The Aro Valley Community Council.
Community Governance Since 1978
The Aro Valley Community Council Inc has been in existence since 1978 as an Incorporated Society and is a registered charitable organisation run by elected volunteers from the Aro Valley.
The ARO VALLEY COMMUNITY COUNCIL OBJECTIVES
To protect and enhance the character of the Aro Valley area and to advance the interests and welfare of the Aro Valley community, including:
The Aro Valley Community Centre is operated by the Aro Valley Community Council:
To protect and enhance the character of the Aro Valley area and to advance the interests and welfare of the Aro Valley community, including:
- To co-ordinate activities of a community nature for the Aro Valley community;
- To deal with government, local bodies or kindred organisations, companies, societies, clubs or individuals on matters of concern to the Aro Valley community;
- To protect and enhance the quality of the environment within the Aro Valley;
- To promote and safeguard the amenities and the health, safety, and economic, cultural and social welfare of the Aro Valley community, and;
- To promote and safeguard the community facilities and areas of the Aro Valley.
The Aro Valley Community Centre is operated by the Aro Valley Community Council:
- The Aro Valley Community Centre is a multi-purpose hall that provides a low cost and accessible venue for a variety of user groups from the Aro Valley and wider Wellington region.
- The Aro Valley Community Centre is a well used and popular venue, with a number of weekly user groups, some monthly user groups, and many more who book in casually for functions, rehearsals, workshops, and events.
- The Community Centre has strong links with the other permanent site user, the Aro Valley Pre School, as well as with nearby Te Aro School.
Latest news from the AVCC Committee
Update 1/09/2021
Operational Review undertaken regarding the running of the Community Centre
In July, the AVCC Committee commissioned an independent Operational Review. Wellington City Council assisted with funding to do so. The Committee commissioned the Review because it has not been able to address all the operational risks and issues it has faced in the last year while running the Community Centre on behalf of WCC. The Committee decided that it needed to do better for the Aro Valley community by understanding how the Aro Valley Community Centre could be better managed.
The Operational Review found that the Aro Valley Community Council has good foundation to operate as a Resident's Association, but the business of running the Community Centre does not have the same high level of support and stability. In particular, the Committee needs to improve its business administration to provide better staff support, to meet community expectations and to deliver on its operational contract with Wellington City Council.
The Committee has responded to the Operational Review by employing Ms. Philippa Meachen as Office Manager to assist the Committee with the kinds of improvements that are needed. We are also considering whether options exist to legally separate the operations of the Centre from the business of the Council and better serve the needs of the Community.
Due to the current COVID alert levels, the plans to hold a Special General Meeting to discuss further changes to the Community Centre operations are on hold until Level 2. The Committee intends to hold a Special General Meeting and the AVCC Annual General Meeting as soon as practical to discuss the findings of the Operational Review and the options to improve our operations of the Community Centre. We look forward to having this discussion with the community!
As always, get in touch with us to share your thoughts and ideas.
Ingrid and Barbara
Update 21/05/2021
Call for Committee Members
We are calling for community builders, city networkers, partnership brokers, governors, gardeners, creative thinkers, artists, project managers, musicians, cooks, performers and organisers to join the AVCC Committee. We operate a Community Hall and we employ staff to run it and to develop projects that connect, entertain and educate our community.
We invite enthusiastic and committed people to nominate for a year’s term on the Committee. Induction to the organisation, online training, micro project funding, running events, learning about community governance and working in a great team and the Aro Valley community is what we can offer you for volunteering your time and skills to build this community focused organisation. Your commitment will be about 1-2 hours a week between monthly meetings, depending on how much you want to be involved in.
Our Community Hall is being renovated from August to March and during this time we will be connecting with our community and like-minded groups across Wellington to develop a range of programs and activities. Our next Committee will be leading a period of consolidation and creative development for the organisation. And the launch of our new Community Hall will be time of great celebration. It’s an exciting time to join AVCC.
If you are interested please
- Call the Co-Chairs Barbara Wheeler on 020 4162 9091 or Ingrid Downey on 021 244 3078 if you would like to know more about what we do at AVCC
- Nominate for a role on the Committee at the Annual General Meeting
- Tell your friends about this opportunity to be part of the Aro Valley community
Find the Nomination Form here
Update from the AVCC Co-Chairs, April 2021
Aro Valley Community Council Invites Nominations for the Committee
AVCC will be holding an information session for people curious about becoming a part of the governing Committee of the Council. On the AVCC Committee, there are the usual officer roles (Two Co-Chairs, a Treasurer and a Secretary) as well as up to 10 Committee members and a representative from the Aro Valley Preschool and the Te Aro School. It is a voluntary role where you have the opportunity to learn about our community, manage a small business, govern an incorporated charitable society and to develop ideas about building cohesion and collaboration locally.
At this session we will provide as much information as possible so that you understand how the Aro Valley Community Council operates, and have some knowledge about the past, understand our relationship with the Wellington City Council and other partners and our governing documents.
We know that AVCC is stronger when we have a broad cross section of our community in Committee roles. We will support you with information and training about the Committee and any role you are interested in. Being part of the Committee offers the chance to work with a group of like-minded people who also want the best for Aro Valley. Please give it some thought and encourage others you know, who may also be interested.
The session will be held in June, date to be confirmed
If you know you are interested, you can submit a Nomination form now, and be part of the election for Committee positions at our Annual General Meeting in July.
Find the Nomination Form here
Aro Valley Community Council Invites Nominations for the Committee
AVCC will be holding an information session for people curious about becoming a part of the governing Committee of the Council. On the AVCC Committee, there are the usual officer roles (Two Co-Chairs, a Treasurer and a Secretary) as well as up to 10 Committee members and a representative from the Aro Valley Preschool and the Te Aro School. It is a voluntary role where you have the opportunity to learn about our community, manage a small business, govern an incorporated charitable society and to develop ideas about building cohesion and collaboration locally.
At this session we will provide as much information as possible so that you understand how the Aro Valley Community Council operates, and have some knowledge about the past, understand our relationship with the Wellington City Council and other partners and our governing documents.
We know that AVCC is stronger when we have a broad cross section of our community in Committee roles. We will support you with information and training about the Committee and any role you are interested in. Being part of the Committee offers the chance to work with a group of like-minded people who also want the best for Aro Valley. Please give it some thought and encourage others you know, who may also be interested.
The session will be held in June, date to be confirmed
If you know you are interested, you can submit a Nomination form now, and be part of the election for Committee positions at our Annual General Meeting in July.
Find the Nomination Form here
Update from the AVCC Co-Chairs Jan/Feb 2021
Happy New Year to all! We hope you all had a refreshing holiday season and are enjoying the summer vibe in Aro Valley. We are also thrilled to see our community garden beds growing and hope you are following our Seeds to Feeds project as we prepare for our community dinner on Saturday, 20 February. Tickets will be available soon. We are building toward more skill and capacity for food security here in the valley.
We are so pleased to announce that AVCC has been accredited as a Living Wage employer!! We thank Liam for putting together AVCC’s application. More info here about what this means is found here: https://www.livingwage.org.nz/about
We stayed busy over the holiday season working to refresh the AVCC office and the small meeting room in the Community Hall. We were very fortunate to receive funding from the Lottery COVID-19 Community Wellbeing Fund to upgrade our computers and office furniture. These improvements will help us to work flexibly and be more productive.
We now have space in the AVCC office for small meetings via video conferencing and a quiet place for staff to work on a big screen, for projects like graphic design. Their regular desks have been upgraded to be adjustable and soon they will get double screens. Switching them to laptops gives the organisation more flexibility if work from home is required again. The new mobile phones and easier forwarding of calls will also support this kind of flexibility. We are growing our skills by learning new software to help us communicate and plan. And all of these changes are underpinned by robust security. We are grateful for the Community Wellbeing Fund for helping us invest in these improvements and very grateful to our Committee Member, Liam Hunt, for leading this project.
To support our focus on safety, security, and wellbeing at the Community Centre in 2021, we are now working with Wellington City Council, who owns the buildings, to make the office more energy efficient, safer for staff, easier to clean and more welcoming and comfortable for residents who visit us.
We are at the beginning of this project and will be able to provide more details about the upgrade to the building in the coming months.
We also hope to be able to give you an update in the next newsletter about WCC’s plan to refresh our Community Hall. They’ve taken on board our input and feedback from the many years this had been a topic of discussion in the community, and we look forward to being presented with their plans soon. Big thanks to our community Steering Group reps who continue to support the community’s voice in this project. And to WCC for their commitment to improve the Community Hall, so beloved to us.
A host of activities are starting up now and many more opportunities will present themselves this year to bring us together as a community to learn, enjoy and support each other. Please check out the schedule, keep your eye on our Facebook page, and come along to the events that catch your eye! Don’t hesitate to work with Roxy, our Community Developer to plan something.
We are taking suggestions now for Neighbours Day events, so hit us up with your ideas!
And finally, has the coming ArOlympics inspired you to gather your street neighbours to practice your water balloon tossing skills? The weather is perfect for it. We want everyone fit and ready to go for the Gold!
We look forward to seeing you around our lovely community precinct,
Ingrid and Barbara
Happy New Year to all! We hope you all had a refreshing holiday season and are enjoying the summer vibe in Aro Valley. We are also thrilled to see our community garden beds growing and hope you are following our Seeds to Feeds project as we prepare for our community dinner on Saturday, 20 February. Tickets will be available soon. We are building toward more skill and capacity for food security here in the valley.
We are so pleased to announce that AVCC has been accredited as a Living Wage employer!! We thank Liam for putting together AVCC’s application. More info here about what this means is found here: https://www.livingwage.org.nz/about
We stayed busy over the holiday season working to refresh the AVCC office and the small meeting room in the Community Hall. We were very fortunate to receive funding from the Lottery COVID-19 Community Wellbeing Fund to upgrade our computers and office furniture. These improvements will help us to work flexibly and be more productive.
We now have space in the AVCC office for small meetings via video conferencing and a quiet place for staff to work on a big screen, for projects like graphic design. Their regular desks have been upgraded to be adjustable and soon they will get double screens. Switching them to laptops gives the organisation more flexibility if work from home is required again. The new mobile phones and easier forwarding of calls will also support this kind of flexibility. We are growing our skills by learning new software to help us communicate and plan. And all of these changes are underpinned by robust security. We are grateful for the Community Wellbeing Fund for helping us invest in these improvements and very grateful to our Committee Member, Liam Hunt, for leading this project.
To support our focus on safety, security, and wellbeing at the Community Centre in 2021, we are now working with Wellington City Council, who owns the buildings, to make the office more energy efficient, safer for staff, easier to clean and more welcoming and comfortable for residents who visit us.
We are at the beginning of this project and will be able to provide more details about the upgrade to the building in the coming months.
We also hope to be able to give you an update in the next newsletter about WCC’s plan to refresh our Community Hall. They’ve taken on board our input and feedback from the many years this had been a topic of discussion in the community, and we look forward to being presented with their plans soon. Big thanks to our community Steering Group reps who continue to support the community’s voice in this project. And to WCC for their commitment to improve the Community Hall, so beloved to us.
A host of activities are starting up now and many more opportunities will present themselves this year to bring us together as a community to learn, enjoy and support each other. Please check out the schedule, keep your eye on our Facebook page, and come along to the events that catch your eye! Don’t hesitate to work with Roxy, our Community Developer to plan something.
We are taking suggestions now for Neighbours Day events, so hit us up with your ideas!
And finally, has the coming ArOlympics inspired you to gather your street neighbours to practice your water balloon tossing skills? The weather is perfect for it. We want everyone fit and ready to go for the Gold!
We look forward to seeing you around our lovely community precinct,
Ingrid and Barbara
Statement by AVCC Committee Regarding Outcome of Meeting
Monday, 23 November, 5.30–7.00pm
Aro Valley Preschool
Statement approved 13 December 2020
The following statement from the AVCC Committee contains information of a sensitive nature.
At the AVCC Committee meeting on 23 November, Co-Chairs Ingrid Downey and Barbara Wheeler proposed a motion to exclude a committee member from AVCC Committee meetings for the rest of the committee year. The Co-chairs had sought legal advice, confirming that Part 3 of the AVCC Code of Conduct allows for such exclusion.
The motion stated that the committee member’s conduct was inconsistent with AVCC’s agreed standards and procedures and had breached policy – examples were provided. It also stated that the continued presence of this committee member would place an unreasonable burden on the Co-chairs, and other committee members, and would negatively impact productivity.
Time was taken to discuss the motion fully, ensuring that everyone had an opportunity to speak. Questions of clarification were posed and discussed, and various individual statements were presented by those at the meeting. The committee member in question, who was given the right of reply, gave a prepared statement and responded to the issues raised. The discussion was conducted in a courteous manner throughout.
A vote was taken with 8 votes in favour of the motion, 1 against, and 2 abstentions.
Monday, 23 November, 5.30–7.00pm
Aro Valley Preschool
Statement approved 13 December 2020
The following statement from the AVCC Committee contains information of a sensitive nature.
At the AVCC Committee meeting on 23 November, Co-Chairs Ingrid Downey and Barbara Wheeler proposed a motion to exclude a committee member from AVCC Committee meetings for the rest of the committee year. The Co-chairs had sought legal advice, confirming that Part 3 of the AVCC Code of Conduct allows for such exclusion.
The motion stated that the committee member’s conduct was inconsistent with AVCC’s agreed standards and procedures and had breached policy – examples were provided. It also stated that the continued presence of this committee member would place an unreasonable burden on the Co-chairs, and other committee members, and would negatively impact productivity.
Time was taken to discuss the motion fully, ensuring that everyone had an opportunity to speak. Questions of clarification were posed and discussed, and various individual statements were presented by those at the meeting. The committee member in question, who was given the right of reply, gave a prepared statement and responded to the issues raised. The discussion was conducted in a courteous manner throughout.
A vote was taken with 8 votes in favour of the motion, 1 against, and 2 abstentions.
Update Oct 2020
In September, the new Community Committee met to do some strategic planning for the year. We have many ideas and projects on the way, but one of our main work areas is wanting to bring our governance documents such as AVCC Policies and the Constitution up to date with NZ regulations and community expectations.
The Co-Chairs drafted an environmental scan of the organisation to steer requests for funding over the next year. Read that here
Funding requests this year are focussing on building our productivity, stabilising income from the Hall, and making the Community Centre Hall and office safer in a COVID 19 operating environment. We submitted requests for new office furniture, kitchen equipment and community centre gardening equipment.
Aro Valley Community Council (AVCC) is working with our MOU partner, Wellington City Council, to develop a feasibility study ready for a funding request to the NZ Lottery Fund in January 2021. We want to improve the office to make it safer, to provide a workspace for a volunteer and to offer a place for residents to sit when they drop in. We will be discussing other types of funding opportunities with the Committee at our November meeting.
AVCC Co-Chairs have joined the Wellington Residents Associations Network and we are participating in discussions with Wellington Council around improving community consultation models so that they are more deliberative and less top down.
The Seeds to Feeds summer festival is going ahead in Aro Valley and there are a number of workshops being offered in the Hall that focus on bringing your Garden To Pantry. One of our aims is to stock the AVCC pantry with home-made tomato sauce and mustards for our future fundraising sausage sizzles.
Aro Valley is one of 12 teams participating in the Seeds to Feeds festival this summer. You can find the Seeds to Feeds Facebook page here and the Aro Valley Facebook page here. The Feed event (community dinner) will be offered on Friday 26 February 2021. Tickets will go on sale in the New Year and we will offer some free tickets to residents who may not be able to afford to buy ticket.
We are building an Instagram account called Humans of Aro Valley, promoting what people find funny or wonderful about our Valley. If you would like to have a 20 second say on camera, leave a message on the account.
We are developing a project with Wellington City Council to address the traffic, safety and urban design issues on Aro Street. The team is planning to talk to residents for their views in the New Year. We will keep you updated as we go along.
As always, let us know what you are interested in so we can stay focused on bringing out the best in the Aro Valley.
Please remember we’d love to hear from you, so if you have any questions or feedback please contact Roxy our Community Developer on 384-8499 or developer@arovalley.org.nz
Regards,
Barbara, Ingrid, Ayse and Michael
In September, the new Community Committee met to do some strategic planning for the year. We have many ideas and projects on the way, but one of our main work areas is wanting to bring our governance documents such as AVCC Policies and the Constitution up to date with NZ regulations and community expectations.
The Co-Chairs drafted an environmental scan of the organisation to steer requests for funding over the next year. Read that here
Funding requests this year are focussing on building our productivity, stabilising income from the Hall, and making the Community Centre Hall and office safer in a COVID 19 operating environment. We submitted requests for new office furniture, kitchen equipment and community centre gardening equipment.
Aro Valley Community Council (AVCC) is working with our MOU partner, Wellington City Council, to develop a feasibility study ready for a funding request to the NZ Lottery Fund in January 2021. We want to improve the office to make it safer, to provide a workspace for a volunteer and to offer a place for residents to sit when they drop in. We will be discussing other types of funding opportunities with the Committee at our November meeting.
AVCC Co-Chairs have joined the Wellington Residents Associations Network and we are participating in discussions with Wellington Council around improving community consultation models so that they are more deliberative and less top down.
The Seeds to Feeds summer festival is going ahead in Aro Valley and there are a number of workshops being offered in the Hall that focus on bringing your Garden To Pantry. One of our aims is to stock the AVCC pantry with home-made tomato sauce and mustards for our future fundraising sausage sizzles.
Aro Valley is one of 12 teams participating in the Seeds to Feeds festival this summer. You can find the Seeds to Feeds Facebook page here and the Aro Valley Facebook page here. The Feed event (community dinner) will be offered on Friday 26 February 2021. Tickets will go on sale in the New Year and we will offer some free tickets to residents who may not be able to afford to buy ticket.
We are building an Instagram account called Humans of Aro Valley, promoting what people find funny or wonderful about our Valley. If you would like to have a 20 second say on camera, leave a message on the account.
We are developing a project with Wellington City Council to address the traffic, safety and urban design issues on Aro Street. The team is planning to talk to residents for their views in the New Year. We will keep you updated as we go along.
As always, let us know what you are interested in so we can stay focused on bringing out the best in the Aro Valley.
Please remember we’d love to hear from you, so if you have any questions or feedback please contact Roxy our Community Developer on 384-8499 or developer@arovalley.org.nz
Regards,
Barbara, Ingrid, Ayse and Michael
ARO VALLEY CLIMATE CHANGE EMERGENCY RESOLUTION - PASSED!
See the details of the resolution HERE and Minutes of the meeting HERE Aro Valley is well known for its history of radical political and environmental views. Communities have the opportunity to contribute to addressing global heating in many ways, in the space between individuals’ choices and government policies. A program of resilience building is necessary to prepare for the increasing probability of extreme weather events and ecological breakdown. “A declaration confirms our ambition to place a climate change lens on everything we do” Justin Lester, Wellington Mayor. |
|
