Welcome to Your Kamloops!

What I Will Remember Most About Summer 2011...

In completing one of my first campaign commitments, I spent a lot of time this summer talking to my fellow citizens. I talked to 100+ people, spending on average one hour with each person. My favourite part of the summer was watching people looking purposefully into space, the typical "I'm thinking" face. I want to express my heartfelt thank to all those who spent time with me talking about Kamloops. You were indeed thoughtful and friendly.

I'm currently looking through all my notes from the conversations. There were some really interesting common themes that emerged and there were definitely issues that divide the community. More on this soon!

Entrepreneurial Programs in Kamloops That I am Keeping an Eye on...

• The folks involved with Race to a Million keep on promoting and providing amazing opportunities for Kamloops Entrepreneurs.

 

• Venture Kamloops and KPMG have partnered on an initiative for local entrepreneurs wanting feedback on their businesses. The Kamloops Business Corral (a fitting name in Kamloops!) has many seasoned, successful entrepreneurs on board as advisors. 

 

• Howie Reimer, a local radio broadcaster, is offering a training program for people interested in learning how good radio magic is made. This is a tantalizing prospect for those of us who have aspirations "behind the mike".

TRU Students Propose Innovative Mug Share - $100 000 On Offer...

Three TRU students have entered the TD Go Green Challenge. Their video, detailing something I've never heard of and think could totally work, is garnering a large number of votes. I really enjoyed watching their stop motion animated explanation.

More details from Kaitlin Boyd:

 

I am a TRU student in my last year of my Economics/Political Science degree and have also worked with the TRU Sustainability Department last year.  I just wanted to let you know about a group of TRU students (Jeff Hicks, Bonnie Klohn, and myself) that have entered the TD Go Green Challenge, the contest asks students to solve a sustainability challenge facing their school and make a video about it.  The prizes are quite substantial..... The first place video will receive $100,000 to support sustainability initiatives at their school, 2nd and 3rd places receive money for their school as well ($20,000 and $15,000),  and they are currently voting for the people's choice video, a $2500 prize. We are trying to get as much publicity as possible for the video to raise the profile of TRU and help the video get more votes! Our idea is a program designed to make reusable mugs available to people buying coffee/tea instead of hoping they remember to bring theirs from home everyday to campus.
 
It would be great to get some Kamloops support for the video!

 

The video link is here: http://www.tdgogreenchallenge.com/video/id/91/playid/91

 

And here is a description of our idea: The Mug Share Program aims to make re-useable clean mugs accessible on campus. Similar to Bike Share programs, mugs will be shared and circulated freely amongst wash stations beside vendors

 

 Thanks very much for your time, have a great day!

Kaitlin

Chris Sunquist on Designing Green Homes...

Local green building pioneer Chris Sundquist was good enough to sit down with me at the 2010 Kamloops Energy Fair and share some of his knowledge and wisdom about this exciting new practice:

Watch live streaming video from yourkamloops at livestream.com

Podcast: Rob Purdy on the Big Picture of Sustainability...

 

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/4370352638/

One of the organizers of the Kamloops Energy Fair, and former BC Wildlife Park manager Rob Purdy, spoke to me about some big picture sustainability issues. Recorded at the 2010 Kamloops Energy Fair on June 19th 2010. Almost 7 minutes.

Audio Map

00:00  - big picture of sustainability
00:22 - problems with oil based economy
01:03 - contribution of the Kamloops Energy Fair
02:06 - momentum towards transitioning to a cleaner energy society - key number is 13%.
03:55 - women another potential driver to greener world
          - green economy huge potential.
 

Interesting Reads to Start the Week?

Honestly, I am still getting back into community blogging after submitting a (successful!) MA thesis proposal and attending the Northern Voice conference this weekend. In the meantime, I've found these articles, posts, and conference sessions quite interesting:

 - Mel Rothenburger: Why Politicians and Journalists are the Same

 - Jeremy Deutsch: From Farms to 2000 Homes: Transforming Tranquille

 - Arjun Singh: My Attempt at Live Blogging: Northern Voice Gov 2.0 Session

Towards a Better City Hall Budget Consultation...

I've been thinking a bit about how our community public budget meeting could be made better. Almost every year, city hall invests a huge amount of resources into this meeting. All the most senior city managers almost always attend, as well as all of city council. Sally Edwards, the city's finance director, gives a very informative presentation. There are usually snacks on offer.

And, yet, the number of people attending is usually pretty pathetic. The people who do attend have a great opportunity to learn and give input. I still believe this is the most important city meeting of the year.

In 2007, I spent some time personally inviting people to the budget meeting and to a pre-budget event I hosted at the downtown Cowboy Coffee. A lot of people showed interest and the attendance at the budget meeting was much higher. 

This makes me wonder what would happen if city hall started officially inviting people to a public budget meeting and perhaps springing for a pre-meeting dinner. Perhaps, invites could go to the heads of the major business, social, cultural, and environmental groups in Kamloops. It would also make sense to formally invite representatives of neighbourhood associations and service clubs. There are other groups and people I am probably missing.

The idea would be to do some active marketing - "your city needs you" type of stuff, but also to make it friendly and inviting.

A National Conversation on Public Engagement...

I'm in Toronto for a couple of days attending the Canadian Community for Dialogue and Deliberation (C2D2) conference. I've served on the board of C2D2 since early 2008, and its been an incredible experience to meet very committed and talented public engagement / public participant practioners from across Canada, the US, and even a few from overseas.

The Mayor of Toronto gave a speech last night about the important of listening to citizens, and forming plans and policies from there. A Toronto Councillor talked about the importance of conflicting points of view, coupled with a committment to "stay in the room" until agreements can be reached.

Pretty cool stuff. Here is the conference page on the C2D2 web site.

It Sucks Not To Be At The UBCM Convention This Year...

The best learning opportunity in the province to learn about important issues and how to serve your community. That is what the annual Union of BC Municipalities represents, in my humble opinion.

You also meet some incredibly interesting people from all every nook and corner of BC.

I even considered going as a business / media rep / citizen, but it seemed a little weird to me just one year after not getting re-elected to Council.

The best things about UBCM are the various educational sessions. You get to hear and interact with top professionals in the province on all sorts of issues. Last year, I attended a seminar on crime and policing with the top provincial RCMP officer - Inspector Gary Bass. Extremely informative.

I hope some of our councillors and staffers attending this year might consider writing up some of their learnings and experiences.

To follow along with UBCM this year, watch for the coverage in the local media. Also, for more province wide / specific issue coverage, Google News collects lots of reports. There are a lot of interesting issues being talked about...

Pedal Etiquette Begs Question on Driver Etiquette...

As Kamloops strives to become a more friendly city to cyclists and pedestrians, it's probably good to have good refreshers in the etiquette of the road, bike path, and sidewalk. Kudos to Ryan McKee in Vancouver who has started the Pedal Etiquette blog. I wonder, though, if we have enough accessible information for drivers who wish to better respect cyclists and pedestrians. I've tried to search for that type of info and haven't had a lot of luck.