April 13, 2016
Greetings Everyone,
As I usually do, I will remind everyone to please pick up your burn permits at the Sturgeon County office in Morinville or online. From all news reports, all areas in Alberta are very dry so please do your part to keep everyone safe.
On April 9, we attended an Orientation and Strategic Planning Session. It was suggested by Therese that we have a Planning Day and Dan organized it. Therese reviewed the bylaws, policies and job descriptions with us in the morning. Changes were made to the policies and job descriptions as required. There were no changes to the bylaws but we have a list of the SRCWA Objects and I think it is worthwhile for all our members to read and know what our purpose is.
The afternoon session involved our goals, filling vacant director positions, demonstrate increased community presence, focusing on crime awareness, increase membership and more. I would suggest that every group take the time to have a session such as we did. Everyone who attended was very involved in the discussions and we all came away feeling we had learned so much and are moving forward to another great year. It was extremely worthwhile, so much so that we will be doing this annually. Anyone who has a chance should google the video Every Meeting Ever –it is such an eye opener – each one of us saw ourselves at some point.
We were not able to attend the Zone 5 meeting in Barrhead as it was planned for the same day as our Planning Session.
I will remind everyone that we will have a booth at the Trade Show in Morinville on Friday April 22 and Saturday April 23. Our booth is sponsored by Sturgeon Valley Fertilizers. We will have three free draws; a bag of lawn fertilizer donated by SVF, a Surveillance Camera donated by Morinville Shell and a gift basket donated by Susan Evans, Councillor for Division 2. Stop by and say Hi! –We will have membership forms for anyone who is interested in becoming a member of the Sturgeon Rural Crime Watch Association.
I would like to clarify that all the towns, villages and hamlets within our boundaries are considered part of SRCWA. There are many including Legal, Morinville, Bon Accord, Gibbons, Riviere Qui Barre, Mearns, Alcomdale and more. Our boundaries are North to Highway 651, East to Gibbons, South to Parkland County and the City of St Albert and to the West we go as far as the County of Barrhead and Lac St Anne. All residents within those boundaries, whether they live in a rural area or not are welcome to become members.
Margaret advised us at our last meeting that 4H members will collect electronics, tires etc for recycling. Colleen provided us with a list of 4H clubs and contacts as well as the profits the young 4Hers can make. Please consider these 4H groups when you have anything to recycle.
On a sad note, one of our past members Jim Falls passed away. On behalf of all our membership I offer our sincere sympathies to all of Jim’s family. Jim was a very active and dedicated member of the SRCWA. He held the positions of Treasurer and Zone Director for many years. A floral arrangement and card were delivered to the church the day of Jim’s funeral.
If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear from you. Please contact me at president@sturgeonruralcrimewatch.org
Francoise Meunier
President SRCWA
