A few years ago, Lacey was lucky enough to present a a WARR best practice workshop for the Hunter Joint Organisation of councils, Hunter JO, with Mandalay. With 7 attending councils represented in the group, the workshop comprised 2 days of improving understanding of waste levy reporting obligations and how these affect operations, in addition to gatehouse best practice.
This and other workshops have developed into the backbone for the sessions that Resource Hub delivered recently to the Isaac region, suited to team members from the executive leadership team, customer service and business services, waste and water staff, and even the contract operators on the site. Having adopted a regional approach, there were also representatives from other councils attending – and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
The workshops were particularly well-received and suitable to a broader audience because they weren’t specifically focused on using a transactional system, or operational particular day to day. Content was higher level, helping team members from Council and from organisations that support council waste operations, to have a broader understanding of the waste and resource recovery industry. Sessions were designed to help attendees understand how state and federal strategies impact both themselves and the region, what other facilities have in place that’s different and effective, and also how to relate regulatory requirement back to what they do every day.
We love sharing what we know, so the intent of our workshops is never specifically training, but instead always knowledge sharing – we love helping people understand how to make things work operationally.
Following from our workshop, at the LAWMAC quarterly meeting last month, we were lucky enough to present a 10 minute check list of what the regulatory changes mean for the group from a practical perspective and relating to day to day operations.
We are pleased to note that this quick session, too, was a success. 2 councillors approached us after to address the fact that they weren’t aware of the implications of some of the changes for their region, so they were grateful for the clarification – and found the short presentation helpful.
There were also a few waste coordinators new to QLD attending, who actually used the event as an opportunity to just come and ask some questions.
Resource Hub was then invited to present the same short session on regulatory changes to the WMMR QLD Landfill working group – and while we weren’t able to attend, a short video we produced did the trick – there is no greater compliment than when you get a text message from the vice chair of the working group telling you: ‘The video was ace and worked a treat!’ Thanks Hayley Page!
We have been finding there is a real need for these types of knowledge shares and have been blown away with the demand and with the realisation of how much value they provide to people in the industry.
It reinforces what we know – that a regional approach works REALLY well. It’s a fantastic opportunity for collaboration between councils and learning from each other, and can also help the budget as it shares cost!
If you would like to chat about workshops or other learning opportunities, do not hesitate to contact us!
