It is just the case that for an institution say, the COI mix, when assessed from outside, is intentionally, functionally and socially more inclusive. That is more inclusive than say a list of stakeholders drawn up in respect to a development project that governments – Local, State & Federal – typically make decisions about.

Stakeholder groups and Communities of Ownership and Interest are concepts with kindred sensibilities – law and lore, the former reinforcing the latter. Nonetheless, they engage with different community sensibilities; with different expectations and different relationships – even if sometimes many of the same people have a ‘stake’ in something as well as other relationships as a member of a COI.

Ray Norman 2010

OUR PURPOSE & PLAN

PURPOSE

To provide a coherent community voice that informs government – Local, State and Federal – and other community organisations about matters of importance including:
• Options for the future; plus
• Standards and types of service;
needed in order for the wider community to experience value for taxes, rates, levies, fees and other charges imposed and collected by government and community service providers and membership organisations.

EVIDENCE THAT VALUE IS BEING DELIVERED

Value will be evidenced via:
• The timely delivery of appropriate and/or increased service;
• Efficiency and effectiveness coupled with the elimination of waste;
• Sustainability being evident as a guiding principle in management processes;
• The elimination of duplication and rework;
to increase the value of the community’s and/or membership’s various investments in an organisation’s activity and the deliverance of genuine advantages to its Community of Ownership and Interest.

A standard of governance that:
• Assures that members and/or a community’s views and needs are incorporated into plans and outcomes;
• Engages in constituency consultation to assure the alignment of services and initiatives with community needs.

Professional management that acts to increase organisational and operational efficiencies that in turn lead to reductions in taxes, rates and other charges over time and/or increases in the level and quality of service without a financial penalty to the Community of Ownership and Interest.

STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE PURPOSE

• Link with other community organisations and groups to share knowledge, ideas and experiences;

• Promote good accountable governance, the provision of quality service and adherence to rigorous reporting proceses;

• Benchmark and compare government performance – Local, State and Federal – against other organisations in the not-for-profit and corporate sectors;

• Present seminars, trainings, conferences and other events that empower communities and membership groups and organisations in the not-for-profit and corporate sectors;

• Use the internet and similar facilities to support community development – e.g. websites, tools etc;

• Require that the total of taxes, charges, rates and other payments are affordable to the membership and Communities of Ownership and Interest;

• Publish stories of the impacts of governing bodies and/or government actions on a community or membership group;

• Fight against and expose corruption, incompetence and waste

• Collect, compile and publish performance indicators in regard to public institutions, service providers, and elected representatives in Tasmania to assist citizens make informed choices about the options available to them.

Relationships Map

Where does My Community fit as an organisations?

My Community Tasmania (MCT) is a network of networks that has established linkages and alliances with various kinds organisations – loose alliances of people, action groups, etc. – and we will continue to build on these alliances.

It is not foreseen that MCT will become a formally constituted incorporated not-for-profit association in the short term. Rather, when there is a need to have such a formal arrangement it is planned that the network will be auspiced by one of the not-for-profit groups it has formed an alliance with.

Currently, MCT is being auspiced by the Tasmanian Ratepayers Association and there are plans for the two groups to collaborate on various projects to do with Local Govt. However, MCT is not exclusively concerned with Local Govt. and its network includes professionals with a wide range of interests.

MCT takes some of its inspiration from the national organisation OUR COMMUNITY.COM.AU (OC) and it is planned that in time MCT & OC may well cooperate to bring aspects of the Our Community program and suite of services to Tasmania.

WATCH THIS SPACE

My Community Tasmania is an internet facilitated community social network. Watch this space for further developments. In the not so distant future it is planned to post a Strategic Plan for the network, so come back soon.

In the meantime you can send an expression of interest to the current working party by leaving a comment in the comments section below.