By Jena Carr
Aspiring women councillors can learn first-hand what it’s like to serve on Geelong’s council through a Meet the Women Councillors Forum.
The free event will be hosted by the City of Greater Geelong and Women in Local Democracy (WILD) from 5.30pm on Wednesday, July 24, at City Hall on 57 Little Malop Street.
WILD convenor Jenny Wills said the event was part of a series of forums encouraging women to stand for local government.
“Candidates, potential candidates and their supporters have the chance to hear first-hand experience,” she said.
“We can all talk about it second hand and what you might observe…but this is the opportunity to hear directly from those who’ve been through the experience themselves.
“Some of the candidates have attended training sessions that council hosted, so they’ve been getting information about what’s necessary to do to stand and become successful.”
Ms Wills said the forums were designed to reach the state government’s gender equality target at the October council elections.
“The forum is an opportunity to hear from the current women councillors about their experiences in standing for council,” she said.
“One of the real challenges we have in Geelong is that we’ve got 11 new wards, and it would be nice to get interest across the whole municipality so that we’ve got women standing in all the wards.”
A follow-up event will be held at the Geelong Regional Library and Heritage Centre on August 8 for people to meet the women candidates standing in this year’s council election.
The July 24 event is free, but registrations are essential and can be made at events.humantix.com/meet-the-women-councillors-forum
