Have any of you ever walked into your Grandma's house and felt instanstly comforted by the smell of her kitchen? Have you ever walked past the ice cream stand and smelt them making homemade waffle cones and felt the urge to indulge in a cool treat? Have you ever gone outside after a long rainstorm (if you are living in Alberta this last month this one will really apply to you) and taken a deep refreshing breath of cool, rain air? If you can relate to any of these things then you will agree with me when I say that the places we love most come with a specific smell, unique and distinctly their own.
Amongst the busyness of life I usually forget to stop and simply smell. I can find myself caught up with what's going on in my own world and forget that there are wonderful, small gifts we are given on a daily basis like smell that remind us we all have stories, histories and memories that are apart of us.
On Monday afternoon I stood up from my desk to take a break from the computer screen and take a stroll outside to catch a fresh breath. As I walked down the sidewalk I was instantly overwhelmed by the smell of summertime in Hay Lakes. It is a beautiful blend of pure prairie air, freshly cut grass and the perfect blend of dusty breeze. It is a smell that took me instantly back to my childhood when I roamed the village streets with my cousins, playing from morning until night, only breaking for the odd ice cream cone and meal. This wonderful smell of summertime reminded me of memories that perhaps I don't often take the time to think about enough anymore. Being in Hay Lakes this summer has offered me many new learning experiences and new insights into complex topics. But, maybe even more important than all of that is it has reminded me that the memories I cherish most about being a child can be called upon in a heartbeat if I simply take a second to smell.
I suppose today I challenge all of you to take the time out of your busy day and indulge your senses with a few familiar smells. You might be surprised by what you discover and pleased with the realization that even though we grow up, move away and change, we can be warmed every now and then by the smells that are linked to our fondest memories.
I am learning that what makes our rural communities so important is not a question that can always be answered by a few well thought out sentences, or even by research, but instead if you are present, can sometimes be found in the prairie air.
Wednesday 27 July 2011
Thursday 21 July 2011
Making Sense of Sustainability
I am not sure if all people enjoy life's random happenings, but for me it is the random moments in a day that usually have the most to offer us. It seemed this week I was constantly turning the corner to run into another random adventure. Between a young boy bringing a lost puppy to the village office and then trying to see if it would respond to any of the registered village dog names, to reading a copy of the original Hay Lakes by-law book (which by the way had an original cost of $6.00, and noted that all council meetings shall be held at the village hotel) the week was full of fun adventures in Hay Lakes. Needless to say though the puppy found a good home, and that put me back to work on my sustainability endeavor.
After completing a sustainabilty assessment last week, I knew that this week I had my hands full in taking the data from this assessment and turning it into a report for administration and council. The assessment was part of a tool-kit put out by the AUMA and covered eight broad topic areas. In these topic areas questions were addressed in an attempt to help paint a picture of where your municipality is at with its sustainability initiatives. After finishing the assessment I took the data and coded it in a way that indicated how much of a priority that topic could have (e.g. things that may pose a challenge when assessing sustainability were coded red and things that were going really well in the village and pose no threat to sustainability were coded green and a few in between were coded yellow, which meant they have the potential to pose a problem). Once coded I used the data to generate a report and outlined a brief explanation about why I coded things the way I did.
Now that I have the report almost complete the real question becomes what to do with it, and why does it matter? These are two questions that I have been reflecting on this week. I would be lying if I said I knew the answers to either of them. I believe that there is value in completing the assessment for the village, and if nothing else the report will cross the table at the next council meeting and the councilors will be aware of the information found, and will most likely have a conversation around it. There is a part of me that believes bringing awareness and creating a report that generates conversation around sustainability means that value has been found in this project. Why does it matter? I had a professor tell me once that a mark of a good paper is being able to really find the heart of the topic, and begin to answer the so what? It is great to find the information and present it, but if we aren't able to answer the so what and who cares then perhaps we shouldn't be writing about it in the first place.
I know the obvious reasons as to why assessments and questions around sustainability matter; we want thriving communities and a healthy environment, we want our future generations to know what it is like to be apart of a community and have the ability to enjoy the beautiful world we live in. These are the responses that perhaps are always below the surface. They linger because without them work like this has the potential to lose all meaning. If I look below the obvious reasoning I find a new set of questions being asked around why this matters. Something I am learning is that our rural Albertan communities cannot be understood using the same lens we use to view our urban centers. These communities are not only working with completely different resources and parameters but they are acheiving the same daily tasks that an urban town office would have to, except instead of 25 people on staff they have one or two.
If I look deeper, below the obvious values that perpetuate our pursuit for sustainability, and allow myself to use a different set of lenses, I see that what I thought I 'knew' about sustainability doesn't always apply to rural Alberta. In these smaller communities the pursuit for sustainability can revolve around checking the government mandated boxes, addressing resident concerns on a daily basis, taking on the extra workload during tax season and ensuring that the funding and plans are in place for the maintaince of services in the village. In this sense sustainability revolves more around achieving the tasks needed to ensure the village residents stay happy and the village stays functioning well.
This week has brought new insight to me, and allowed me to explore new questions around sustainability. It has taught me to broaden my scope, and learn the importance of context. What is sustainable for one place doesn't always mean it is the same for another.
After completing a sustainabilty assessment last week, I knew that this week I had my hands full in taking the data from this assessment and turning it into a report for administration and council. The assessment was part of a tool-kit put out by the AUMA and covered eight broad topic areas. In these topic areas questions were addressed in an attempt to help paint a picture of where your municipality is at with its sustainability initiatives. After finishing the assessment I took the data and coded it in a way that indicated how much of a priority that topic could have (e.g. things that may pose a challenge when assessing sustainability were coded red and things that were going really well in the village and pose no threat to sustainability were coded green and a few in between were coded yellow, which meant they have the potential to pose a problem). Once coded I used the data to generate a report and outlined a brief explanation about why I coded things the way I did.
Now that I have the report almost complete the real question becomes what to do with it, and why does it matter? These are two questions that I have been reflecting on this week. I would be lying if I said I knew the answers to either of them. I believe that there is value in completing the assessment for the village, and if nothing else the report will cross the table at the next council meeting and the councilors will be aware of the information found, and will most likely have a conversation around it. There is a part of me that believes bringing awareness and creating a report that generates conversation around sustainability means that value has been found in this project. Why does it matter? I had a professor tell me once that a mark of a good paper is being able to really find the heart of the topic, and begin to answer the so what? It is great to find the information and present it, but if we aren't able to answer the so what and who cares then perhaps we shouldn't be writing about it in the first place.
I know the obvious reasons as to why assessments and questions around sustainability matter; we want thriving communities and a healthy environment, we want our future generations to know what it is like to be apart of a community and have the ability to enjoy the beautiful world we live in. These are the responses that perhaps are always below the surface. They linger because without them work like this has the potential to lose all meaning. If I look below the obvious reasoning I find a new set of questions being asked around why this matters. Something I am learning is that our rural Albertan communities cannot be understood using the same lens we use to view our urban centers. These communities are not only working with completely different resources and parameters but they are acheiving the same daily tasks that an urban town office would have to, except instead of 25 people on staff they have one or two.
If I look deeper, below the obvious values that perpetuate our pursuit for sustainability, and allow myself to use a different set of lenses, I see that what I thought I 'knew' about sustainability doesn't always apply to rural Alberta. In these smaller communities the pursuit for sustainability can revolve around checking the government mandated boxes, addressing resident concerns on a daily basis, taking on the extra workload during tax season and ensuring that the funding and plans are in place for the maintaince of services in the village. In this sense sustainability revolves more around achieving the tasks needed to ensure the village residents stay happy and the village stays functioning well.
This week has brought new insight to me, and allowed me to explore new questions around sustainability. It has taught me to broaden my scope, and learn the importance of context. What is sustainable for one place doesn't always mean it is the same for another.
Thursday 14 July 2011
Hay Lakes Ball Tournament
Although this technically does not have much to do with matters pertaining to rural capacity intern work I thought I should send a special shout out and thanks to the volunteers who made the Hay lakes ball tournament go round this past weekend.
Every year, around this time, the small village of Hay Lakes come alive and welcomes teams from far and wide to enjoy a weekend full of good old fashioned baseball, a few burgers (much thanks to the fire department for heading this up) and in my case a weekend full of family fun. For about 5 years now my family has been bringing our tents and ball gloves out to the village and gathering for some weekend fun together. Although the persistent rain did put a bit of a damper on the weekend the tournament still went on and for this all the individuals who organized the annual event deserve many thanks for continuing to bring such events like this to the village of Hay Lakes.
I left on Sunday feeling a little soggy, and perhaps even a little sore from over-use of ball playing muscles, but more importantly I left feeling thankful for local community members who are always willing to offer up their time and energy to make such a great weekend go round!
Every year, around this time, the small village of Hay Lakes come alive and welcomes teams from far and wide to enjoy a weekend full of good old fashioned baseball, a few burgers (much thanks to the fire department for heading this up) and in my case a weekend full of family fun. For about 5 years now my family has been bringing our tents and ball gloves out to the village and gathering for some weekend fun together. Although the persistent rain did put a bit of a damper on the weekend the tournament still went on and for this all the individuals who organized the annual event deserve many thanks for continuing to bring such events like this to the village of Hay Lakes.
I left on Sunday feeling a little soggy, and perhaps even a little sore from over-use of ball playing muscles, but more importantly I left feeling thankful for local community members who are always willing to offer up their time and energy to make such a great weekend go round!
Monday 11 July 2011
Sustainability Matters & Mid July Wrap Up
The last few weeks have been busy in the bustling village of Hay Lakes. The village office was working overtime to get all the tax assessments out on time, as well we finished our final census summary and submitted it. When I am not helping out around the office doing day to day projects I have been busy researching topics around sustainability.
My research stems from a project that I am working on for the village of Hay Lakes which involves doing a viability assessment on the village and from there, beginning to create a workable action plan that will bring awareness to topics surrounding sustainability. One of the major components of my research is discovering what other municipalities are doing in this area as a way to better direct me towards an effective plan for Hay Lakes. My goal is to create a document that is interactive, and allows for council or administration to check in on village goals, and projects and easily identify success or progress in the way of achieving viability landmarks and goals.
To achieve this I have been reading alot about appreciative inquiry and asset mapping as a way to direct this kind of planning in the village. These strategies suggest that when looking at susatinability planning it is productive to identify the strengths and assets that already exist within a community. It states that instead of focusing on challenges and weaknesses within a community, this kind of framework allows the focus to be positive and begin to generate new kinds of ideas and solutions. Focusing on things that are working and then moving forth and beginning to envision new kinds of understanding and knowledge is the foundation of Appreciative Inquiry. My hope is that this framework will be the base for creating an action plan for the village of Hay Lakes.
Wrap-up....
As of now I have had my hands full in the Village of Hay Lakes conducting a village census, creating new policy documents, working on a safety manual and pitching in with day to day community inquiries and projects. What does the rest of the summer hold for me?! My focus will now go towards researching, working on an assessment and beginning work on a viability action plan. Although there are still alot of unknowns with this project, it really excites me to think of the experience I will acquire working on something like this, and what my work around this topic area will offer the village. Even if what I end up with is just awareness raising in the village then I believe I will have accomplished something.
When I am not working on this I will still have many things to keep me occupied in the village. These things include working on organizing a few events for prairie fun days in August, maybe hanging out with the summer in the park crew who offer summer activities to youth in the village and finishing up any of the loose ends of the documents I was apart of creating / finishing this summer. When I type it out like this, the question is not how will I fill my time this summer, but instead how will I find more time this summer?!
My research stems from a project that I am working on for the village of Hay Lakes which involves doing a viability assessment on the village and from there, beginning to create a workable action plan that will bring awareness to topics surrounding sustainability. One of the major components of my research is discovering what other municipalities are doing in this area as a way to better direct me towards an effective plan for Hay Lakes. My goal is to create a document that is interactive, and allows for council or administration to check in on village goals, and projects and easily identify success or progress in the way of achieving viability landmarks and goals.
To achieve this I have been reading alot about appreciative inquiry and asset mapping as a way to direct this kind of planning in the village. These strategies suggest that when looking at susatinability planning it is productive to identify the strengths and assets that already exist within a community. It states that instead of focusing on challenges and weaknesses within a community, this kind of framework allows the focus to be positive and begin to generate new kinds of ideas and solutions. Focusing on things that are working and then moving forth and beginning to envision new kinds of understanding and knowledge is the foundation of Appreciative Inquiry. My hope is that this framework will be the base for creating an action plan for the village of Hay Lakes.
Wrap-up....
As of now I have had my hands full in the Village of Hay Lakes conducting a village census, creating new policy documents, working on a safety manual and pitching in with day to day community inquiries and projects. What does the rest of the summer hold for me?! My focus will now go towards researching, working on an assessment and beginning work on a viability action plan. Although there are still alot of unknowns with this project, it really excites me to think of the experience I will acquire working on something like this, and what my work around this topic area will offer the village. Even if what I end up with is just awareness raising in the village then I believe I will have accomplished something.
When I am not working on this I will still have many things to keep me occupied in the village. These things include working on organizing a few events for prairie fun days in August, maybe hanging out with the summer in the park crew who offer summer activities to youth in the village and finishing up any of the loose ends of the documents I was apart of creating / finishing this summer. When I type it out like this, the question is not how will I fill my time this summer, but instead how will I find more time this summer?!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)