I remember reading once that before you can be a leader you need to be able to follow. Can I ask are your community leaders showing leadership? Or are they merely spectators?
I also remember being a member of a club whose whole 20 some membership formed the management committee. At meetings of this club a group would sit in the background talking about what was happening in their lives outside the club. They would then complain as soon as the meeting was complete about the poor decisions being made by the committee.
Another memory was attending a seminar where the speaker spoke about “the exerts are all in the grandstand”.
He spent 45 minutes differentiating between those on the field and those in the grandstand. He talked of the athletes making mistake after mistake but getting back up again. Of how they left their guts on the field.
He then spoke of those in the grandstand. Those self-appointed experts who spent the entire match criticising those game enough to put their bodies on the line. Those who pulled apart and examined every mistake and who called for the sacking of some of the gladiators.
Back to you! Does this portray your community leader/s. Or do those representing your community on Council have vision. Are they leaders showing leadership.
Are they prepared to enter the debate. Prepared to explore, examine, and be prepared to make decisions. To be part of the solution.
Do they do this at Council level. Do they then also contribute at an LGA level?
In other words, are your leaders showing leadership or are they simply spectating and/or complaining. Do they sit back at Council level, wait for others to move motions and then criticise?
Do they help you through the bureaucracy, whether at Local level or at State and Federal level or do they simply criticise Council staff or the various government departments?
Listen to what your leaders are currently saying about membership of the LGA.
In November you have the chance of rewarding your leaders or replacing them, if you believe they aren’t, with someone who will provide the leadership you deserve.
Yes, I hope everyone that reads the election material that is already entering their letter boxes asks these very questions. To my mind it is not about what boards you sit on or how many medals you have but what you personally have achieved or worked with others to achieve, for the City of Unley. Listening is as important as talking and even achieves more.