As you may have already gleaned from my posts, the State Government decided to amalgamate Armidale - Dumaresq and Guyra local government area to form the Armidale Regional Council (ARM). The former councillors were dismissed and replaced by an interim Administrator, Dr Ian Tiley, who was already a friend of mine on LinkedIn. He then guided the new council through its initial reorganisation and I was invited to participate in several issues. These included the establishment of a maker lab in the new public library, re-badging the ARM image with a new logo and slogan, critiquing consultants' reports on local development action, and other things.
After this level of participation, I was invited by a former Councillor, Margaret O'Connor, to join her team for the recent council election, whose results are still pending. Let's just say I don't think I will get in because of the large number of candidates (48), for the 11 elected positions. I was only third on Margaret's ticket, although she romped in. Anyway, our administrator decided to stand for election and he was first candidate to fall over the line.
So, a couple of days ago I was invited to a ceremony at our prestigious art gallery to commend Ian for his contribution to Armidale and the termination of his contract as administrator now that the new Council will shortly take over. I and several other colleagues including senior Council staff whom I know quite well, were approached to fund a gift for Ian and when we arrived for nibbles and the ceremony itself, we detected that we had bought two art-works with Ian's name attached, but which would be retained for exhibition by the library. Here's Ian on the left and the second picture shows the two leaders of the ceremony in the middle: Peter Dennis, the general manager, and the director of the gallery.
Here are the art-works in question, both impressionist landscapes
The audience lapped up the proceedings and Ian was very pleased to be commended for his work as administrator. He is now pitching to become the new mayor and the result will become known next week. As I said, I think that I will not be part of that process as I'll fall short of the required quota of votes needed to become a Councillor after the distribution of preferences.
Oh well, I'm going to so many places around the world in the next 12 months so I wouldn't make many Council meetings anyway!
AS
After this level of participation, I was invited by a former Councillor, Margaret O'Connor, to join her team for the recent council election, whose results are still pending. Let's just say I don't think I will get in because of the large number of candidates (48), for the 11 elected positions. I was only third on Margaret's ticket, although she romped in. Anyway, our administrator decided to stand for election and he was first candidate to fall over the line.
So, a couple of days ago I was invited to a ceremony at our prestigious art gallery to commend Ian for his contribution to Armidale and the termination of his contract as administrator now that the new Council will shortly take over. I and several other colleagues including senior Council staff whom I know quite well, were approached to fund a gift for Ian and when we arrived for nibbles and the ceremony itself, we detected that we had bought two art-works with Ian's name attached, but which would be retained for exhibition by the library. Here's Ian on the left and the second picture shows the two leaders of the ceremony in the middle: Peter Dennis, the general manager, and the director of the gallery.
Here are the art-works in question, both impressionist landscapes
The audience lapped up the proceedings and Ian was very pleased to be commended for his work as administrator. He is now pitching to become the new mayor and the result will become known next week. As I said, I think that I will not be part of that process as I'll fall short of the required quota of votes needed to become a Councillor after the distribution of preferences.
Oh well, I'm going to so many places around the world in the next 12 months so I wouldn't make many Council meetings anyway!
AS
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