Where are Motueka's next generation of community leaders?

July 29th, 2011
by David Armstrong

Where are Motueka's up and coming movers and shakers? Where are the 30- to 45-year olds who want to build on the efforts of the previous generation and create and drive new visions for Motueka as a more attractive, progressive town and community?

Since moving here, I've come to appreciate Motueka's great natural assets - climate, soil, water, outdoors, scenery, recreational opportunities. And I've met so many kind and interesting people of all ages. There's a good community feel about the place, and many people are doing valuable voluntary work in schools, churches and clubs.

But one thing has been worrying me, prompted largely by observing the Community Board in action (or, often, 'inaction'). Too many of our leaders are now, shall we say, like me, beyond middle-aged. And, from my observations - with some notable exceptions - much of their effort goes into advocating things staying the way they are and spending the least money possible.

To put it bluntly, too much effort is going into maintaining the status quo and following the visions of yesteryear. As our leaders themselves approach or enjoy retirement, many are happy to see Motueka become an ideal retirement town.

Nothing against these older leaders and their work of the past. Their efforts have been honourable and must be honoured, and they still have much to offer. New ideas they came up with back when they were in their mid-adult years are now embedded in our community life. Over the past 20 to 30 years they oversaw the transformation of Motueka from a sleepy tobacco growing and farming service centre, into a hub for wider rural enterprises and a more cosmopolitan economy including tourism.

But surely the time is overdue for another generation of community leaders to step up and develop new visions for the future, emulating what their predecessors did to get us to this point but seeking new answers and initiatives for the 21st century.

At the last local body elections, Motueka voters rejected a young candidate for Council who already had a strong record of community involvement and forward-looking attitude. No other young people even stood for Council or the Community Board. As a result, there are no people under 44 years in Motueka local body politics. Compare this with the mixed-age, forward-looking folk in Golden Bay!

Look at most of our influential community-wide voluntary groups, such as Keep Motueka Beautiful, Our Town Motueka, Tasman Bay Promotion Association and the Arts Council, and you'll see very few under-50s. But the people running these groups now were, 20 years ago, mostly under 50! Where are the replacements coming in to expand their work?

There are some examples of the younger generation stepping up - for example, at the Recreation Centre, Te Awhina Marae, and the Community & Whanau group. They show that it's possible for young people to express and achieve forward-looking visions.

I'd love to see a group or network of 30- to 45-year-olds (or thereabouts) getting together as a sort of "think tank" to develop new visions for our town and kick-start positive action, the way the Recreation Centre people have been able to do. Are there any of you out there? Let me know and I can help get you talking to each other.

This town is a great place to retire in, but it also needs to be a great place for the younger generations to grow up, stay and thrive in. That will only happen if we let the younger people develop their visions and networks, with the support and encouragement of us oldies. It's not all just about keeping our rates low and our streets quiet.

(Added on August 1st: I spoke with community board chairman, the hard-working David Ogilvie, yesterday and wish to clarify my reference above to the "inaction" of the community board. The board is limited in what it can actually perform by its relationship with TDC. Generally it can only monitor, advise and recommend, and it performs this bread-and-butter maintenance function adequately in general.

What I'm looking for from the board is also some leadership, to drive new initiatives rather than just complain about problems, and it is here that I believe the board is largely inactive. I've seen several forward-looking proposals - usually by David - brought up at board meetings but no carry-through from any board members, individually or, more important, as a group.)

Comment by Paul Johnson:
[Posted 10 August 2011]

I would like to respond to this question of David's - as a community worker who falls within the age range in question (I am 34). I am employed as a Youth Worker working with local teenagers and I am also involved with many local projects and visions.

The question - I think is a large one and the answers too it many and layered. Firstly I agreed with a lot of what David is raising - it was a disappointment to me also that our community "showed a lack of confidence" and did not vote for a younger representative to council. And it also saddens me that we have lost two younger members from the Community Board in recent years.

Yes I believe there is a gap within this community of younger leaders, there is less of us (in the age range 30 - 45) in town compared to the Old Guard/Baby Boomers, in fact if you were to ask some of the teenagers in town as I do, they will tell you it is a town full of old people.

Not so, as we are here; however maybe not enough of us, or is it that we are occupied elsewhere with raising families and working in what are, I believe, very difficult times financially and economically. We in this town I believe have suffered and continue to suffer from what has been termed "The Brain Drain" - the loss of talented and educated young people who are forced to move to the cities or overseas in search of employment that pays what they are worth.

Also the situation we see I think is a Microcosm of the Macrocosm (the smaller situation mirroring the larger situation) in the sense that what we see globally is the Old Guard (and it seems they are guarding some old and outdated systems) holding on to "The Power Structures". There does not seem to be the willingness or trust to pass those important decisions onto the next generation "us" to then make plans and implicate new ideas for the next generation after us - "Our Children".

We this generation and the ones following us have some great ideas and will be faced with many challenges ahead to clean up the current mess things seem to be in. The time is ripe for the generation above give us our opportunity. In a tribal situation we would have long ago been given the power to make these choices with the guidance and wisdom of the elders in support.

Comment by Alan Dones:
[Posted 18 August 2011]

Further to David Armstrong's questioning why there are no up and coming young aspirants to council, there are, but the electors of the region after, one presumes, careful consideration of their manifestos, decided they did not want what they had to offer. This leads to much muttering about what councillors don't or should do and to this I can only quote from sages past. In a democracy the people get the government (local) that they deserve!

Comment by Sean Delany:
[Posted 24 August 2011]

An interesting story on leadership. I am currently writing a paper on leadership with the analysis on leadership. Being of Maaori and European descent, I have seen both sides of the coin, both the good and the bad.

In Te Kao, we don't have a designated seating place for the speakers/rangatira however they sit amongst the entire group. There is a silent dialogue that happens between them where one stands and speaks, and then you see the nod, so on and so forth. With that said, there is a Maaori proverb that goes, "hinga atu he tetekura, ara mai raa he tetekura - when one chief falls, another rises."

If you go online to 'Jim Collins', he has developed a leadership pathway called, "Level 5 Leadership." On his website, you will see an analysis of the Level 5 Leadership in working. It's pretty dynamic!

The idea of having internal as well as external reviews/audits of leadership based on key performance indicators brings accountability to leadership and ensures that they are toeing the line.

We have as of late, began to drive a Maaori Mens Health initiative which will look at health in all areas, leadership being one of them. Succession planning is often bandied around in these circles and is a concept that needs careful consideration.

Keith Newman begins his book Bible and Treaty: Missionaries among the Maori - a new perspective, with this quote from Winston Churchill:

"One of the signs of a great society is the diligence with which it passes culture from one generation to the next. This culture is the embodiment of everything the people of that society hold dear: its religious faith: its heroes … When one generation no longer esteems its own heritage and fails to pass the torch to its children, it is saying in essence that the very foundational principles and experiences that make the society what it is, are no longer valid. This leaves that generation without any sense of definition or direction, making them the fulfilment of Karl Marx's dictum, 'A people without a heritage are easily persuaded'. "

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