Council Meeting Very Productive

"It was a very positive, collaborative meeting... with amazing progress on tough issues." - E May


I am very proud to be a part of this amazing team.

I arrived at the Ottawa airport and was surprised to hear my name announced. I was called to the info desk where I met up with two other council members in order to share a cab. We went straight to the new national office for the open house and were greeted by our staff and about 100 local members.

Near the door was a pumpkin with our logo impressively carved into it. I was going to do this at home but after examining all of the different lines to cut I decided not to put myself through the torture.

The crowd was huge and most of us had a chance to get to know eachother. I hope to spend time with our staff in a quieter setting in the future. I had some great conversations and then joined some councillors & staff at a nearby pub for more conversation and preparation for our two day meeting.

(Ben West, BC Rep; Cameron Wigmore, AB Rep & Amber Jones, Sask Rep)

I am very excited about our council team. On Saturday we started off with a long day ahead and tackled everything fearlessly. Our chairperson, Melanie Ransom, has done a great job keeping us on track and moving our meetings forward in a structured, respectful and organized manner.

(Jean-Francois Pinel, elected as Treasurer & current councillor-at-large, reviewing the prices on the wine list. Nothing escapes this man ;-)

At dinner Jean-Fracois was quick to point out that the Party doesn't cover alcoholic beverages. I just had to get a picture of him scowling at the $64 bottles of wine. I drank water.

We had two full days of meetings (the minutes will be posted on the GPC website in the near future) and I think everyone was please with the quanity of work we did. I've found that a key to productive meetings is to have adequate discussion, and then pass a motion. Discussion without direction is the mother of all time vampires, and meetings without discussion can do very bad things. Thankfully we had the right amount of both and will be moving forward with a clear direction.

I left a rainy windy Ottawa and arrived back in a cold snowy Calgary. I sat down to 100+ emails and a new list of projects to tackle, and here I am posting on my blog. Time management is on my list of things to improve... ;-)

Thanks to all staff, councillors and members who helped to make this a great weekend!