Network Connections	January 2000

New Year’s Greetings from the Chair:

I hope everyone had a good holiday and restful break. I was busy setting up my new small business, a fabric store in Stony Plain. Which brings me to my next point… as a result of this venture I unfortunately must resign from my position as Chair of the CLN. I will continue to work as Coordinator of the Parkland Council three days a week, but my “free” time will be otherwise very occupied. I can’t tell you how much the experience of serving on the CLN Board has meant to me. The friendships I’ve made, the benefit to my council from having a provincial perspective, and the experience I’ve gained have been so valuable. I strongly encourage all coordinators to become involved. It’s fun, it’s rewarding and it’s a wonderful learning experience. I’m leaving the leadership in the capable hands of Vice-Chair Karoline Fox and I thank everyone on the Board for their contributions during my time as Chair.

Board members worked hard at our two-day strategic planning retreat in late November. The session, facilitated by June Morgan, helped us examine what we’ve done, where we’re heading in the future and how we’re going to get there. An outline of goals and strategies for the next three years will be presented at the spring conference. Thank you to all members of the Board for contributing their time, energy and enthusiasm to planning for the future of this dynamic organization.

We have some exciting projects underway and the Board is looking forward to working with coordinators to implement them. Both projects have been developed in the interest of better communication between the Community Programs Branch and councils, and between coordinators themselves. The first, of course is the new Regional Resource Network that is set to begin with a two-day training workshop for regional reps later in January. The Board will be requesting your feedback on this pilot project as it is implemented. The second project is still in the proposal stage. We have hired a consultant to write a proposal for the development of an online collaborative learning and discussion environment. The most important feature of this communication tool is that it can be accessed by coordinators at any public access Internet terminal and, unlike a web page, is completely private, accessed only by password. If funded, the project could go ahead as early as this spring. Watch for updates, hopefully at the spring conference.

I look forward to seeing everyone in March.

Lorraine Etienne