{"id":6768,"date":"2021-07-08T15:22:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T03:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.janszoon.org\/?p=6768"},"modified":"2022-03-15T15:59:14","modified_gmt":"2022-03-15T02:59:14","slug":"teenage-change-maker-says-board-life-far-from-boring-nelson-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.janszoon.org\/news\/teenage-change-maker-says-board-life-far-from-boring-nelson-mail\/","title":{"rendered":"Teenage change-maker says board life far from boring : Nelson Mail"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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BY KATY JONES<\/p>
Sixteen-year-old Lucy Summerville\u200b wasn’t sure being a member of a board would be all that interesting.<\/p>
But the Motueka High School student decided to try it out, spurred by her involvement in a couple of groups at school.<\/p>
\u201cTime and time again I keep hearing \u2018you’d have to take that to the board\u2019 or \u2018that\u2019s something you should talk to the board about\u2019.<\/p>
\u201cI suddenly went, I don’t even know how a board works. Why does everything get to go through them?<\/p>
\u201cWho\u2019s on the board, why are they there?\u201d<\/p>
Summerville is starting to find out, having become the newest member on the board of conservation trust, Project Janszoon, which is restoring biodiversity in the Abel Tasman national park.<\/p>
The chance arose through a youth governance scheme, organised by not-for-profit organisation Big Brothers Big Sisters, which Summerville was mentoring with.<\/p>
Having already been a Youth Ambassador for Project Janszoon from Motueka High School for the past 18 months, the teenager was keen to learn \u201chow it all came about\u201d.<\/p>
She also saw being a board member as a potential lesson in how to bring about change.<\/p>
\u201cTo learn about governance, I thought that would probably be a really useful skill even if I wasn’t planning to be on a board ever again; at least knowing how one works and how you should approach them and what kind of things they have power over.\u201d<\/p>
From the one board meeting Summerville had under her belt so far, it was less about paperwork and more about action, she said<\/p>
\u201cIt’s a lot of talking … [but] it was looking at how you could impact the park in the biggest way.\u201d<\/p>
With a tight timeframe on some of the trust\u2019s activities until 2030, there was \u201cno room for dragging the chain\u201d, she said.<\/p>
\u201cIt was \u2018ok we’ve said we’re going to do that … who do we talk to, how do we get that done\u2019.\u201d<\/p>