Mission Statement and Objectives
- To undertake activities that enhance Karamea as an hospitable, safe, and productive community where members of the community can live, share, play, celebrate, prosper and welcome others.
- To facilitate funding initiatives for projects that benefit the Karamea community in consultation with community members.
- To coordinate activities that will enhance the prosperity and wellbeing of the Karamea community.
- To encourage long term sustainable strategic planning in partnership with agencies in Karamea and elsewhere to obtain a focused balance between community, business, visitor and hospitality.
- To encourage and support good environmental policies and practice in acknowledgment of the importance of the natural environment in our region.
Karamea Community Inc. Constitution
In August 2018 KCI were awarded charitable status (Registration number CC56327).
Committee
Chair: Brian Jones
Secretary: Caroline Jones
Treasurer: Rosalie Sampson
Committee Members: Peter Moynihan, Peter Langford, David Guppy, Jacqui Dyer, Elizabeth Kerslake
Karamea Community Coordinator: Vacant
Contact people
Any media enquiries should be directed to the Chairman Brian Jones 7826 704 cb.jones@farmside.co.nz
Community projects, events, community plan consultation: Community Coordinator Jessie Creedmore: karameacommunity@gmail.com
Any membership or general enquiries should be directed to KCI@Karamea.org.nz or you may contact the Secretary Caroline Jones 7826 704 cb.jones@farmside.co.nz
Membership of KCI
KCI has been formed to provide a forum for all members of the Karamea community and we would very much like to have you on board as a member.
Find out more details about KCI Membership.
History
KCI had its beginnings in 2007 after the Buller District Council required the Karamea community to come up with project ideas under the Vision 2010 initiative which had been launched by the Council in 2005. In 2007 a community group was formed under the oversight of Karamea Community Business Ltd (KCBL no longer exists) with the objective of producing a community profile to get a better understanding of the needs of the community. That project was coordinated by Kathleen Gavigan and Clive Hellyar and the 2007 Karamea Community Profile was published in March 2008. A copy of the Profile is available on this website.
The Profile was used to obtain funding from the Department of Internal Affairs which enabled the employment of a Community Development Coordinator Rick Lucas, for a three year period from April 2009 through April 2012. The development of this website was one of Rick’s initiatives.
In 2014 a new community consultation group was formed with the objective of carrying out an extensive community consultation process in order that a project or projects which reflected the wishes of the community could be identified as a candidate for Council funding. This was carried out in 2014 and as a result the document “An Urban Design for Karamea – A Town and Country Plan for our Community” was published.
As part of a funding application to the Council another document – “Concept Plan for Stage 1” was produced and made available to the community for comment. Both of these documents are available below**.
In order to enable further funding applications to be made the consultation group (which was not formally incorporated) was disestablished and a new incorporated society – Karamea Community Incorporated was registered in April 2016. The Certificate of Incorporation* and minutes of the meeting held on 19 April 2016 to enable registration are also available on this website.
In August 2018 KCI were awarded charitable status (Registration number CC56327).
5 years from 2017 to to December 2022.
In 2017 KCI entered into a five year Community Led Development Partnership with Te Tari Taiwhenua | DIA with a fund pool of $1,749,447.12. That partnership is complete and the funding was allocated - you can read about that funding and projects here. With that partnership and fund allocated, Karamea has 'had it's turn' with that programme and now KCI looks to review / revise the Karamea Community Plan and ascertain "what next" in terms of projects, community needs and possible funding channels.
December 2022 - August 2024
With the DIA CLD partnership complete, the next step was contracting a Community Coordinator to complete the funding reports and undertake community consultation to review the existing Community Plan. Community feedback was extensive (over 13,000 words worth) and an entirely new Plan was developed. That plan contained an overall Community Vision, a list of Community Desired Outcomes (condensed down to 24 grouped into 8 areas), 587 things we can celebrate about our community, a guide on how we can be good ancestors, and a term was set for 5 years.
374 hopes, dreams and suggestions were collected and retained in the live working document and as at August 2024 there is a community shortlisted set of projects ready for the next step - community workshopping the Plan and projects list to come up with an achievable list of short and long term action plans.
Highlighted as absolutely critical for the community, it was agreed the Coordinator role should continue. Funding was successfully applied for to continue the role and a reporting framework was developed to help ensure organisational activity alignment to the Community Plan's outcomes.
This period of time also saw "Karamea's Biggest Garage Sale" successfully delivered - a large-scale garage sale as a way to foster a circular economy and meet other community objectives. Also delivered was a first-ever for Karamea in bringing NZ Music Hall of Fame icon Don McGlashan to perform in Karamea to a sold out crowd, and of course the Virtual Symposium play and two standing-room only KaraWearable wearable art events.
The current Plan documents:
152 page working document Community Plan. This is the full Community Consultation document including all feedback and workings. Please note it's a very large file - 152 pages and 2.7 MB in size. You may find what you need in the summary document below:
7 page summary document - for easy reference by community to help focus and prioritise efforts, support project fundraising efforts or lobby groups and inform external agencies about specific Karamea Community needs.
Next steps: Contract the next Coordinator - Contact Chair Brian Jones for more information.
Older documentation and references: