AMANS Board Update
Cathie Osborne, CMM, President, AMANS
As we move into the heat of summer, many of you will be heading to your favorite vacation spot. Unfortunately, many people don’t take vacations often enough and often when we do take vacations, we bring work along with us, keeping ourselves essentially still in the work mindset we’re trying to escape. This is counterproductive for many reasons. The fact is that vacations promote creativity, stave off burnout, keep us healthy, promote overall well-being and relieve stress. The bottom line is that taking a good amount of time away from the stresses of daily life can give us the break we need so that we can return to our lives refreshed and better equipped to handle whatever comes. In saying that I hope you all have an opportunity to get away from work for awhile this summer.
2010 AMANS Fall Convention
The 2010 AMANS Fall Convention will celebrate AMA's 40th year. It is scheduled to take place from October 5th - 8th at the Digby Pines Resort. Planning Committee Co-chairs Linda Fraser, District of Digby and Tom Ossinger, Town of Digby have been working to bring you a great program. This year's theme is Communications: Connecting Through a Common Language. This year we are happy to be running a small concurrent conference for Municipal IT Managers. There will be some very interesting sessions for this group in which AMA members may also have an interest.
Women in Local Government Bursary Program
October 15th is this year's deadline for the Women in Local Government Bursary Program. This program is designed to assist women employed in municipal government to pursue training, education and development opportunities to enhance their career.
The Women in Local Government Bursary Program provides an educational bursary to assist women in pursuing more advanced career opportunities within the municipal sector. The objective is to encourage women who work for municipal government to further their knowledge and skills and to ultimately provide more career opportunities for them within the municipal sector. Through this program, financial assistance is made available to deserving women to assist them in undertaking studies in public administration, accounting, human resources, urban and rural planning, civil engineering, recreation and other recognized courses or programs of skill upgrading and professional development.
More information and an application can be found on Women in Local Government.
Video Conferencing
At the 2010 AMA Spring Conference Minister Jennex announced funding for Video Conferencing Program through ecoNova Scotia in the amount of $127,000. Video conferencing is one way in which municipalities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through reducing travel to meetings and training events. The purpose of the project is to provide municipalities, the AMA and UNSM with the tools to utilize video conferencing as an alternative to face to face meetings and training and development events. Those municipalities who expressed interest earlier this year will be forwarded a confirmation of equipment form to complete and sign prior to the AMA ordering the equipment.
AMA Salary Survey
We encourage all municipal units to complete the AMA salary survey. Your access URL and password to complete the survey was forwarded to you earlier this year. If you need this forwarded to you again contact Kristy Farrell and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . The deadline for completing the survey is July 15th.
2010 Spring Conference
The AMA Spring Conference which was held at the Pictou Lodge this year was sponsored by the municipal units of the Pictou Region. The Carolyn MacIntosh, Municipality of Pictou and her committee did an excellent job in making delegates feel welcome and providing a perfect balance of information and social activity.
AMA Model By-law and Policy Project
The AMANS is in the process of securing funding to complete a Phase III of the Model By-law and Policy Project. The last revisions to the model by-law and policy binder took place in 2006 and a great deal has changed in municipal government since then. We would like to hear from you as to the need for the project and which model by-laws and policies you would like to see developed.