Frances Denz on what is community?

Frances Denz on what is community?

21 November 2014

Liam Butler

Frances has been instrumental in helping entrepreneurs establish more than 4000 businesses since 1986. She is an authority on business start-ups and regional economic development and is a keynote speaker at conferences internationally. Frances is the co-founder of Stellaris Ltd which specialises in the governance education and business training.

In 2013 Frances was honoured by the Queen with Membership of the Order of New Zealand (MNZM) for services to business. In 2014 Frances was named Senior New Zealander of the Year.

As a Maori woman of Ngati Tuwharetoa and Tainui descent, Frances has worked with many Maori organisations to establish expertise in self-employment. Frances has special interests in the health and horticulture industries.
She was the founding chair of the Womens Loan Fund.
Frances is the author of Hope and Rehabilitation, Able to do Business and Women at the Top. She is passionate about encouraging small businesses to establish good governance and management in order to develop into very successful businesses.

Question: Frances, what is Community in 2014?

Over the last year I have been working closely with a community trust, assisting them to adapt to the changing Governance, management and business environment which is now requiring a high level of expertise. In the past these trusts were run by small committees of people of good

will who wanted to solve local problems and/or add to the quality of life of those in the community around them.

Communities were often defined as the street or village you lived in, and then this expanded to community of interests such as gardening clubs, or musical groups.

As a child my community was my street. All the kids in the street met in our superior sand pit which had a wonderful collection of cast iron diggers and earthmovers. My mum kept a vague watch on the kids from the kitchen window. Her contacts were with the parents in the street. Nowadays those kids go to day care, and their community is based around that community, not the street.

Their parents go to work, and their community is work colleagues not the street. And as the kids get older their community is based on facebook, not the street.

Communities change and evolve with technology leading the charge at the moment. The support communities can provide because of the busy lives everyone leads is changing and adapting. But in spite of that, I find that some components of community still survive - if we want them to. In my short lane there are six houses. We all get on pretty well - possibly with one exception. We have periodic barbecues together and on Christmas Day I have everyone for a champagne brunch. Which works for me as I live alone and want to celebrate Christmas without being invited to someone elses place out of pity. So everyone comes to my place, and then goes off and do their thing and I have an afternoon sleep, which is very satisfactory. When I was in hospital my wonderful community organised my house, got rid of the perishable food, fed the cat and filled the fridge with meals when I was discharged. They notice if my routine has changed, and check I am OK. Which is so comforting.

We share fruit trees as citrus and avocados over do the quantity, and we share general street clean ups periodically. We do not invade each other's space. But we do keep a look out for each other. It is a community of very busy people, who still work hard at being good neighbours.

But times are changing as I have said.

The Trust I am working with was developed when their suburb was more like a village. Now it is a feeder suburb for very affluent Aucklanders who go to work in the city in their suits, and go to expensive functions in the CBD and come home to their million dollar sanctuary at night.

So where does this leave the trust who had as their central ethos, the traditional concept of community. Can they define another community to have as the focus of the organisation? Or do they need to abandon their almost spiritual concept of community and perhaps lose the soul of the organisation?

We are working through the philosophical concepts so that the Trust can meet the future needs of the new style of communities. It is exciting and challenging thinking.

www.FrancesDenz.com

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