This week we concluded our drop-in sessions (including two on-line versions) as part of our Annual Plan consultation. 

If you have never been to one, when we hold a drop-in session, we will have a number of councillors (or when appropriate community board members) in a room, or sometimes outdoors at say a farmers market, ready to chat with you and answer your questions about what we are consulting on. 

They are labour intensive affairs but for me, they are hands-down the best way of having these discussions with the public.

Some people don’t agree with me on that point and a few of them raised their concerns at the drop-ins over the last couple of weeks. 

What they would prefer is what we might called a typical town hall meeting, where the elected members would sit up the front, say a few things and then face questions. 

I’ve been up the front at dozens of these over the years and have also attended many more dozens of drop-ins, so I am going to claim some experience in which is the better way to go.

If you are a person not afraid of public speaking (and many people rank that amongst their greatest fears) then a traditional town hall meeting could well be your preference, because you have the best chance of your view being heard by the most people. 

The problem is though, we generally hear the same thing from the same small group of people, which gives elected members a very small insight into the public view. And often those people have a particular axe to grind, leading to a meeting that provides lots of heat but very little illumination.

And, that’s not what we are there for; the purpose of engagement is in the word, it is for elected members to engage with the public, not to just hear from the few who feel they can get up and speak.

Drop-ins allow for a conversation to occur; in fact they allow for a multitude of conversations to occur, including some quite personal ones that I doubt very much the people concerned would want to engage in, in front of a room full of other people.

They also allow for the korero to be spread out over time. 

Our live drop-ins this round have been between 4pm – 6pm with a view that people who aren’t working can come earlier and people who can come after work before heading home can do so a bit later. 

The on-line events were designed to hear from those who find those times inconvenient.

A town hall meeting on the other hand would likely start at say 7.30 and roll through to 9 - 9.30, but don’t really have the ability for people to come, have a chat, have their questions answered and then leave as it suits them.

The on-line drop-ins allowed for people to hear what’s going on and ask questions from the comfort of their own home or, importantly, watch the recorded version at their leisure. You can find that at Annual Plan Online Session -15 May 2024 here.

Whether you made one of the meetings or not, we still really want to hear your thoughts, especially on what you think councils' priorities should be as we head into next year’s Long Term Plan, as that is the time we can make significant changes to what we are doing. 

Consultation closes on the 26th of May and you can find out all you need to know on the CODC website.