This month has been busy with constant meetings such as the Band Administrators Workshops that most of the Band Managers from across Alberta’s First Nations attended. We learned and relearned of the changes that are occurring in the INAC department, best practices of other First Nations and learned new skills. I enjoy attending these with Allan as he also needs to know what financial and management requirements we will need to be accountable. It is also good for Allan and me to be able to hear from other First Nations that have the same needs and concerns as we do.

Allan and I are preparing for our presentation in Ottawa. O’Chiese First Nation, as you know, was chosen for a Good Governance Award in June 2009. As you all know, we did not even know that the Frontier Centre even existed and that they surveyed communities about their governance structures. It sure was a surprised for us; we researched the Frontier Centre and its mandate. We wondered when they came to our community and asked members about our governance. We need to thank you, our membership, that you spoke well of our community, our Leaders and our organization. It shows that you have trust in your organization and Leaders that they can lead, inform, and govern your community in the way you want them too.

Of course winning this award leads us to pressure; pressure to lead, be transparent, and provide good governance. Our Leadership continues to remind us of our role to practice due diligence, provide clear direction and to increase our capacity. We, as Managers, need to be able to answer the questions that Leadership and our members ask; we need to be able to apply the knowledge to our services and programs. We have learned how to negotiate, learned inspiration, and learned how to respect our knowledge and skills in each other.

Not only do we have respect for our skills and brain power, we have also built up the value of trust. We, senior managers, have built a considerable amount of trust in each other. That trust creates us to be accountable to each other, to not let the other down and back one another up. I am so privileged to work with individuals who have similar values and work ethics as I do. I hope that we can model this and instill it in our staffing and membership.

As some of you know, we had INAC Regional Director and his Assistant come to our community. They came to check out our facilities, give us good news, and assist us in what we need to do in order to accomplish what our leadership and members want. Our Chief took them for the tour of our reserve and talked about what we need for our community. All in all, the visit and tour promoted our initiatives and that we have infrastructures to be proud off. Our community is headed in a successful direction and sometimes it can be scary and uncomfortable; however, we will continue to proceed in that direction.

Please continue to read for your goo-kum, mo-shoom, children, and yourselves, reading and understanding what you are reading is the key to communication and success! Newsletters can be obtained at the reception desk usually around the first week of the month. Thank you to the editor and to those who submit to the newsletter!