October,  2002

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT CONSILIUM… In this corner of our site we’ll be posting notes on new people, new projects, and new online materials you may find interesting. Enjoy, and come back often.
 

FOND FAREWELLS... With regret, gratitude and best wishes, we say au revoir to Shannon Ward, the heart of Consilium Yellowknife.  After two years with Consilium, during which she established our NWT office and headed up a number of exciting self-government and social impact assessment projects, Shannon will be taking a much deserved holiday, doing some travelling, getting married, and otherwise trying to fill the huge void that Consilium will no doubt leave in her life.  We wish all the best to a valued colleague and a dear friend.
 

NEWLY COMPLETED


Spot the Facilitator

  • Ron Ryan and Dan David co-facilitated a mega workshop for 81 First Nations Youth in Toronto. Co-sponsored by the Ontario Federation of Indian Friendship Centres, the Grand River Employment and Training Initiative and the Ontario Aboriginal Youth Council, the workshop covered the basics of proposal writing and project finances. A particular highlight of the workshop was Ron's presentation on The Care and Feeding of Bureaucrats.

  •  Greg Smith, Dan David, Blair Stevenson and Terry Rudden are doing final edits on the Aboriginal Languages Initiative (ALI) evaluation final report, incorporating comments on the draft received from several Aboriginal organizations and the Department of Canadian Heritage. The report includes case studies of Inuktitut, First Nations and Michif language projects from across Canada.
     


 

NEW PROJECTS

Patti "Yellow Hand" Black
 
  • Patti Black will be delivering a workshop in Board Roles and Responsibilities to the Nunavut Arts and Crafts Association in Iqaluit later this month.


 

  •  Consilium will be developing a marketing strategy for Kitikmeot Foods, Cambridge Bay’s purveyor of superb country foods. Fred Weihs will be working with Helen Klengenberg, Robert Higgins, and Ryan Lotan, as well as with special market advisors Mark Hills and Marc Allard. Fred is trying to negotiate an all-you-can-eat provision as part of the contract…


Cambridge Bay, Nunavut
  • Ron Ryan (consultant/golfer extraordinaire) and Greg Smith (former gentleman farmer) will be working with Whiteduck Associates to produce a series of ten case studies profiling Aboriginal Human Resource Development Agreement Holders from across the country.

  • Many of the policies and programs developed by the Federal government for Inuit over the years have been created without significant Inuit input. David Boult is working with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Inuit Action Plan Working Group to develop an Inuit Consultation Model as a framework for future government consultations with Inuit: once completed, the model will help ensure that programs and policies intended to serve Inuit actually reflect the needs, views and priorities of Inuit themselves.

NEW GOSSIP
 
  • Greg Smith finally sold the Naismith Farm (boyhood home of basketball inventor James Naismith) this month: his hair is now growing back in, and he has lost most of his nervous tic. The last of his twitches is expected to disappear when the deal closes Nov. 1.



 

 

 



Naismith Farm

Grand Canal, Venice.  Terry and Mehrun are snorkeling, just out of site to the right.
 
  • More travels for Terry Forth and Mehrun, currently vacationing in...let's see, what day is it?...Venice.
  • The versatile and accomplished Leslie Sutherland added yet another professional skill to her impressive list of achievements when she put in four hours as a volunteer security guard and bouncer at the Richmond Fair Demolition Derby. So don't try to sneak past reception...

  • Birthday of the Month: Consilium associate Valerie Assinewe, who will also be starting a one year project on climate change and nutrition, working with Dr. Laurie Chan of McGill University. Valerie shares her birthday with Jeff Goldblum, Franz Liszt, and Annette Funicello, thus definitively refuting astrology.

CHECK BACK EVERY MONTH FOR MORE CONSILIUM NEWS, TOOLS, AND GOSSIP.