From a personal perspective, accountants and their families increase the social capital
of communities by their involvement in local sporting clubs, social clubs and
emergency services organisations as active members. If an accountant and their family
leaves, all local community organisations lose members, as do the local school and
hospitals. For smaller communities, the loss of even a few people can have significant
impact on the retention of services. However, this of all the contributions identified by
the participants is the one which can be provided by any other person living in the
communities.
The main messages emerging from this theme, shows the social contributions of
resident accountants, especially when compared to fly-in-fly-out service providers, are
considered especially important. The contribution may be quite small – such as
providing sufficient numbers to maintain services – or extensive. Within the
community development role clusters this theme identifies activities associated with
all four role clusters. Table VI highlights in italic the specific activities which the rural