Oh, I am so excited for our community, new buildings are going up, dirt is being moved, businesses are moving along, and members are increasing their skill base!
School has begun and I believe should be an exciting year for some. Socializing, sports, and challenging the brain, are just some of the exciting times in school. School can be also be an awkward time, as young people, we are learning about ourselves, how we grow, how our brain function, and how much our feelings control our behaviors. When we put our discouragements, fears and excitement to work doing something that changes our experiences to include others, we find strength, confidence and hope. Therefore, I hope that you find school to be an experience that finds yourself and your strength and most of all challenge that brain. Supposedly we use 10% of our brains capacity so there is still 90% that is underutilized.
We are just about full strength in the offices, I hope that staff has enjoyed their holidays and I hope that you are refreshed and ready to provide a renewed service with hope. We have some new faces: Calvin Steinaur as our General Manager for Business/Investment Centre, Connie Turhasky as our in house Lawyer, Mary Gauthier as our A/Social Development Coordinator, Lisa Beaverbone as our A/Health Director and Tyrone Whitford as our Economic Development Coordinator. Therefore, I am eager to finish our projects and get on with new projects.
As leadership are returning, the key areas that they are still working on are the water legislation, consultation process, H1N1 virus, environmental issues, economic development, strategic plans and legislation that impact our treaties. Therefore, in this coming year, Leadership will be attending more meetings as Federal and Provincial continue to try and limit our ability to practice our Treaty.
As I look at our community and its changing landscape, I see the progress and I see the need to plan for our land use. More importantly, the HINI virus is on the minds of our health department as well as Leadership. This virus and maybe other viruses that may also arise, we need to plan for our community to keep ourselves safe, save on products that can sustain ourselves for a period of time and plan for our people if they get sick. This week, managers will be working with the Health Department to organize ourselves if a virus hits our community, we hope not but we also need to be realistic. So at home, you also need to prepare by keeping clean, washing your hands and seeing your doctor regularly.
Communication is the key to our success and learning, so read for yourselves, your goo-kum, mo-shoom and your children! Please submit to your newsletter, do not be shy, we know you have a lot of positive and new things to say!!! Newsletters can be obtained at the reception desk usually around the first week of the month! Thank you.
Respectfully, Beatrice Carpentier, O’Chiese Band Manager