Surf Coast Shire eforum

Hello everyone,

My name is Chad and I am the site moderator (the one on the left in the photo, I'm with my son & father). Please use this thread to discuss how the site functions, possible improvements and what worked well. You will notice over the coming weeks that the site will undergo some changes i.e. text on the welcome page will change and the Shire's privacy statement, copyright and disclaimer will appear on the top menu bar. Anyone joining the site who would like a copy of the Shire's privacy statement, copyright and disclaimer please email eforum@surfcoast.vic.gov.au

Links for the '5 things to do on this site' will be added shortly. The intention of the '5 things to do on this site' list is to provide links and information on how to use the site, and to provide a reference point for users on the front page on how to access and navigate the site. Please post a comment as to whether this list is useful, what should be there and what doesn't need to be there.

Chad

This forum site looks very promising. It is a little hard to comment at this stage until there are some more posts to read. I suggest that the new users need to have a go at posting something, just to get the ball rolling.

Chad,

Congratulations to Surf Coast Shire on this initiative.  I have a couple of suggestions/questions:
 
1.  Is it possible for the date of Posts to be shown in the Australian  DD-MM-YYY format rather than the American format?

2.  Is the content of postings in a particular thread made available to Officers and  Councillors for consideration  when they are deciding upon issues which affect the Community?  If so, how is the information presented.  If not, then what is the purpose of a resident/ratepayer using this forum if any comments made are not passed on for consideration?

3. Is it possible for registered users to initiate a Topic?

Thanks

Peter 

Hi Peter,

Thank you for joining the eforum discussions, for your congratulations, and questions and suggestions. I have cut, paste and italicised your questions below which I have attempted to answer:

1.  Is it possible for the date of Posts to be shown in the Australian  DD-MM-YYY format rather than the American format?

The date format on the site should hopefully appear in the Australian date format however when users log in the date format chages to the American format. We are working on a way to stop this happening without manually changing everyone's settings. However, I will change your format to the Australian format.

2.  Is the content of postings in a particular thread made available to Officers and  Councillors for consideration  when they are deciding upon issues which affect the Community?  If so, how is the information presented.  If not, then what is the purpose of a resident/ratepayer using this forum if any comments made are not passed on for consideration?

All Council Officers and Councillors have access to the eforum site as do residents and those interested in the Surf Coast. With each issue for discussion there is a minimum of one (possibly more) subject experts. The eforum has been specifically desigend to provide Council Officers (subject experts) and Councillors with voices from Surf Coast communities to inform decisions which affect Surf Coast communities.

3. Is it possible for registered users to initiate a Topic?

At present topics are initiated by Council on issues of relevance to Council, this allows Council to seek feedback and input into Council decisions which Council is currently considering. Please note the eforum is intended as an additional way to engage with Council and if there is an issue of importance to you or a group you work with please contact Council at info@surfcoast.vic.gov.au.

Manningham City Council which opened its' eforum site in February this year allows residents to initiate topics of discussion.

Thank you again for your questions and input, and apologies for the delay in responding to your post. I had a few days off last week to witness the birth of my son!

Chad

HI Chad

Thought I better check this out.  This is a great initiative.

Technically I agree with earlier comments re date format. Also sometimes lines of text are chopped off when I'm viewing pages - this was most notable on the Participation Guide Page. Could be just my computer.

I spent a bit of time looking around this site and would like to see a thread for the Dog Policy issue - particularly to put some innovative ideas out for some positive discussion and feedback. I also didn't discover a page where I could see all of the possible threads - for example I searched around and found something on the Anglesea Neip.  This is under Local Area Planning - but not in discussion forums.

The eforum link - whilst it is on the front page of the SCS website - it's not all that obvious when you scan the page quickly. Maybe an icon link might give it more of a profile? 

Anyway - this is a terrific idea and I look forward to other staff thinking about ways they can utilise this tool.

thanks Chad

 Liz

Liz,

Thank you for the positive comments & I like the idea of an eforum icon and will investigate whether this is a possibility.

Detailed information on the 'dog policy issue' can be found at: http://www.surfcoast.vic.gov.au/dogreview.htm, here you will find the range of ways in which community input is sought in relation to Council's Review of Dog Regulations. Alternatively you could email dogs@surfcoast.vic.gov.au or complete the survey by clicking here - Review of Council Dog Regulations

The Local Area Planning pages are intended for discussion by those interested in or involved with Local Area Planning discussions. Only the Angelsea page has commenced discussions, other areas will begin to use the site during the course of the year.

As for your screen view, you may be able to rectify this through the Display icon in Control Panel? Please note I don't have computer expertise & this is only a suggestion....

Regards

Chad

Hi Chad,

I am not sure whether this is the right forum to have this discussion but I am sure you will let me know.

I have a weekender at Aireys Inlet, on the river flats behind the bottom shops and have been anxiously watching our water supply from Painkalac Reservoir and the level of the Painkalac Creek over the past months go down, down, down.

What a difference a couple of weeks make !! I am still anxiously watching the level of Painkalac Creek but for an entirely different reason, when I was there on Sunday it looked like it wasn't far from breaking its banks ! I noticed on the Barwon Water site that Painkalac Reservoir went from 30% odd full to 100% full over a one week period, 351,000,000 litres of water we added in seven days.

When we bought at Aireys we were told that Painkalac Creek floods from time to time and to fix this the Shire Council simply sends a dozer around and opens up the Inlet a bit to release the excess water.

With the further rains from last weekend can you point me to somewhere in the Council who might be monitoring the level of Painkalac Creek and if so if they are thinking of opening up the Inlet.

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks & Best wishes

Phill

Phill,
Thank you for joining the eforum and taking the time to add a photo/avatar. We hope that the eforum can become a useful tool for communities to engage with the Shire around specific issues. It is important for the Shire to know of your concerns and thank you for the information you have passed on. The eforum is however designed to engage with people around specific issues. Maintenance or other responses i.e. tree over a road should be forwarded to info@surfcoast.vic.gov.au or 5261 0600, these comments will then be forwarded to the most relevant Department in the Shire

Your post has been forwarded to the Environment and Open Space Department and they will respond to you directly.

I hope you continue to use the eforum as a method of engaging with the Shire. The Torquay/Jan Juc Sports Ground investigation will come to a close shortly and a new topic for discussion will be proposed.
Chad

Hi All

not sure if it is an upgrade or a usage understanding issue. The Date thing is fixed by you in your profile. Go tom Options and select the date format that you want to see. It looks like they are ll there!

Cheers

g