Ex Chief Exec - Dave Clark

[JustMe]

Well I have just checked the council website and it still shows the 2009 calendar for the roadside recycling collections in Lerwick and Scalloway. This council has issued lots of plastic sacks in assorted colours yet it cannot manage to tell me when the next collection is. No glossy calendar delivered nor even an advert in the Times to remind us of the collection days.

 

Confess my naughty little brain is thinking that I should deliver all my recycled goods to the Chief Executives office to remind him to get better organisation of this scheme.

[trout]

Could get Stuart Hill to do it? He'll deliver the 'newsletter' to every home in the land

[Para Handy]

It looks like mR.clark is comeing with a new letter as well

 

 

http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/2010/January/news/Good%20news%20for%20Shetland%20folk.htm

 

 

Why they don’t just put it in the appropriate colour sack and miss out the middle persons ( Me and You lot) the happier ill be. It’s saying something when your own council starts to send you junk mail

[icepick239]

From the Chief Executive's Office:

 

First it was a weekly 'Meet the Press' - which only lasted for about a week.

Now it's a proposed 'Good News Bulletin' - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

[Njugle]

I think this idea of a newsletter demonstrates a lack of perspective on the matter. This is a small scale irrelevant detail in the greater scheme of things. If the SIC wish to promote their positive activities let them formulate press releases and put them to the existing press, as every other organisation does. Any exclusion of conventional press or disparity between and self-created press and the former will only accentuate any perception that the SIC cannot present itself well for some tangible reason.

 

Better to have senior staff sticking to the overview, and letting the respective sub-senior staff assert their own validity in public and make it a policy to do so.

[unlinkedstudent]

I was only talking about Marketing earlier in the week with someone and they advised me that the SIC does not have a Marketing Department, with each Department being responsible for their own marketing. Perish the thought, would a newsletter mean that they actually got a Marketing person too?

 

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[Njugle]

They have at least one senior marketing person at their behest, though not a department as you say.

 

Titled:

 

"Principal Marketing Officer of Shetland Islands Council’s Economic Development Unit."

 

Not sure if they have designated Public Relations Officer(s) though.

[icepick239]

Extremely well put Njugle.

Afterall, his beady eyes were probably on you guys.

I widna mind, but they were even debating this nonsense

[Para Handy]

What would the call it?

The Superman Times

 

Or will just end up as Mr.clarks manifesto

Just how ironic is that

[Spinner72]

Treeplanter says......save what little trees we have on Shetland....simply keep the SIC web site updated...for a change.......enhance it if required to message all the "good news".

 

No enhancement necessary. All the current press releases are indeed published on the public site : http://www.shetland.gov.uk/news-advice/info-bulletins.asp

 

Comparing those releases certainly shows how the media choose to ignore the positive press releases, however, as I mentioned before, other than repeating them word for word, there is little in the way of a story to be had, so whats the point.

 

At the end of the day, I think almost everyone knows and appreciates that there are a great number of excellent council services provided by genuine and hardworking people.

 

What is needed is to be able to say the same about the elected members and senior management. Cllr Wills advice to the CE was spot on, but needs to apply to all in the Town Hall, Wills himself in particular.

 

No amount of good news will offset the antics which took place the latter quarter of 2009!

[JohanofNess]

 

No amount of good news will offset the antics which took place the latter quarter of 2009!

 

Maybe more frequent and better reporting even better communication with the local press might manage to get them back on a better footing though.

 

Seems like half the stuff that comes out is a rumour leaked by a council worker or even councillor and then the chinese whispers kicks in and it ends up being a scandal it doesn't need to be. If Generallisimo Clark and the posse beat the rumour mill to the punch occasionally they might find less venom from those they represent.

[islandhopper]

It's quite interesting to see SIC creating its own newsletter whilst others are struggling to keep local newspapers alive:

http://www.saveourlocalpapers.org.uk/

[Ghostrider]

Having ruminated this one for a couple of days, I think Clark has got this whole scheme posterior over udder,

 

The "good news" is being put out there already, its just that by and large folk aren't interested or see it as something that should be expected and normal, therefor needing minimal acknowledgement or comment. Producing a dedicated publication won't change that, as it'll just be one more thing for 99% of folk to ignore.

 

IMHO it isn't so much information coming out of the SIC thats lacking and causing issues, its information going in to the SIC that's the biggest cause of negative issues right now.

 

Look at the AHS debacle, the SIC had marched ahead for years without having the first idea what the opinions were of the immediate neighbours to the propsosed site were, or the opinions of pupils and parents, and of parents of future pupils, or of their own staff who would be expected to work in the new building.

 

Then that was followed by the Whalsay Ferry Terminal, where again a descion was taken as to what the council were going to go ahead with, without apparently ever having solicited the opinions of Whalsay residents and regular visitors who'd be using it, or the immdeiate neighbours of the proposed site(s).

 

The council seems to largely live in their own little bubble, the impression given is that decisions are taken based on the reports placed in front of them, and the personal opinion of each individual councillor. Individual councillors only seem to reach outside that bubble when they've had their ears chewed off by numerous irate people, which usually only happens at the 11th hour, after a highly unpopular or inappropriate decision has been taken, much time and expense has already been expended on the matter, and the council has publically made a fool of itself.

 

If the council, both on an individual councillor basis and on a whole council level were considerably more pro-active in going out there and seeking public opinion on proposals at a very early stage, there would be a whole lot less scope for ending up with decisions being taken that either annoy a legion of folk, or make the council look extremely inept and silly.

 

By default folk are generally only motivated to offer up opinions without being solicited for them, when they feel strongly about the issue at hand. Hence the council invariably piss people off before they are made aware what public opinion on the subject is, if that position was reversed by the council actively soliciting opinions before the fact, IMHO it would go far, far further towards creating a competent, decisive council which was far less a figure of fun due to continual fiascos, cock-ups and gaffes, than any publication attempting to talk up what positive news there is to bury the bad, will ever achieve.

[Spinner72]

**Round of Applause**

 

Excellent post that sums it all up perfectly. I especially feel these two paragraphs should be sent to all memebers and senior officials, and should be read like the lords prayer used to be at school, before every meeting:

 

The council seems to largely live in their own little bubble, the impression given is that decisions are taken based on the reports placed in front of them, and the personal opinion of each individual councillor. Individual councillors only seem to reach outside that bubble when they've had their ears chewed off by numerous irate people, which usually only happens at the 11th hour, after a highly unpopular or inappropriate decision has been taken, much time and expense has already been expended on the matter, and the council has publically made a fool of itself.

 

If the council, both on an individual councillor basis and on a whole council level were considerably more pro-active in going out there and seeking public opinion on proposals at a very early stage, there would be a whole lot less scope for ending up with decisions being taken that either annoy a legion of folk, or make the council look extremely inept and silly.

[icepick239]

HEDGEHOPPERS ANONYMOUS: September, 1965

It's good news week,

Someone dropped a bomb somewhere,

Contaminating atmosphere

And blackening the sky....