Planning group calls for event input

ORGANISERS behind a community event held last month are calling out for feedback to help steer the direction of the gathering next year.

The event, held at Bunjil’s Lookout on Sunday 12 November, was arranged by the Maude, She Oaks, and Steiglitz Community Planning Group’s six coordinators.

With the aim to make the event an annual occasion, coordinator David McKellar said the feedback, which can be submitted via survey, will help guide development.

“Primarily, it’s to run a better event or tailor it to make sure we’re meeting the wants of the community,” he said.

“From my point of view so far, we’ll try to run more activities or workshops next year to engage different demographics because the ones that just ran were primarily children’s activities.

“We’d also like to see more market stalls so there’s more to see and do.”

The planning group is reaching the end of its first year out of a four-year term, and is supported with $10,000 from Golden Plains Shire, and $4600 a year for three years via Berrybank Wind Farm.

Survey questions are focused on where attendees are based, what they enjoyed the most, and what they’d like to see included in next year’s event.

Mr McKellar said so far the response to their first event has been positive.

“Everyone said they were happy there was something happening in Maude where they didn’t have to go out to other places, and it was free,” he said.

“From our point of view, it achieved what we wanted it to achieve. It got lots of community members out and interacting within this community.

“We had about a dozen stallholders with the CFA running their raffle and barbecue, several food trucks, and a number of market stalls.”

While there is no cutoff date for the survey, Mr McKellar said the team wants as more responses as possible by Christmas with planning to start early next year.

The survey can be found via bit.ly/3uHgDZg and next event is planned to take place on Sunday 10 November in 2024.