The Resource Centre is the engine room of Economic Gardeners. The Resource Centre contains the knowledge, information and other resources to support Economic Gardeners throughout Australia.
The materials are designed to support:
The core materials are supported by:
The materials in The Resource Centre have been customised to support the following member categories:
Business Development: To support businesses generally as well as some special categories of businesses including projects that may be initiated under community development. Further specific categories will be added as the need is identified.
Economic Development Organisations: To support the analysis of economic data and trends and to develop strategies and plans for economic development (sometimes referred to as the “hard” analysis).
Community Development Organisations: To support the provision of community services, facilities and programs for residents and the operation of community groups (sometimes referred to as the “soft” analysis).
In addition, there is a specialist section that can be accessed by all members as they offer information and services that is of assistance to all member categories. They include:
The materials in The Resource Centre will be accessed under the specific member categories. Members may subscribe to more than one category.
The Resource Centre can be imagined as a well-organised library focused on all matters related to economic gardening. It is a repository for:
This is an expanding compendium of materials that will serve as your first point of reference on any issue.
The Resource Centre is a consolidation of a vast amount of material into one place. It is like a library and serves as your first point of contact on any development issue. This saves endless hours searching the web for the information you need.
From the user perspective, all member categories are expected to be familiar with an ever-broadening horizon of needs and requirements. This frequently leads to areas where the member has little familiarity and the potential to use a lot of time looking for it on the web. The Resource Centre provides a convenient place to begin. If the material is not in The Resource Centre, then Economic Gardeners will find it (and subsequently add it to the Resource Centre).
The material is organised into a structure that is easy to access. At one level the material is structured by user category such as business development, tourism, community organisations etc. The material is also structured so that there is a gradation from ‘basic’ to ‘advanced’ in each category.
The Resource Centre uses leading-edge technology that makes it easy to:
The Resource Centre is upgraded regularly, extended in response to newly identified needs and includes the archived ‘News’ that is supplied to members on a regular basis.
The Resource Centre provides a networking and communication structure where members can communicate with each other to help solve problems, share ideas and build networks.
While the Resource Centre is the first point of contact, it also is used to make personal contact with the specialist Economic Gardeners staff. There are links beyond Economic Gardeners to other specialists and complementary services that members may need from time to time.
All businesses and organisations face an ever-growing set of operating and reporting requirements. They operate in a rapidly changing and evolving environment that can concern many people. That environment creates opportunities for the enterprising business or organisation.
Economic Gardeners is designed to enable you to complete the operating and reporting requirements as easily as possible. That enables you to focus on creating new initiatives that will give you better outcomes with little stress and more fun.
The Resource Centre is only accessible to members of Economic Gardeners. The first step is to become a member.
Becoming a member involves:
Members can then access the Resource Centre materials and can enlist the support of the Economic Gardeners’ staff for assistance and advice. The approach is to build the capacity of the members to undertake the tasks of planning and operating their business or organisation.
It is anticipated that members will access specialist advice mainly in relation to the growth and development of their business or organisation. This will include:
Economic Gardeners is outcome focused. Success is measured in terms of:
The knowledge, skill and other requirements faced by our members are growing rapidly. How can this be managed and implemented at reasonable cost?
Collaboration or networking is an approach taken by many to grapple with these needs. Networking can assist in:
Membership of Economic Gardeners is itself a networking action. It represents a collaborative structure to provide accessible knowledge and information pertinent to member needs. This occurs through The Resource Centre, the back-up support system, contact with other members and through workshops and seminars organised for members.
The Resource Centre contains materials that will guide members through establishing a range of collaborative arrangements that may be formal or informal. They may involve other members that are doing similar things, or they may be with members doing different things under the Economic Gardeners’ umbrella.
The Economic Gardeners’ specialists are also available for advising on the development of collaborative arrangements among members.
The Resource Centre provides a suite of modules covering the various aspects of Economic Gardening. The extensive range of modules are summarised under the following headings.
The following gives an outline of some of the practical experience available through the Resource Centre.
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Economic Gardeners can support all types of data gathering and analysis. The amount of readily available data from official sources is diminishing. This is especially so for small area or region data. As a result, there is a need to make best use of the information that is available and to develop a strategy to obtain data that is required to support key projects. There are also opportunities to network the data and information task to gain scale economies.
There are issues that relate to the three main categories of data:
The Resource Centre includes information on the commonly-used sources of data, links to appropriate websites and examples of Information systems that have been developed to support economic and community development.
Issues that Economic Gardeners can support include:
