Our Featured Celebration
 Golf (euphemistically referred to at Consilium as “marketing”) is celebrated in it diminutive variant on September 21st, International Miniature Golf Day. Known variously as mini-golf, midget golf, goofy golf, shorties, extreme golf, crazy golf, adventure golf, mini-putt, or Putt-Putt, the “sport”, like golf itself, was invented at St. Andrews in Scotland: it was felt in 1867 that it was unseemly for women to be seen performing the violent movements that a golf swing requires, and miniature golf was viewed as a more genteel, lady-like alternative. By the late 1920s there were over 150 rooftop courses in New York City alone, and tens of thousands across the United States. The boom of early 20th century came to an end during the depression of the 1930s: but as you can see from the illustration above (from Fort Lauderdale, Florida) the game is booming again in all its lurid glory.
DEDICATION
It’s always a treat to meet folks who read and enjoy this newsletter, and at the highly exclusive 2008 Crispy Awards, we had the pleasure of meeting a loyal reader. A shout-out and dedication to newsletter fan, and clearly a person of depth, culture, and discernment, Barbara Grosset. Pictured Left to right, Barbara and Marianne Smith.
ONGOING PROJECTS
The Inuit Firm Registry Survey responses are in, and our master of data analysis, Chris Cloutier (“Clootch”) is crunching the numbers inputted by his assistant data entry specialist, Geoff Rigby. Through an alchemical process involving SPSSS software and years of experience, this will all be transformed into a snappy report profiling Inuit Firms. Greg Smith is Project Manager, and he and Chris will be providing the survey results to Atuqtuarvik Corporation on behalf of Aarluk Consulting Inc. (See illustration right: number crunching, not exactly as pictured)
Throughout the early weeks of September an Aarluk team headed by Alex Ker and including Chuck Gilhuly, Denis Simard and Chris Cloutier, are carrying out a series of key informant interviews for the Gas Tax and Public Transit Fund Program Evaluation. Interviews with municipal, territorial and federal officials will evaluate progress towards the goal of providing reliable, predictable and multi-year funding to municipalities that will enable them to make investments in infrastructure projects that address local needs and help to produce the shared national outcomes of cleaner air, cleaner water and reduced GHG emissions.
Alisa Lombard is working on a case study on the topic of Inuit midwifery as part of Stonecircle’s Evaluation of the National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO). Alisa is part of a team including Jennifer David and Project Manager and resident evaluationologist Greg Smith. Following approval of research tools, the team will move on to the data collection portion of the evaluation in September.
Jennifer David and Alisa are also in the final stages of completing an annual report for Health Canada’s successful Aboriginal Headstart On Reserves Program.
Some of Canada’s leading Aboriginal artists in any medium will be profiled in an upcoming booklet for the Canada Council, currently approaching completion by Jennifer David.
 Building Environmental Aboriginal Human Resources (BEAHR) is a special initiative of the Aboriginal Human Resources Council, aimed at increasing Aboriginal employment in the environmental sector. Alisa Lombard and Geoff Rigby will be working with BEAHR to revise a series of national occupational profiles, adjusting them to more accurately reflect Aboriginal needs.
The draft report on the Summative Evaluation of the AHRDAs (Aboriginal Human Resource Development Agreement holders) has been completed by Stonecircle Project Manager Greg Smith, and TNS Canadian Facts, our partner on this major project. The report will be reviewed by HRSDC and finalized this fall. HRSDC provides funding to 79 AHRDAs across the country to support Aboriginal skills development, employment programs and child care.
HAPPY ENDINGS
Kivalliq Expediting and Storage Inc., a company established by David Ningeongan and Ann Makpah of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, has received financing from the Government of Nunavut, Kivalliq Partners in Development, Aboriginal Business Canada and Atuqtuarvik, and will be commencing operations this fall and winter. Business planning assistance was provided to David and Ann by Fred Weihs, Terry Forth, Ryan Lotan and Chris Cloutier of Aarluk Consulting. Kivalliq Expediting and Storage Inc.’s services will include winter overland hauling services by Challenger train to mining exploration and development camps in the region, and heated and cold storage services in Rankin Inlet for mining companies, businesses and individuals within the community.
The Municipality of Hall Beach has completed their five year community economic development plan with the assistance of the hard working team at Aarluk. Working closely with municipal staff and the community’s economic development committee were Ron Ryan, Chris Grosset, Geoff Rigby and our associates James Arreak and Okalik Eegeesiak. The community set a strong vision and clear goals for the future to ensure that opportunities from resource development through to cultural enterprises are developed for the benefit of residents.
GOSSIP
 The Annual Consilium, Aarluk and Stonecircle Shareholders’ Meeting was held this year at the beautiful Wakefield Inn, where we spent two days reviewing the last year and setting the course for 2008-2010. It’s hard to say whether it was the gorgeous setting, the sinfully good cuisine, the inspiring company of like-minded partners, or a year marked by strong revenues, increasing market shares and growth – but whatever the reason, participants agreed it had been our best meeting ever. You’ll hopefully be seeing the results of our planning in newsletters in the coming months.
Stonecircle has received their new business cards, letterhead and envelops from the printers. We now officially exist “on paper”. Coming soon – the long awaited, near mythical Stonecircle Website Rebirth.
Aarluk was pleased to field a foursome at the third annual Habitat for Humanity Iqaluit Invitational Golf Classic at the Chateau Cartier in Gatineau August 15th. Leading the fearsome foursome was venerable Team Captain Ron Ryan, somewhat ably assisted by Chuck Gilhuly, Terry Forth and "ringer" Morgan O'Hare! Also, for the third year Aarluk sponsored Hole 16. We won't talk about the scores - I mean, since when was golf about SCORES, right? - but rumour has it that the team’s performance neither exceeded nor fell much below corporate performance standards in eighteen hole marketing deemed to represent an industry norm under comparable conditions within an acceptable margin of error.
The British tabloid News of the World has revealed that Ron Ryan is actually the real father of Angelina Jolie’s twins. He was miffed that the $11 million fee for exclusive first photos was entirely donated to charity. Sniffed the disappointed Dad, “Half would’ve gone a long ways towards funding my retirement.”
In an attempt to get back to his arctic roots, Geoff Rigby has been spending a lot of time camping lately. His current camping site of choice is Lac Poisson Blanc, just north of Ottawa. He is amazed at how easy it is to start bonfires because of the fact that trees actually exist, and fire wood is not comprised of broken up sealift pallets. Apparently a steady diet of steak, marshmallows, whiskey and hotdogs is more than satisfactory including as it does several of the key food groups.
Helen Klengenberg celebrating her birthday on September 19th. As it happens, she’ll be spending it in Barcelona, Spain, where she’ll be vacationing with hubby Paul and Consilium friends Terry Rudden and Valerie Assinewe.
FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
Son of “The Saga Continues”: September 1993. Northern Consultants Fred Weihs, Greg Smith and Ron Ryan agree to submit a joint proposal to the newly formed Nunavut Implementation Training Committee, to conduct a massive analysis of the training needs arising from the newly ratified Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. They decide to form a company for the purpose of this project, and the first version of what would eventually become Consilium – “The Organizational Development Consulting Group”, or ODCG for short – is incorporated.
Because of a blurry fax (cutting edge technology back then), NITC manager Bill Logan misreads the acronym, and for the next few months, the newly formed company is referred to as “O-Dog”.
IN MEMORIAM
We were very saddened to learn of the death of our good friend and former book keeper Mary Ann Dohler in early August. Mary Ann was part of the Consilium family from the beginning in 1993 until she retired a few years ago. She died in Kingston after battling cancer for several years, surrounded by her large and loving family. Founding Partners Greg Smith, Ron Ryan, Fred Weihs and Terry Rudden shared memories of Mary Ann during a pause at the Wakefield planning retreat last week. She was a lot of fun, a great bridge player, a terrific colleague and dear friend, and will be sadly missed.
CONSILIUM TRIVIA CHALLENGE
Last month we challenged our readers to tell us which of the following places has Consilium NEVER worked in. The possibilities were:
The Ukraine: (Yup, we were there. Fred Weihs and Greg Smith carried out a scoping mission there in the late nineties, reviewing the potential for developing an entrepreneurship mall and other ventures.)
Prince Edward Island: (Yes, Valerie Assinewe completed a case stuffy in PEI for the evaluation of the Aboriginal Human Resources Development Strategy)
Belize: (Terry Rudden helped to design and establish the Belize Indigenous Training Institute)
The Amazon: (We were there too. Consilium participated in a coping mission on the viability of Indigenous ecotourism.)
New Zealand: (Greg Smith carried out research related to Aboriginal language and cultural retention)
Kazakhstan: (In one of our odder projects, Greg and Fred travelled to Kazakhstan to provide training to bankers and telecommunications professionals.)
Hawaii: (one more stop on Greg’s tour of indigenous institutions working on language preservation.
Cornwall, Ontario: (Apart from being Terry Rudden’s home town, it’s also our base for an evolving study on potential economic linkages between Nunavut and EasternOntario.)
Which leaves only the correct answer: New York City, where we’ve never worked. We hope to, though – if we can make it there, we’ll make anywhere.
The winner of the $500,000,000 cash prized WOULD have been Ursula Rudden, who provided the only correct response, but unfortunately family members (current and ex) are prohibited from receiving awards. Congratulations anyway, though.
Forget the Junos, the Grammies, and the Razzies. For those in the know, the hot awards ticket this year was the Crispies, the exclusive ceremony held annually at a secret location in Dave Boult’s back yard, wherein Consilium, Stonecircle and Aarluk recognize their own high achievers.
Kudos to our outstanding ad-hoc social committee, The Clootch and Alisa Lombard: to our ever genial hosts Dave and Brenda Boult: to Connor, who buttled brilliantly and of course to the staff, partners and associates who made the evening the brilliant success it was.
(Pictured above: MC Clootch and his lovely and talented assistant Terry Rudden prepare The Envelope while George Hamilton IV BEST TAN OF THE YEAR Award Winner Dave Boult barely contains his excitement in the background.)
- The Tim Horton’s Cup for the Most Heroic Consumption of coffee: CHUCK GILHULY
- The WPS Trophy (that’s Words Per Second Trophy) for is CSA’s fastest talker: ALISA LOMBARD, who starts with the unfair advantage of being able to speak fast in four languages.
- The ICEMAN award for Consiliumite most likely to keep food in the fridge for long periods of time: RON RYAN, uncontested.
- The Fido’s Friend Prize for largest collection of phone numbers? TERRY FORTH, with bonus points for greatest number of area codes.
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