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• Arlynn Kurtz
• Ernie Briggs
• Norm Nordgulen
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From Norm Hall and David Spencer

Updated January 6, 2010

December 09, 2009

Man how time flies. It seems like we just finished our last report (early November) and here it is past Christmas already. I guess when you spend the best part of November in the combine and/or drying grain time can quickly pass you by.

Before we begin - the R.M. of Nipawin has a new APAS  Rep. We welcome Ken Schreiner on board!

Your district directors, Dave and Norm have been busy on the meeting front. On November 23, along with Nial and Greg, we met with ratepayers of the RM of Garry. This meeting was in response to the RM Council distributing a mail-in plebiscite on whether or not to continue with the RM's membership in APAS. The   response to APAS presentation was very positive with the attending ratepayers agreeing to establish an advisory committee to help the local APAS rep do his job more effectively. Unfortunately; those ratepayers who did not attend the meeting but only completed the mail-in ballot were not in favour of continuing membership in APAS and the council has since decided not to send in the second half of this year’s dues. As Directors and Reps we are all responsible to keep our RM councils informed  - but to also keep APAS informed of local issues and possible concerns that could jeopardize the organization's growth. We hope to work with the RM of Garry's council over the next year to have them return to APAS.

David and Nial also met with the R.M. of Star City in late November, and we are happy to report that they decided to rejoin APAS. We are all very excited to have them back! We also met with the R.M. of Pleasantdale in December. It was a very positive meeting , but due to financial commitments, they are delaying rejoining for the time being. There are many more meetings booked with R.M. councils in Jan., Feb. and March. It will be a busy time, but it is also very important  to have these face-to-face meetings in order to grow our membership.

In early December we all attended the Winter Mid Term meeting in Regina. Both Dave and I thought that this was one of the best APAS meetings ever. The four commodity groups that presented to us -  Sask Cattlemen's Assoc, Sask Pork Producers, Sask Canola Growers, and Sask Flax Growers  - all provided important and timely information - especially with all of the controversy in the market concerning those four commodities. For more information on the Winter Mid Term look for more reports on this website.

Since the MidTerm, Norm and Greg traveled to Wishart and Preeceville to meet with the RM’s of Emerald and Preeceville. With committed and supportive members like the RM of Emerald  -  APAS will continue to be a growing force. Our meeting with Preeceville was a very positive as well, and council has chosen to wait until their upcoming ratepayers’ meeting to make a final decision on membership. Norm and Nial traveled to Hyas and had a good discussion with the new administrator of the RM of Clayton. We are looking forward to working with Kelly and to our January meeting with the Clayton council. We also stopped in at Pelly to meet with Victoria, the administrator of the RM of St. Philips. We will be meeting with their council in January as well. On our way by we also stopped in at the RM of Cote and visited with their administrator Barry.

On December 18th the Board of Directors met in Regina. We reviewed the resolutions passed at the Winter MidTerm and passed them on to the various committees and staff for their actions. We also learned that it wasn’t just Dave and I that thought the midterm meeting went well -  the meeting evaluation forms had been compiled and the results were extremely good. Congrats to the staff that put this meeting together. We also looked at a draft agenda for the March AGM.However, the agenda has been tabled to the Executive Committee to finalize. 

Coming up in the next month we are looking at many more meetings with RM’s in the district, our internal committees will be meeting this winter, as will various external committees that we sit on, and other duties that we are assigned to by the board.The CFA AGM is in February, so a good deal of work needs to be done to ensure our Midterm resolutions get the support of the national and provincial member organizations.

We hope that the Christmas season has enabled you to spend time with your loved ones and that all travels ended uneventful and safe. May 2010 bring you happiness and prosperity.

Until next month, take care and be safe. While David will be traveling overseas for the next few weeks, feel free to contact Director Norm Hall at NormHall@apas.ca

 

Your Directors

 

Dave and Norm