My key responsibility is project management of the Yardstick suite of benchmarking tools. This involves regular updates to the online tools on the Yardstick website, development of new survey and benchmark projects for clients, technical support, data analysis and reporting. It also involves liaison with partner industry organisations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand and occasional intercept surveying.
In addition to Yardstick, I am engaged in a wide range of consultancy projects with local authority clients on projects such as Reserves Act decision making processes, parks maintenance specifications, operations contract performance auditing, tree inventories, tree and vegetation maintenance plans, levels of service documents and observational studies.
You can contact me for help with
- Yardstick support, training and reporting
- Reserves Act
- Park maintenance plans
- Tree maintenance plans
- Survey and observational studies
- Levels of service
My expertise
Prior to joining Xyst, I had 30 years’ experience in local government parks operations, planning, asset management, policy development and administration. During that time, I developed expertise in the Reserves Act and its processes, reserve land administration, report preparation and presentation, and policy development. This was all underpinned with a good working knowledge of parks operations processes.
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Horticultural Science (Hons 1st Class), Massey University
- Cert. in Adult Teaching
- Traffic Control Management, Level 1 Basic TC
- Quantified Tree Risk Assessment System – Registered User
Xyst in action
I’ve had many challenging projects during my career in parks and recreation. One highlight was the production of omnibus management plans for all reserves in the Rotorua Lakes District. I completed three omnibus plans, including over 200 separate reserves, over several years for Urban reserves, Rural reserves and Township reserves. These were reserve areas gifted to the Crown by Ngati Whakaue.
The first management plan commenced in 1994 was one of the first major omnibus plans produced in New Zealand. It was referred to as an example of good practice in the Reserves Act Guide of 1998. Benefits to the community included consistent treatment of reserves, clear objectives and policies for their future management, and having all the information in one place for easy reference.