NCWNZ Ōtautahi Christchurch Branch created NEW (Network of Elected Women), a group that we invite to Kate Sheppard House every year for a get together and we collaborate with on various other events. We asked one of the NEW members to write about being a Community Board member, to encourage women to stand for local government roles. Jackie has five terms under her belt on her community board in North Canterbury, two of them as chair, and is likely to stand for a sixth term. She offers her story to help persuade more women to become elected members.

Why did you join your community board?

It’s a question I am often asked by friends and acquaintances who either know nothing about our local government system (and that is a large number) or cannot understand why I would put myself through countless meetings for very little reward.

I guess there has to be a particular personality type that is attracted to reading copious documents, wading through the sludge of bureaucracy and paperwork that slows everything down. For me, it’s about the bigger picture. It’s about society, history, geography and the desire to make your place and the future better.

I was involved in my home town on a number of committees before I went on the community board and I guess I was shoulder tapped by someone who was running for Mayor because of hat involvement. My first realisation that there was such a thing as a community board came when I wanted to put up some artwork and had to liaise with them. The board of elderly men I encountered certainly wasn’t something I would have considered joining on first sight.

But with retirement from teaching looming, I wanted something to do -- and working for the community seemed an obvious choice. A community I knew I would be known in and so had the potential to get votes. A community I was already involved with in many ways.

I’ve always liked change and unpredictability and the nervous excitement of standing for election sort of appealed to my wild side. It was also incredibly scary and is the worst part of the whole business. But being part of decision making in your own patch certainly appealed to me, as well as working as part of a team and it still does after all this time.

What does being on a community board entail?

Organising signage, sites and erection according to quite picky rules is a hard start to your time as an elected member. And some people spend a lot to get the same result as others who spend nothing and do nothing. Frustrating but all part of the game.

The induction efforts of my Council certainly paved the way well to understanding how a Council works and the far-reaching impact that those decisions made by boards and council have on the local population.

Community boards are the bottom rung of the ladder, the grass roots of local government and sometimes it does feel as if we are just rubber-stamping decisions made already by the Council. Fortunately for me the huge impact of the 2010 and 2011 quakes produced far more important and life changing decisions to deliberate on than a normal term would have and the job became far more meaningful than it would have been otherwise.

But during more mundane times there are still exciting opportunities offered to those who put themselves forward to serve their community. Imagine having to decide how to spend half a million dollars from a bequest from a local resident or making decisions about the landscaping of the town entrances and discussing the merits of local groups applying to the Board for funding. Those were just three items on our last meeting agenda.

What else would you say to women considering running for local government?

If you care about your local environment and would enjoy having input to local decision making, put your name forward. Don’t leave it all to the men in our society to make those important decisions.

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Nominations for 2025 local government elections are open 4 July to 1 August 2025. If you’re interested in standing, find out more about what’s involved by talking to your local community board or visiting https://www.votelocal.co.nz/information-for-candidates/.

To read more articles from The Circular (May-June 2025) issue 652, click on the tag below.