FAQs

No. Anyone can participate – your thoughts, opinions and ideas are all you need. We will provide all panel members with the relevant briefing and background materials to support you to participate in the community panel.

A community panel is a group of people from an area or community that come together to discuss and make recommendations about various topics and matters. The panel is representative sample of the various views and voices of the community it stands for. 

Manningham Council is establishing a community panel as a method of conducting a ‘deliberative’ community engagement process, to inform the development of our major strategic documents that are pivotal in our efforts to plan for the future of Manningham, These documents are the Council Plan, Community Vision, Long-Term Financial Plan, and Asset Plan.

A deliberative engagement process with community members is an exciting new approach that governments worldwide are adopting and it puts the community at the centre of the decision-making. There are a number of principles to deliberative engagement that we’re following at Manningham. These principles include:

•  A representative sample of the Manningham community will be randomly selected to participate.
• Participants are provided with detailed, in-depth information from a range of sources that helps them to understand the issues and options associated with the decision. Our community panel sessions are taking place after another phase of engagement, where we invited the Manningham community to take part in a community survey where more than 2400 voices were heard. The results of this engagement phase will be provided to the panel for their consideration.
• Participants are given the time and support they need to consider and discuss information and ideas, weigh up issues and options and agree on recommendations for Council.
• Participants prepare their recommendations and write their own report. Their report is presented directly to decision makers, in this case Council and the recommendations have a high level of influence over outcomes or decisions.
• The group will meet over several days and times, and their discussions are supported by professional, independent facilitators. Over these sessions, the panel will discuss and share ideas based on a wide selection of information, including the results of the wider community engagement phase.
• This deliberative engagement process will be in line with the principles and practices set out in Council’s Community Engagement Policy. 

There are many benefits to participating in the community panel. These include: 

• Participating in an exciting opportunity to provide your input and help shape recommendations to Council for its major strategic plans and the future of Manningham. 
• You will have a range of facilitated discussions with other community members and meet new people. 
• You will become better informed about the Council decision-making process and the matters that Council is engaging with the community on
• You will be able to track progress of this project and be informed about the development of the major strategic documents
• In recognition of panel members’ involvement, all panellists will receive a small payment in recognition of their time and commitment.

The community panel will meet over multiple sessions to learn about, discuss and form collective recommendations. Sessions will be held during mid to late March and will be held on weekends or evenings during the week.

The panel’s recommendations will be used to inform the development of our major strategic documents, including the Council Plan, Long-Term Financial Plan, Community Vision, and Asset Plan. 

Community panel members will participate in a series of interactive, facilitated sessions. During the sessions community panel members will hear from expert speakers and a range of viewpoints on key issues and priorities for Manningham, and participate in activities to analyse data gathered from the broader community engagement and develop recommendations.

The panel will be asked to consider several questions relating to Council’s strategic plans.

The panel will work together (with the support of professional facilitators) to consider a wide range of information, ideas and evidence. Participants will be open to learning about all perspectives and considering them on their merits, and work with other participants toward reaching agreement on what’s important for Manningham.

This response will be detailed in a report that the panel members will create together and present to Council.

The community panel sessions will be held at a central venue in Manningham and will be confirmed with participants as soon as possible. This will be held in line with COVID-safe directions and will be reviewed if restrictions change. 

The community panel sessions will be held over multiple days from mid to late March and participants will be informed of these dates as soon as possible. Sessions will be held on weekends or evenings during the week.

Panel members will be required to attend all sessions. Unfortunately, this means if you cannot attend all scheduled sessions you may not be able participate in the community panel.  We understand unforeseen circumstances may arise during the panel period and these will be managed on a case by case basis.

Yes, we will provide a series of fact sheets and useful background information to participants ahead of the panel sessions. Additionally, at the start of each session there will be a series of presentations to explain what need to be aware of to meaningfully participate in the session.

Yes, please let us know as early as possible if assistance is required so we can work with you to accommodate your needs. We will work with all our participants to understand how we can support you to participate.

An open registration of interest process is being held inviting Manningham community members to register to be considered. An open invitation process is being used to support opportunities for a broad range of people to get involved.

Our community panel members will then be randomly selected. The random selection process will make sure the panel is representative of the Manningham community in terms of where panel members live, their age, and gender. This will be based on the most recent census data available.. 

This random selection process will limit any bias and gives opportunities for everyone to get involved. However, more registrations of interest will be received than there are places on the community panel, meaning some participants will miss out. 

If you miss out, there will be other opportunities to participate in community engagement, please see below for how you can still be involved.

The random selection process means that everyone in the community has an equal chance of registering their interest and an equal chance (within the demographic they represent) of being selected to be a community panel member. 

The community panel, put together by random selection, brings together a diverse group of people who reflect the broader community. The diversity of the members of the Panel is also valuable as they work together to consider the challenges and opportunities facing Manningham and developing their recommendations to Council for the major strategic documents.

Council will first contact the randomly selected community panel members to inform them of their participation and provide further information. We will be in touch with others at a later date to know you of the outcome. 

If you have signed up to the Your Say Manningham page you will still receive project updates via this page. Additionally, if you have indicated when registering your interest that you would like to be contacted about future engagement opportunities, you will hear from us about those. 

We have involved the broader community in other community engagement activities throughout the process, including a Manningham-wide survey to gather your priorities and ideas for the next four years, where we received over 2400 responses. 

If you’re not selected for the community panel this time, you can still be involved. When registering your interest, you will be offered the option to indicate your interest in participating in other engagement activities when they occur. Participants can also request that their details are kept on file to be considered for any future community panels or engagement activities. 

Yes, reporting of findings from the community panel will be de-identified. This means that we report on what the panel has said collectively, not individually who said what.

Yes, we will keep you up to date throughout the project. At the start of each engagement stage we will let you know what the purpose of the sessions/activities are, how the information will be used, how and when engagement findings reports will be made available to you and what the next steps are.

The community panel is part of Council’s commitment to deliberative decision-making, an exciting new approach that governments worldwide are adopting and using to engage community members.

Community members from across Manningham were randomly selected to form a representative cross-section of our community. The community panel will play a crucial role in shaping recommendations to Council for the Council Plan, Community Vision, Asset Plan and Financial Plan.

The panel came together for four sessions during March 2021.

• Session 1: Wednesday 17 March, 6.00pm to 9.00pm
• Session 2: Sunday 21 March, 10.00am to 4.00pm
• Session 3: Wednesday 24 March, 6.00pm to 9.00pm
• Session 4: Sunday 28 March, 10.00am to 4.00pm

Panel members learned about, discussed and considered feedback from recent community surveys to make collective recommendations to Council on the key priorities for our major strategic plans.

In accordance with Council’s promise to the Community Panel, the endorsed recommendations will be given weight to, and incorporated to the greatest extent possible in our strategic plans. A full report of the recommendations and how they have been addressed in the four strategic plans will be included with the adoption of the plan.