Professional Documents
Culture Documents
made to jurors recognise their time and commitment to this process. Meals will be provided at the
Citizens Jury meetings.
9. Can the community advocate to Jury members?
All jury sessions are open to the public. Community members not on the jury can make a
submission to be heard by the jury. Submissions must be made in writing and submitted to new
Democracy Foundation. More information on how this can be done will be publicised by Council
shortly.
10. Are the Jury members details public information? Where can I find them?
No. newDemocracy will not provide any juror contact information.
11. What types of things will the Jury consider?
The Jury will consider the following question which was arrived at by councillors in a workshop with
newDemocracy: What should Council spend our money on to shape the communitys future?
12. How can I stay up to date with the Jury?
Attend jury sessions and see information published on www.bendigo.vic.gov.au/citizensjury or
www.newdemocracy.com.au/our-work
13. What happens with the recommendations from the Jury?
The jury will present its report to the Council at the end of the jury session process (September).
The unedited recommendations of the jury will be published by Council with a response to the
recommendations given in person by the incoming Mayor and Councillors, with a detailed written
response provided by March 2017. It is the intention of Council to implement as many of the Jurys
recommendations as possible - however the final decision rests with the Mayor and Councillors.
14. How can I trust that the process isnt just pushing Councils agenda?
The newDemocracy Foundation is a not-for-profit research group, with a particular focus on best
practice citizen engagement and innovations in democratic structures. newDemocarcy are not a
think tank and hold no policy views. newDemocracys methodology is to operate jury-style process
to enable a representative section of the community to deliberate and find a consensus response.
By combining the three elements of random selection, the provision of time and access to all
information and independently facilitated forums for dialogue, a much more robust and publicly
trusted outcome can be obtained which can assist Council in achieving public acceptance of hard
tradeoffs.
15. What if a City employee receives an invitation?
One in 100 of the Citys population work at the Council .It is possible that some staff members (and
members of their family) will receive an invitation. Staff members in a management or decisionmaking position have been advised to discuss this with their Director or Manager if they receive an
invitation.
16. How will the sessions operate?
The jury sessions are being conducted by an independent facilitator alongside representatives of
newDemocracy. All sessions will be open to the public.
17. How many sessions are there?
There are six jury sessions: July 9, July 28, August 11, August 25, September 10 and September
22. Some of these sessions will be held on a Saturday and others in the evening during the week.
18. Im involved in a local community group, so how can we find out more or get involved?
There are various ways local organisations can be involved and stay up to date with the Citizens
Jury. The newDemocracy Foundation is holding information sessions to provide local groups with
an overview of how the Citizens Jury will be selected, how they will operate and how you can be
involved, including through the provision of submissions, presentations and nomination of expert
speakers. The sessions are being held on: