Mayor The Mayor of the Shire is Councillor Chris Meddows-Taylor. The Mayor takes precedence at all municipal proceedings and speaks for the Council on policy and important local issues. Cr Meddows-Taylor was first elected Mayor for the 2007/08 year at a Special Meeting of Council held on 12th December 2007. He will continue in this role for the 2008/09 year.  Cr Meddows-Taylor joined Council after the November 2005 elections representing the Daisy Hill Ward.  He was a  "weekender" here for may years whilst working in Melbourne prior to moving to reside in Talbot in November 2002. Chris' work background has been in the area of high level  human resources and organisational change management experience within the public sector, corporate organisations and consulting.  This has included 20 years in the State Public Service with senior roles in the Department of Premier and Cabinet and Education where he was an Assistant Regional General Manager of Schools and Head of Human Resources.  He later spent 10 years in  senior Corporate roles including a number of years in BHP Petroleum and BHP Billiton. He has consulted to many major organisations including NAB, ANZ, AXA, Telstra, and Lend Lease.  In recent years he formed an Incorporated organisation Winning Communities Inc with a number of colleagues to consult to clients in the area of building more sustainable communities, businesses and regions.

Chris has also been actively involved in introducing the concept of employability into Australia in the mid 1990ies and later focussed on the issues around attraction and retention of mature aged people in the workforce.

Chris is active in Council committee, regional and community leadership roles. These include:

• Member of Council's Heritage Advisory Committee
• Representative of Council in the Municipal Association of Victoria
• Council Representative on the Goldfields Employment and Learning Centre Committee of Management
• President of the Central Goldfields Business Group
• President of Talbot Tourism Inc
• President of the Villages of the Old Goldfields Association Inc
• Vice President of Talbot Action Inc
• Vice President of Winning Communities Inc
• Founding member and sponsor of the Talbot Farmers Market Committee
• Member of the Talbot Town Hall Committee
• Member of the Talbot RSL Park Committee
• Member of the Words in Winter Organising Committee
• Chairman of the Talbot Urban Design Framework Advisory Committee
• Member of the Daisy Hill Community Centre Committee of Management
• Member of the Wareek Community Hall Committee of Management
• Member of Wareek Neighbourhood Watch
• Member of the Bowenvale Community Hall Committee of Management
• Member of the Adelaide Lead Community Hall Committee of Management

At the Statutory meeting for the election of Mayor Chris committed to the following priorities as Mayor to deliver Council's Plan and strategic priorities:

• Strategic Leadership -strengthening this key role of Council
• Partnerships -building value added partnerships between the community, Council and other layers of government
• Community engagement -working and connecting closely with a range of community groups
• Teamwork - working more effectively as a team to develop better community benefits

Chris has qualifications from LaTrobe and Melbourne universities in political science and public policy and has studied at Cornell University in the USA.  He has addressed numerous conferences both in Australia and overseas and has also been an active commentator in the media (TV, radio, newspapers and journals) on workforce, organisational and change management issues. 

Contact:

chrism@cgoldshire.vic.gov.au