A very well attended Energy Breakthrough Kitchen Table Conversation event was recently held at the Maryborough Community Hub.

On behalf of the Thank you to those that turned up and contributed with their thoughts and ideas for the future of Energy Breakthrough in Maryborough. This was an important event, bringing community members together sharing ideas and having their voices heard.

“As a parent of participants and a representative of Community Bank Avoca, Maryborough and St Arnaud, proud Volunteer Sponsor of Energy Breakthrough, it was valuable to be part of Monday night’s community event,” Julie Driscoll from the Community Bank Avoca, Maryborough and St Arnaud said.

“The feedback shared was genuinely helpful and will play an important role in shaping and improving the event moving forward. It’s a great reflection of the dedication and collaboration behind Energy Breakthrough.”

How did the Kitchen Table Conversation forum come about?

Aware that the Energy Breakthrough event involves several hundreds of volunteers, the Maryborough Volunteer Resource Group approached Central Goldfields Shire about conducting a forum to get feedback from the local community about the operation of the Energy Breakthrough using the Kitchen Table Conversations (KTC) model.

About the Kitchen Table Conversations (KTC) Model

Kitchen Table Conversations (KTC) is a model of civic engagement that revolves around one simple idea: that engaging people in the kind of open and honest dialogue that women have had around kitchen tables for centuries has the power to create real change.

Read more about the model here: https://www.vwt.org.au/projects/kitchen-table-conversations/

Bronwen Haywood, Maryborough Volunteer Resource Group, Committee Member expressed her support for the model:

“I would wholeheartedly recommend the kitchen table conversation model to any group who wants to seriously engage with their group. It gives a model for both extroverts and introverts to confidently have their say as it has been agreed we will respect people’s rights to their opinions, even if we disagree and make the effort to listen to one another.”

Several committee members of the Maryborough Volunteer Resource Group had used this model previously and offered to act as convenors and scribes. 

The benefits of the model are there is a procedure and conversation guidelines participants are all arranged where they can see and hear clearly around a table. 

What was the evening like?

Bronwen was also a table convenor and shared her experience of the evening:

“My role as convenor was to ask one question at a time, going around the table for responses. And limit responses to one minute each! My scribe was tasked with recording the main ideas & attributing them to the relevant participant.” 

“It was a delight to see younger students of our community participating alongside their parents with confidence. Mostly they stayed on track and didn’t talk much longer than their allocated one minute – or they had to contend with my phone alarm!,” Bronwen added. 

Participants showed their passion for the event with many constructive ideas being recorded. 

What are the next steps?

Responses from the night were later shared with both participants and Energy Breakthrough Governance Group for further consideration. Ideas and feedback have since been reviewed and plotted against a matrix with axis ranging from ‘complex + high cost’ to ‘simple + low cost’.

More announcements to come with ideas emerging from the forum as we approach the 2025 event and beyond.

Photos provided by the Maryborough Volunteer Resource Group.