‘ Getting on board’ is journey within a journey, a detour if you like, that may bring you back onto the route you have chosen, -by getting you elected, lead you away down a different track, -interest in one role leading to another, or lead to a dead end, – not getting elected. This reference material is provided as a guide to course participants and other aspiring rural leaders who wish to pursue elected office. It details the plans I made and the strategy used in seeking the mayoralty of the Waimate District. It also brings forward some discussion on reasoning for the strategy, and uses examples of other mayor’s strategies to highlight differences and similarities. The experience of campaigning was one that I approached with a lot of trepidation, yet as it got into full swing, was one that I largely enjoyed. I found the feedback positive and encouraging, and enjoyed meeting a diverse range of people that I would not normally come into contact with.
While it was written with the local government position in mind, a lot of the ideas and methods will carry successfully to the other rural elected positions, including groups like meat company directorships, fertilizer companies, representative groups like Meat and Wool NZ, and Federated Farmers. As a resource for planning only it offers alternatives and yet is comprehensive enough to be used as a stand alone map.
The Ambition:
The leaders of the community are those who get involved, see a need or just want to do their bit to see the community benefit. Progress can only happen when someone assumes a leadership role – decides there is a problem, wants to fulfill a need or correct an injustice.
Knowing that leadership today is different to that of our forebears is also important, it used to be rule by fear, lead by setting yourself above and apart, now people expect positive relationships with their leaders, things that give them satisfaction in completion of projects, that empower them to feel part of the team, inspired to achieve, and that their leader is someone with whom they can relate.
My desire to get more involved in the community lead me through the community groups of hall committees, rural water scheme, social club, school board of trustees, recycling trust, and young farmers club(which is a very valuable learning ground in leadership).
This lead to an opportunity to stand for a ward seat for local council as a result of a series of events that culminated in my name going forward. I had stood unsuccessfully for the newly created board of meat and wool NZ, and was looking for a role in either farming circles or community where I could put something into the wider group. I was asked to stand for the regional council by a very influential person and spent an amount of time considering if it was a role that I could handle, in the end I decided that the distance to Christchurch for meetings was going to be too onerous and I would look at local council, the seat that I live in was vacant so upon the recommendation of some material people I put my nomination in. I was the successful candidate from two, and enjoyed the role of councillor, but also had some frustrations over the leadership of our council. It was from here that the seed was sown to stand for the mayoralty, a number of people closely involved with the council could see that leadership was holding back the council, had lead to a split council, and was also to blamefor some relationship issues with the CEO and senior staff. The encouragement to stand was pivotal in my having a crack at it. I knew where I wanted to take the council, and could see more potential in a lot of the councillors who sat at the table. I also knew that I had the skills for the role.
The goal of being mayor was not one of political ambition, but one of community service and wanting to chair the board as someone who can work collaboratively with people for positive outcomes.
