Our Featured Celebration

 

On May 5th, a new note will be played as part of the ongoing performance of John Cage’s composition Organ²/ASLSP (As Slow As Possible). This is more exciting than it sounds. The composition, currently being presented on the organ of St. Burchardi Church in Halberstadt, Germany (pictured at left) is scheduled to last for 639 years. The performance began at the stroke of midnight, September 5, 2001, on what would have been Cage's 89th birthday. It started with 1 1/2 years of silence: the first actual notes weren’t heard until February 5, 2003.  You can check out this toe-tapping, rollicking tune in real time at this link, there’s also a somewhat accelerated version for music lovers too impatient to wait 639 years to see how it turns out.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT CONSILIUM, AARLUK and ARDOS... 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.

NEW PROJECTS      

Greg Smith is spearheading the development of an ARDOS workshop on Aboriginal consultation, to be delivered across Canada for employees of Environment Canada. To be designed by Terry Rudden, Patti Black and Tomasz Wlodarczyk of Gartner Lee, the workshop will be delivered by an all-start team of ARDOS and Consilium facilitators, including Ron Ryan, Dr. Valerie Assinewe, Jennifer David and Ian Kenney.

ARDOS will deliver a presentation to contractors working with Defense Construction Canada on the cleanup of DEW Line sites in Nunavut. The presentation will introduce contractors to Inuit history and culture, and discuss strategies for effective cross cultural supervision on worksites.             

 

ONGOING PROJECTS

 

           

Patti Black continues her work with the national Land Claims Agreements Coalition on two fronts. With support from the Gordon Foundation of Canada, the Coalition will begin the development of a federal policy on the implementation of Land Claims; she'll also be helping to develop communications materials and a website to strengthen the Coalition, and its capacity to communicate its important message on Land Claims to the rest of Canada.

ARDOS's longest running project - the ongoing Formative Evaluation of the AHRDAs (Aboriginal Human Resource Development Agreements) - enters a new phase this month as team members busily write up fourteen case study reports for submission to HRSDC. The project is being managed by Greg Smith.

Fred Weihs, Chris Grosset, Ryan Lotan and Marla Limousin have begun work on a comprehensive business plan for the Chantrey Inlet Lodge outside of the community of Gjoa Haven.

            

HAPPY ENDINGS

Ron Ryan facilitated a meeting of Government of Nunavut representatives and resource people gathered in Iqaluit to discuss the development of a Uranium policy for Nunavut. The session included presentations from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission, the Beverly and Qamanirjuaq Caribou Management Board, and the Geological Survey of Canada.

 

 

Greg Smith and Andrea Johnston at the beautiful UNBC campus in Prince George B.C. where they attended an evaluation gathering on the Intersection of Traditional Knowledge and Western Scientific Paradigms. Andrea, an Aboriginal health evaluation specialist, is the owner of Johnston Research Inc., and is also doing some project work with ARDOS.

 

 

And more from our "Smith On The Road" series: Greg Smith was in Iqaluit at the beginning of April to facilitate a planning meeting of senior managers of the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development's Nunavut Regional Office. Approximately twenty participants attended the two-day session.

 

 

This month's birthday quiz is going to be a LOT easier, since we've only got one birthday...Jennifer David, General Manager of ARDOS and Guardian of the Chocolate Vault. And of course, as you all know, Jennifer shares her birthday with one of the twentieth century's leading celebrities, a man who needs no introduction:

GOSSIP

 

Six days, 2 hours and eleven minutes until Chuck Gilhuly starts work as new General Manager of the Consilium Consulting Group - not that anyone's counting...

Devoted readers of these pages will recall that last fall Terry Rudden and his dive buddy/producer friend George Hargrave traveled to Belize to shoot the third in their series of Signature SCUBA DVDs. But there was one major sight that they were unable to capture...whale sharks, the largest shark (in fact, the largest fish) in the ocean. Well, this is the whale shark season: as you read this, Terry and George are, with luck, sixty feet underwater somewhere off Placentia in Belize, with cameras, right in the path of their annual migration.

THIRTY YEARS AGO THIS MONTH....

 

He wasn't always the model of respectable, pinstriped professionalism he later became, commanding respect with every utterance - thirty years ago one of our shareholders radiated a significantly different vibe.

Any guesses?

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