SIBAC Conferance – Jun 20 – 21
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week I attended the SIBAC (Southern Interior Beetle Action Coalition) Conference at the Four Points Sheraton by the airport in Kelowna. The theme of this group and the “Keeping It Rural” Conference is now focused on Rural Development. At the end of the Post I will provide links to the Presentations and Web Sites used during the Conference.
The speakers making presentations were there to explain how they, and their communities over came and thrived in their rural settings dealing with the same issues that face many small rural communities around the world. It became obvious real early that many of these smaller communities are facing the same challenges and can benefit from the solutions found elsewhere.
The BC Rural Center This is the new and improved SIBAC Website for Rural Diversity. It is up and running, check it out. The various speakers, their presentations, video of those presentations and supporting documentation are all on this website.
Bank of IDEAS Peter Kenyon, the keynote speaker explained his “abcd” or Program of Asset Based Community Development initiatives. This is where community members formed interest groups to improve different aspects of their community. Many of these initiatives were active in the electoral ares of RDCO in prior years but are actually not permissible anymore under the Purchasing Policy now in effect with RDCO. Building or renovating fire halls, beach cleaning and maintenance, boat launches, band stands and such parks and community infrastructure can no longer be local projects done by volunteers. This has eliminated the residents along with their input from the process even though they will pay all the bills for the work being done. Self governance would restore the community’s ability to both have input and hands on implementation of these types of projects resulting in huge savings in our precious tax dollars.