
This weekend, I am happy to be attending the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities' (AVICC) 2014 AGM and Convention. These kinds of events bring together councillors, mayors, MLAs and other politically engaged folks from all over our region. The schedule is varied - keynote speeches from senior elected officials or other people of interest (this year's keynotes came from Deb Grey, retired Reform MP, and Don McRae, MLA, from the BC Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation), plenary sessions or breakout sessions on topics of interest like today's panel on the recent BC Ferries cuts, nominations to the AVICC Board and of course resolution sessions where member communities put forward motions that they would like AVICC to endorse and bring forward to the UBCM. We also have some fun - the picture above shows the mayors of Parksville and Qualicum "horsing around" during the welcome to the AGM & Convention, a bit of much needed comic relief with the often heavy issues that local government is dealing with on a daily basis.
Another great part is the receptions, dinners, and even coffee breaks where we do get to foster those cross-community relationships that help us work together on larger projects, like the ad hoc Young Elected Officials Network, a grassroots network of local government folks like Andrew Mostad, Ben Isitt, Josie Osborne, Lucas Banton, myself and many others who have successfully got into local government, and want to mentor others to do the same.
So, I am looking forward to all of the great things that are going to arise from this convention, and I look forward to sharing my notes with you over the coming days!
Oh, and another great thing about attending conferences like this? All of the social media chatter that happens online, like this twitter exchange from earlier :)
-JH
Update: Thanks to everyone who supported me in my successful bid for a seat as Director at Large, and congratulations to Andrew Mostad & Claire Moglove, the other two successful Director at Large candidates!