Council to vote on new awards guidelines

SOUTHLAND

A NEW set of guidelines for how Southland’s community service award recipients are chosen will be reviewed today.

The Southland District Council’s (SDC) community and strategy committee will decide whether it will adopt the new procedures and guidelines for the SDC community service awards at its meeting this morning.

The report set to be presented describes the awards as a mechanism to acknowledge individuals who have contributed ‘‘outstanding’’ service to their community.

Last year, council staff reviewed the guidelines and found further clarification was needed on the award criteria, who could nominate an individual, who made allocation decisions, the type of celebration provided and how the associated costs would be met.

They noted the changes were needed to ensure consistency across community boards and provide clarity for the public and staff.

The new guidelines stated any person living in Southland who demonstrated a significant contribution to their community board area through leadership, volunteering or community service was eligible to be nominated.

This could be in the education, youth, health, sport, heritage, art, culture, environment, social wellbeing or similar sectors.

Joint awards, such as husband and wife, would be acceptable and considered as one nomination.

There would be one nomination round per year, closing on September 30. However, special exceptions could apply in extraordinary circumstances.

Nominee application forms would be submitted to the council. Community boards would then review the applications and pick up to two candidates to receive the award.

Costs associated with the awards would be funded from the grants and donations budget.

Staff recommended the council adopt the report and a decision will be made today.