The response from the Local Government sector to the call for entries into the 2016 McGredy Winder Taituarã Local Government Excellence Awards® has exceeded expectations with 43 entries across both the five project categories and the new emerging leadership award.
Taituarã’s Sector Improvement Manager, Raymond Horan reports that there have been 31 entries for the five project categories and Learning and Development Manager, Natalie Stevens has received 12 entries for the Brookfields Emerging Leader of the Year Award. This is the first year that Taituarã has included a leadership award.
Raymond says “The sheer volume of great ideas in the project categories demonstrates the sector’s amazing capacity to innovate. Councils have submitted entries across the whole range of local government activity - everything from roading to structure plans to internal improvement projects.”
The importance of building consents is demonstrated by the fact that Taituarã received five entries relating just to this activity – inspired by the success of last year’s Supreme Award winner, Project Helix.
As always the Council/Community Relations Category will be particularly competitive with 13 entries.There has also been substantial numbers of entries in the LGFA Transforming Service Delivery and Collaborative Action categories.
The winners of these categories as well as the Innovation in Organisation and People Development category and the Innovation in Policy and Regulatory Development category will be announced at the Taituarã Annual Gala Dinner being held in Wellington on 14 April.The McGredy Winder Supreme Award Winner will be selected from the winners of the five categories. The winner of the inaugural Brookfields Emerging Leader of the Year Award will also be announced at the Dinner.
Natalie says “Taituarã has introduced the Emerging Leader Award this year as part of our strong commitment to building leadership capability in the sector. We’re really pleased with both the high number and quality of the entries.”
The Taituarã Gala Dinner is also the night when the recipients of the following will be announced:
- The winning team from the New Zealand leg of the Australasian Management Challenge. This year Taituarã has had 16 teams register, significantly up from the 9 New Zealand teams that took part in the 2015 Challenge.
- The recipients of the Taituarã Overseas Manager Exchanges and Leadership Scholarships. These offer outstanding opportunities for leadership development. Applications are open till 11 March.
If you would like to part of this celebration of excellence in local government management, you can register for the Gala Dinner in the Event Calendar in our website – Taituarã.org.nz.
For more information, please contact:
Jeanette Bullen
Manager, Marketing and Communications
Ph 04 978 1288 or email Jeanette.bullen@taituara.org.nz
About Taituarã
Taituarã is the national membership society that promotes and supports professional excellence in local government. The Society has over 580 members made up of local government Chief Executives and senior managers throughout New Zealand. Taituarã’s offices are located in Wellington.
Those interested in applying for the four Overseas Manager Exchanges can find further information here. Those interested in applying for the four Leadership Scholarships can find more information here. These opportunities, valued at approximately $100,000 are only available with the support of our sponsors, JLT and Civic Assurance (the Exchanges) and The Skills Organisation, the Leadership Development Centre and Opus (the Scholarships).