The Bunbury Youth Advisory Council (YAC) Committee was given support from the Bunbury City Council to hold its first formal meeting for 2013 in the Council Chambers in early February.
YAC is the hub of everything youthful in the City, helping to organise events, guide the Bunbury City Council on youth issues and providing a great place for young people to learn leadership skills and develop a taste for local government and politics.
Youth Mayor, Carlee Brien said holding the meeting in the Council Chambers helped to both motivate its members and encourage the public to take YAC’s role as the voice of Bunbury youth more seriously.
When requesting the meeting in January, Ms Brien stated: “the YAC Committee would like to hold their first formal meeting in the Council Chambers as they would like to get a more formal feel of how Council meetings are run and look at how the YAC can incorporate those processes into their own meetings. They are committed to making a greater contribution to the decisions affecting the Youth of Bunbury and the surrounding areas.”
When Council agreed to the request, Ms Brien said, “This is the next step towards a more focused Council entity and is a great experience for everyone involved. It will help us play a bigger part in solving youth issues and making Bunbury an even better place to live.”
Council’s Community Development Officer and YAC facilitator, Isabell Evans, praised Ms Brien’s efforts: “This special meeting further strengthens the connections between the YAC Committee and the Council.
It also ensures the Committee is well-positioned to comment on important City proposals and plans that will affect them for years to come, such as the Koombana North development and Leschenault Inlet Masterplan.”
Ms Brien also requested the use of the Council Chambers’ live streaming capabilities. The recording of the meeting will then be uploaded onto YouTube and linked to the Bunbury YAC Facebook page.
“Live streaming the meeting is an excellent way to reach a larger audience and get our message across. Research has shown that in the in the next five years, websites with no video content are unlikely to be accessed, therefore this is an excellent opportunity to make the Committee more appealing to local youth,” said Ms Brien.
