The Voice of North Grenville
Reaching by direct mail 8,500 homes and businesses in North Grenville
www.ngtimes.ca
January 18, 2024
Vol. 12 No. 2
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The first North Grenville Community Group Forum was held at the Municipal Centre on January 10th. The meeting was convened and organised by two local activists, Marguerite Boyer and Brian Mc Kee, and the venue and lunch were provided by the municipality and the Mayor's Office. The meeting was attended by more than fifty people representing over 20 groups within the community. Brian McKee, who serves as the Chair of the Board for the Kemptville Campus, was the neutral host of the meeting, facilitating the discussion and keeping everyone on task. The Roundtable began with a “speed dating” ice breaker, in which everyone in atten-
dance had just 30 seconds to introduce themselves. A short lunch period followed, with food supplied by Brewed Awakenings, before the group voted on which question in the agenda to tackle with a round of small group discussions. The larger group was divided into six smaller groups, where the questions at hand were discussed openly. Issues discussed included mental health and suicide prevention, business activities and new business ideas, the logistics of community events, how to get community members to connect with each other, the lack of volunteers in the community and how to address this, the importance of collaboration rather than working alone in silence, ways to keep the community informed, the importance
of advertising events, and much more. A speaker from each group was then invited to share their group’s ideas with the larger group. First up was Liz Sutherland from the Kemptville Campus, who shared her group’s thoughts about organizations within North Grenville helping each other by sharing resources. For example, the Chamber of Commerce has preferred rates available for purchasing event insurance, and the North Grenville Public Library has document templates that may be useful to many other local groups. Liz also discussed issues of staff turnover, records management, and the importance of having a “central repository” for notifying residents about upcoming events. Next, John Beking from the Rotary Club of Kemp-
tville and the Kemptville Christian Reformed Church presented for group 2. John asked “How do we engage new people who come to our community?” This was a main point of group 2’s discussion, in addition to discussions of volunteering and how to ensure that volunteers feel comfortable and free from liability. Geoff Gander from the Kemptville Legion was the reporter for group 3. Geoff explained that organizations in North Grenville are consistently relying on the same small group of regular dedicated volunteers who keep local events alive. Group 3 therefore considered how to help more people in the community – including young people – see the value of supporting local organizacontinued on page 2
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