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Ruth Gardner
26 October 2006 at 1:59 pm |
Hello to you all. Like Ruth I attended the recent COSS conference in Ashburton. One of the great things about was the conference was the fact that the participants came from all over New Zealand and from a wide range of backgrounds. Following are my comments on the workshops, addresses I most enjoyed.
Mark Solomon’s opening address on developments with the Ngai Tahu tribe was really inspirational. It was exciting to hear about the tribes plans for the future and what is happening now. It was also great to hear about their challenges. Like Ngai Tahu I think many in the Not for Profit/Community Sector/Voluntary sector could relate to the problem of finding the leaders of the future and then supporting them in their growth and development.
I also enjoyed the funding and sustainability panel discussion. The panel contained people from all different backgrounds. Some were managers of small groups, some of large groups, their was also a funding representive. The discussion was lively. There were two points that really struck home for me. One was the increasing amount of time that many groups are spending trying to get funding which takes time away from their core business. The second was the perception by some in the community that this sector is plagued with inefficiency.
Lastly I found the workshop on Social finance thought provoking. I can’t remember the name of the speaker now, but he was from the Small Business Centre here in Christchurch. The workshop was looking at ways we could be less dependent on funding by managing the money we have in a better way. One way he talked about was groups pooling their term deposits together in order to get a higher return on our money. In Australia this was done and the groups were able to get a good return on their money and were also able to negotiate with the bank to only have their money invested in ethical investments rather than arms and tabacco companies etc.
I look forward to reading other comments on this conference