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Appendix 1: Survey Results

Governance

Through this section of the survey the Ministry gets a clear picture of the governance structures and decision-making processes that centres have in place.

Q1.1 Do you have a committee?

All environment centres surveyed stated that they have a committee.

Q1.2 How many members are on your committee?

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Q1.3 How often does the committee meet?

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Q1.4 How are decisions made on the activities that the centre conducts?

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The graph shows how decisions are made on the activities the centre conducts. There are three methods for making decisions:

1. Committee decides policy/position on a case-by-case basis and then delegates authority to staff members to make decisions within those policies.

2. Committee has delegated powers to staff members on all matters regarding the centre's activities.

3. Committee keeps an oversight, but delegates authority to staff members to make day-to-day decisions.

47 per cent of centres used method 1, 9 per cent method two, and 44 per cent method 3.

Q1.5 How are these committee decisions made?

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55 per cent of centres make committee decisions by consensus, 35 per cent by majority decision, and 10 per cent using a combination of both.

Staff Members

Through this section the Ministry gets a clear picture of the number of staff and their range of skills.

Q2.1 How many paid staff members are employed by the centre?

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The number of staff members for one centre varied from zero to three during the year. Another centre has five staff members with working hours that range from one hour to 12 hours per week.

No of Hours per week

Q2.2 How many hours per week does each paid staff member work?

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26 per cent of paid environment centre staff work 0 to 10 hours, 24 per cent work 11 to 20 hours, 26 per cent work 21 to 30 hours, and 24 per cent work 31 hours or more.

Q2.3 Please tick the skills/experience/knowledge which staff members possess and use to carry out their work.

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Examples of other skills listed include doctorates and degrees in environmental areas, training and delivering adult education, fundraising, event co-ordination and library skills.

Volunteers

Without volunteers a large number of community organisations and non-government organisations would not be able to function. The Ministry was interested in assessing the role volunteers play in the centres' ability to function.

Q3.1 How many volunteers/supporters does the centre have?

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17 per cent of environment centres have 0 to 4 volunteers/supporters, 22 per cent have 5 to 9 volunteers/supporters, 22 per cent have 10 to 14 volunteers/supporters, 13 per cent have 15 to 19 volunteers/supporters, and 26 per cent have 20 or more volunteers/supporters.

Q3.2 Please state the number of volunteers/supporters who carry out the following duties.

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Examples of other duties that volunteers/supporters carry out include publicity, networking, displays and attending meetings.

Funding Issues

As a steward of public funds the Ministry needs to ensure that the spending of funding is consistent with the rules and regulations of the fund.

Q4.1 In the last financial year that MfE awarded you funding, please indicate how much of your grant was spent on the following categories.

Q4.2 How did you decide what percentage of funding would be used for each category?

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Q4.3 In the last financial year that MfE awarded you funding, what percentage of your total income for the centre was the MfE grant?

Q4.4 In the last financial year that MfE awarded you funding, what other sources of funding have you secured and the amount obtained?

Q4.5 If your centre is not currently funded by MfE, please explain how you are financially supported.

Eighty-eight percent of the centres not being funded stated that they survive by receiving funding from sources such as local councils. Two centres mentioned that they receive an income from the sale of goods, and one said they receive income by subletting part of their premises to other organisations. One centre stated that they operate at the minimum level; although unstated, this suggests only doing activities able to be supported by volunteer commitment.

Operation

This section gives the Ministry a greater awareness of the range of services provided by environment centres.

Q5.1 Describe what you consider to be the geographical boundaries of your service.

Due to the locally specific nature of the areas, the data gathered in response to this question has not been included. This information is principally of interest to the Ministry for the Environment.

Q5.2 How long has the centre been operating?

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The graph shows how long environment centres have been operating:

  • Less than one year - 17 per cent
  • One to two years - 22 per cent
  • Three to four years - 26 per cent
  • Five or more years - 30 per cent
  • Not open yet - 4 per cent

 

Q5.3 Please show what days, how many hours per day and your opening times for the centre.

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The graph shows the number of days environment centres are open:

  • Two days - 5 per cent
  • Three days - 5 per cent
  • Four days - 9 per cent
  • Five days (Wednesday to Sunday) - 5 per cent
  • Five days (Monday to Friday) - 50 per cent
  • Six days (Monday to Saturday) - 14 per cent
  • Seven days (Monday to Sunday) - 14 percent

 

Q5.4 What services are provided at the centre and who are the key users?

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The graph lists services provided at environment centres and the proportion of centres that offer these services:

  • Advice 100 per cent
  • Library 91 per cent
  • Assistance to groups 91 per cent
  • Meeting room hire 83 per cent
  • Seminars (2-4 hours) 74 per cent
  • Training courses 65 per cent
  • Workshops (1/2 days) 48 per cent.

 

Some examples of other services listed by centres are:

  • internet service
  • co-ordinating community environmental programme
  • holiday programmes and school visits
  • guided ecological tours
  • newsletter
  • outreach (eg, festivals)
  • polytechnic students able to volunteer
  • advocacy
  • provide space for self-funded food co-op
  • display of sustainable products and services
  • website forum
  • events calendar
  • display space
  • equipment use (eg, photocopier)
  • coast to kauri walk.

All the environment centres listed community groups and community members as key users. Schools, universities and businesses were also listed by a number of centres.

Q5.5 Are there any other organisations providing similar services within your geographical area described in Question 5.2?

Forty percent of centres have organisations providing a similar service within their area. A number of centres reiterated the point that aspects of their service are provided by other organisations, but no one organisation delivers all the services offered by centres. Organisations providing similar services are as follows:

  • another environment centre operating in the same area (mentioned by three centres)
  • local and regional councils offering a similar service in part (four centres)
  • localised environmental organisations offering broadly similar services (four centres).

Q5.6 Please indicate how many and the types of enquiries you receive.

Q5.7 If you have a library, please tick whose information you hold.

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Q5.8 Please describe how you disseminate/share this information with interested parties.

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Encouraging Community Action

All centres were envisaged as acting as catalysts for community environmental action. The list of projects is a good indication of how interactive centres are with the local community.

Q6.1 What community environmental projects has the centre facilitated or provided assistance to during the 2003/04 financial year or the last year that the centre received funding from the Ministry?

Refer to Appendix 2 of this report.

Relationships

To act as catalysts for community action, environment centres need to forge partnerships within their local community.

Q7.1 Please indicate who you have an active relationship with and give examples of work undertaken with these organisations.

Local community

All centres except two stated that they have an active relationship with the local community. These relationships centred on two main areas:

a) providing facilities for community groups and individuals to use

b) organising practical environmental projects such as restoration work, pest control and worm farming.

Councils

All centres except one stated that they have a relationship with their local council. This relationship focused on practical conservation work (eg, pest control and riparian planting). Four centres are involved in the delivery of the Sustainable Households Programme on behalf of the councils, two centres work alongside their local councils in promoting bike to work days, and three centres are involved in council consultations.

Central government

Seventy-four percent of centres listed central government agencies they have a working relationship with, based on disseminating or displaying the agencies' information. The Department of Conservation was the most prominent agency, with a number of the centres involved in promotion weeks such as Conservation Week and Sea Week.

Iwi

Seventy percent of centres stated that they have a relationship with iwi. The core relationship was identified as networking and becoming involved in consultations.

Schools

Only three centres stated that they do not have a relationship with the local schools in their area. Four centres are involved with Enviroschools, and the remaining centres either deliver educational programmes to the schools, or the schools come to the centres to carry out practical environmental work.

Businesses

Seventy percent of centres stated that they have an active relationship with local businesses. These ranged from receiving sponsorship and becoming involved in waste minimisation programmes, to promoting green products.

Regional organisations

Thirty-five percent of centres mentioned that they have relationships with regional organisations. Examples of organisations mentioned were Landcare Trust, Genesis and Waicare. The relationships centred on information sharing and being part of the committee.

Other

Twenty-six percent of centres listed other organisations, such as working with farmers, the Museum of Arts and Culture, Zero Waste, Scouts and Girl Guides.

Q7.2 Are there any partnerships which the centre would like to develop in the future and, if so, for what purpose?

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Forty percent of centres stated that they would like to further relationships with schools and, in particular, universities. This would be centred on the provision of educational programmes or becoming involved in practical research work.

Twenty-six percent of centres would like to further develop relationships with councils and iwi.

Twenty-one percent of centres would like to further develop links with central government agencies to obtain funding and disseminate information on behalf of the organisations.

Thirty percent of centres are keen to develop relationships with businesses, mentioning projects such as working with businesses to improve waste management, looking at alternative energy sources, and getting financial support.

No centres mentioned that they would like to develop relationships with regional environmental organisations.

Independent Feedback

Q8.1 MfE is interested in hearing from users of the centre. If you feel this is useful please nominate 2-3 users who would help inform our understanding of the environment centre's contribution.

Of the 23 environment centres surveyed, 17 offered 45 independent referees. The following chart shows a breakdown of the percentage of referees provided per group.

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Issues Impacting on Service Delivery

Q9.1 Centres' abilities to deliver services can be affected positively or negatively by local factors. If this is the case please take the opportunity to describe these.

Q9.2 Ways to address issues

Some suggestions we received to address these issues were:

  • recognition by the Ministry for the Environment
  • acknowledgement through media/advertising
  • local and regional council support
  • increased funding support
  • gain reputation through consistent funding
  • increase partnerships/contracts
  • develop/implement marketing plans
  • ongoing education programmes
  • increased signage
  • funding should reflect the cost of rentals
  • regular meetings with Ministry for the Environment representatives
  • environment taken as seriously as human health status
  • education about Maori cultural values
  • funding for advertising
  • national hui for environment centres.

Resource Management Act

Q10.1 Does the centre receive enquiries regarding the Resource Management Act?

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The pie chart shows that 67 per cent of centres receive enquiries about the Resource Management Act.

 

Q10.2 If yes, does the centre have the capacity to deal with these enquiries.

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The pie chart shows that:

  • 20 per cent of centres can deal with RMA enquiries by referring to RMA guides and websites, but are unable to answer specific queries. Environment centres that are not able to deal with RMA enquiries refer people to:
    • community law centres
    • Ministry for the Environment CD Rom
    • other environment centres
    • website, videos, booklets and Department of Conservation
    • RMA management consultants and lawyers
    • regional councils and NGOs.
  • 40 per cent of environment centres do have capacity to deal with RMA queries, while 40 per cent do not have this capacity.

Q10.3 Does the centre see such a need to develop the capacity to deal with Resource Management Act enquiries in the future?

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The pie chart shows that 71 per cent of centres see a need to develop their capacity to deal with Resource Management Act enqurieies in the future.

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