Have you had enough of NOF?
Apparently baffling acronyms resulted in head-scratching and further questions being asked, even by experienced councillors, at the Otago Regional Council's latest council meeting yesterday.
At some previous ORC meetings over the past year, several councillors have sought help with decoding some abbreviated references to unfamiliar organisations, national schemes, policy concepts and the like.
These references have been offered, often without sufficient explanation, in some council internal reports prepared for council meetings.
Stephen Woodhead not only chairs the ORC but is also chairs Local Government New Zealand's regional sector group.
And his regular ORC chairman's report includes abbreviated references fellow councillors sometimes find hard to follow.
Cr Michael Deaker, who has previously sought help with the occasional acronym, did not say he had had enough of them yesterday, but politely inquired about the meaning of "NOF'', in Mr Woodhead's latest report.
Mr Woodhead explained that NOF referred to a regulated national objectives framework, linked to Government plans over national freshwater objectives and limits.
And Cr Sam Neill also raised questions about abbreviations used in the health and safety section of a different report that identified ORC staff by directorates, such as EHS and EMO.
These apparently refer to Environmental Health and Safety, and Emergency Management Office.
