Wagga Wagga - Restaurants, Hotels, Pubs, Business Directory, Visitors, Shops, What\'s on, Events, Conference

 8 December 2008

Creating New Horizons

Up close and personal with REROC Executive Officer and O’Halloran Deal Solicitor Julie Briggs

By Jonathan Temporal

(Photographs by Jennifer Palmer)

Achievers are driven by a vision of what’s possible, by the need to create ways to make their vision come to life, and by the insatiable appetite to keep doing different things once current activities become too mundane.

By these standards, Wagga Wagga’s own Julie Briggs is a high flying achiever.  She is a woman who has achieved much and assumed many roles in a highly successful, but still relatively short, career. 

To understand what motivates the driving force behind the Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils (REROC) and dynamic solicitor, one has to peel the many layers of her professional and community involvements. 

REROC Rocks

In 1994, a number of General Purpose councils operating in the eastern Riverina region of NSW identified a need to work more closely together to achieve greater efficiencies and effectiveness, not only in service delivery but also in their ability to represent the needs of their respective communities.

As a result of those meetings twelve General Purpose councils agreed to establish REROC.  The founding members of REROC were the councils of Bland, Coolamon, Cootamundra, Gundagai, Holbrook, Junee, Lockhart, Temora, Tumbarumba, Tumut, Urana and Wagga Wagga.

Julie was engaged as the inaugural Executive Officer of REROC at the end of 1997 to fulfil a single performance criterion:  save $200,000 in her first year for the member councils in 12 months. 

Within the first six months, Julie had achieved that goal through a regional tender for the supply of retail electricity. The tender was unique because it not only included the REROC councils but also businesses from across the region. As a result of the tender councils’ electricity bills fell significantly as did those of the businesses involved “It was the first of the electricity tenders that we did and that saved us about $300,000 a year for about three years,” Julie recalls.  “When electricity was first made competitive, there were a lot of savings to be made. More than 10 years down the track, many of the businesses that were involved in that first tender are still involved in our electricity tenders .”

REROC's main focus is the identification and implementation of resource sharing activities for its member councils.  Resource sharing activities among member councils are achieved through both economies of scale and economies of scope.

“Over a long time, REROC has evolved,  we still do a lot of group tenders where we pool the needs of the councils together, however we now spend a lot of time representing the needs of the members, preparing policy papers and running special projects particularly in the areas of environment and waste” Julie says.  Doing group tenders is a backbone of our activities it allows councils to get much cheaper rates for the materials being tendered.  “And we do that and in things like water chemicals, bitumen emulsion, work clothing, photocopy paper, the collection of scrap metal.”

REROC also finds regional solutions for local problems.  “We do a lot of resource development for the councils, so if they’ve got a problem, and they all share that problem, then we look at how we can solve it regionally,” Julie says.

“We did that when the GST was introduced, we ran a big GST project here and all the councils met on a regular basis to work out how they were going to implement GST.  We prepared training materials for council staff, information materials for rate payers and we ran seminars.  We have run similar projects when other types of new legislation have been introduced,” Julie explains.

Another local problem that REROC has been attacking is skills shortages, which is a big challenge for local government.  “We run the ‘Build A Bridge and Get Over It’ program in conjunction with the Wagga COMPACT,” Julie says.  “Build a Bridge is a three day camp for high school students the aim of the camp is to get young people interested in a career in civil engineering and it has been very successful.  This is our third year, so we’ve had about 50 students through the program now five are now studying engineering. 

REROC also takes an active role in representing the interests of its members. Councils are constantly being asked for feedback on a wide range of issues and REROC works collaboratively with them to prepare responses, ensuring that all councils have the opportunity to provide input to submissions.  Over the last nine years REROC has prepared and submitted some 30 responses on behalf of members on a diverse range of topics.

REROC has now been running for 12 years, and Julie has been Executive Officer for 10 out of the 12 years.  It is one of the most successful Regional Organisations of Councils in New South Wales.  A big evidence of this success is in the amazing results REROC has achieved for its member councils.

“We estimate in the last 10 years we have generated about $18 million dollars in savings from our efforts, just through councils working together,” Julie says.

“Sometimes, the savings are created through paying less for a product or service and sometimes it is as a result of not having a council staff member spend days or even weeks working on a project or preparing a policy when REROC has done it for them.” 

In addition we have been able to attract substantial external funding to initiate special projects for councils. This year we were successful in securing almost $2 million in State funding to conduct water projects across the REROC region. Over the last five years we have secured in excess of $5 million in external funding for the region.

Legal Designs

One would think that being the Executive Officer of REROC, Julie already had enough on her plate and wouldn’t have time to simultaneously engage in another career.  Perhaps this would have happened with other people with lesser drive, but not for an achiever like Julie.

“I had a degree in business and an MBA that I got here locally from CSU,” Julie says.  As she began thinking about her scholastic options, a law degree became an interesting choice because it might be useful in her role in REROC. 

However, Julie admits to having another motivation for deciding to take up law.  “I thought it would be enjoyable!” she laughs.  “I know that not everybody is like that but I find studying enjoyable, I do.”

To gain the required experience for her degree, Julie began working part-time for O’Halloran Deal Lawyers in 2006, staying for six months.  The firm’s commercial law focus and expertise attracted Julie because she wanted to specialise in that field.

“I was really quite keen to work in a firm that specialised in doing commercial work because I thought that’s where my talents were and that’s where I wouldn’t be so much of a drain on the firm but actually offer something useful,” Julie explains.

Julie left O’Halloran Deal after she was admitted to the NSW Supreme Court in 2006.  It wasn’t long before she found herself missing both the firm and law work itself.  “So I went back – Anthony Deal and I were still in contact.  We had a chat and decided I might come back and do part time work there,” Julie says.

Over the last two years, Julie has been working part-time at O’Halloran Deal.  But in this period, she has actually been doing more and more with the Firm so much so that she now works virtually full time there.  The firm has grown significantly over the last two years and Julie is now one of eight lawyers who specialise in a diverse range of commercial work. “Julie looks after water law at O’Halloran Deal.  She did her honours thesis on the Water Management Act in New South Wales and thought Water Law would be a good field for her to specialise in.   “I’ve always been quite keen on water,” she says.  She is also engaged with local government and contract work as part of her practice.  O’Hallorans is a very dynamic firm so it has been a really good fit for me,” Julie says “They are prepared to be innovative and creative which is important to me, the Riverina Business Clinic project is a good example of that.”

Julie is heavily involved in the Riverina Business Clinic, an exciting new project that assists the owners and managers of small businesses to recognise and consider the legal implications of the decisions they make.  The Clinic is an Australian Government funded initiative under the Building Entrepreneurship in Small Business which aims to increase the understanding of small business people about the operations of their businesses from a legal perspective.
 

Rural Roots

Julie moved to Wagga from Albury to attend the Riverina College of Advanced Education, on a teacher scholarship.  Realising that she wasn’t meant to be a teacher, she instead changed courses and completed a business degree at the College.  She would continue to work in the admissions department of CSU for four years while completing her degree.

After her employment in CSU, Julie took on the more daunting task of being Executive Officer for the Wagga Wagga Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
 “At the time the Chamber was in fairly dire straits and I took a cut in pay to go there, a substantial one, because it offered a challenge and I thought it looked like fun,” Julie recalls. 

“I knew that if I didn’t turn it around in pretty quick time I would have no job at all, so that’s a really good imperative.”

She managed the Chamber for six years, commencing several important projects that today are still important fixtures of the Chamber’s annual calendar, such as the Outstanding Business Awards.  “I’d have to say that the Chamber was a really fun time and we did a lot of really interesting projects,” Julie recalls.
During Julie’s tenure with the Chamber, it secured State funding to establish the Business Enterprise Centre, which today is one of the most important support and resource centres for small businesses in the Riverina. 

“The State Government at the time, recognised that small business was a big employer, and if you wanted to generate more employment for people, a good way of doing that was by supporting small business start-ups,” Julie explains.  “So in actual fact, the Business Enterprise Centre started as an employment program.”
Julie moved from the Chamber to become the inaugural Executive Officer of the BEC. In 1992 the BEC in conjunction with Wagga Wagga High School and Mr Erin launched Wagga Compact. 

The Compact works with schools, parents, businesses and community organisations in providing career development and transition support programmes for all young Australians aged 13-19 years. “The Compact was originally the idea of the then Principal and Deputy Principal of Wagga Wagga High, Joe Allen and David Hingston. They had seen a similar idea in Sydney and thought it could be replicated here. We looked at it from a BEC perspective and thought it was a great way of trying to encourage young people to consider a career in rural and regional Australia. Originally it was completely funded by the Wagga Wagga high schools but today it receives funding the Career Advice Australia” Julie says.

While at the BEC, Julie also helped start the BEC’s Business Incubator.  It was the first business incubator to be established in Regional Australia and still continues to be one of the most successful. 

Motivations

Julie has a simple motivation to achieve all that she has achieved so far and to keep achieving more.

“Will this interest me?  Will it challenge me?  Will I be able to be innovative and creative?’  That’s what motivates me,” she explains.

Proof of Julie’s penchant for innovation and creativity are the many ground breaking initiatives that she helped start , projects like:  ‘Yours2take.com’, an online resource exchange that aims to reduce the amount of waster entering council landfill sites; “The Future is in the Bag”, REROC’s plastic bag exchange program, which won the inaugural NSW Keep Australia Beautiful Plastic Bag Reduction Initiatives Award; and ‘EnviroSmart Business’, a site that allows small businesses to measure their environmental footprint and provides guidance on how the footprint can be reduced; Riverina Business Clinic, the Wagga Business Incubator, the Wagga Compact, the Wagga Business Enterprise Centre and the Outstanding Business Awards

Despite her many responsibilities with REROC and O’Halloran Deal, Julie makes it a point to prioritise her family.  Julie is happily married to husband Ashley, who manages Flinders Financial Services in Wagga Wagga.  The couple love spending free time at home with their teen-aged daughter Georgia “I am very fortunate to have a family that supports the work that I do and understand that I need to be involved in innovative and creative enterprises.” 

Entrepreneurial wisdom

With her previous involvement with the Chamber of Commerce and the BEC, her current business development projects with REROC and commercial advisory practice at O’Halloran Deal, it’s only natural that Julie has developed a bit of entrepreneurial wisdom over the years.  Julie shares some of this wisdom with the people that stand to benefit the most from it – Wagga Wagga’s new and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Julie’s entrepreneurial advice boils down to one thing: focus.  She believes that transforming great business ideas into viable businesses requires unwavering focus and the will and the commitment to make things happen. 

“I’ve seen things that I thought were really brilliant fail for lack of focus,” Julie says.  “And things that I thought were marginal that succeeded simply by the sheer will of the person who was involved in it.” 

Julie advises would be entrepreneurs not to be so afraid of failure to the point of paralysis.  Like many high achievers, Julie believes that failure to succeed at something isn’t failure provided the person tried.  “I was raised in an environment where if you tried and it didn’t work out, that was fine, but if you didn’t try at all that was when you actually failed, it’s that approach that informs everything that I do” Julie says. 

To Julie’s mind, failure also often carries with it the most valuable lessons for business success. “Look I’m the woman who asked Council to close the main street for an event that almost no-one came to!” Julie laughs with mock horror.  “And I think as a benchmark for something not working, that’s not bad and I certainly learned a valuable lesson!”

Reflecting on what the future now holds for her in the midst of her busy career and family life, Julie admits the she really doesn’t have an idea of what the future holds for her.  “I think that I’ve got no idea,” she laughs.  “I don’t know and I have to be honest and say that I’m not a person who really plans ahead particularly well,” she says smiling. 

Julie thrives on creativity and spontaneity.  This trait, however, must not be construed as impulsiveness or lack of forethought.  If Julie’s string of successful endeavours is any evidence, it only shows that she uses her passion for innovation and creativity to spot new opportunities.  But once she embarks on a new challenge, she is meticulous in seeing  it through to a successful conclusion.

“I would like to continue, to be in a place where I can do innovative and creative things and be challenged,” Julie explains.  “And as long as that’s happening in what I’m doing, I’m happy to continue to do that.” 

Fortunately Julie sees no end to her enthusiasm and creativity as far as her current career involvements are concerned.  This can only bode well for Julie’s present associations, which will all surely benefit from the passion and commitment that she brings to their tables.
 

COMMENT ON THIS STORY