The City of Yorkton recently held pre-conference community meetings in preparation for the Yorkton 2020 Community Strategic Plan Conference. The meetings are intended to give citizens a better idea of what is expected of them, and the selection criteria for participants.
The goal of the selection is to have as little city input into the people participating as possible. With a wide variety of categories to be filled, Councillor Larry Pearen noted that groups should get together and select the candidates that will best represent them.
People will also be asked to put down which interest groups they might represent when they submit their name, so they can fill those spots if not enough names are put forward. If a greater number of names are submitted than the category allows, the participants will be selected by random draw. This is another effort to keep the city's influence in the selection process at a minimum, Pearen explains.
The complete list of interest groups which the city hopes to be represented is available on the City of Yorkton's website, www.yorkton.ca.
While the variety of different areas are designed to make sure people from a wide cross section of the population are represented, Pearen asks that everyone considers more than just their particular interest when participating in the conference. He notes that people wear many hats in their every day life, and asks that people consider all of these when contributing.
The final list of conference attendees will be finalized on October 15. The selected persons will be required to attend a pre-conference briefing on October 20 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.
The conference itself will take place on October 28 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and on October 29 and 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
The criteria for selection is that participants must be committed to attend the entire two and a half day conference, they must be a resident of Yorkton or pay City of Yorkton taxes and be a Saskatchewan resident. They must also be willing to be an active participant in the conference. This is a slight change from the initial requirements, responding to a need for renters in the city to have their needs heard.
For more information or to put a name forward as a potential participant, people are invited to visit www.yorkton.ca, or to email: yorkton- 2020- @yorkton.ca or call Gloria at (306)786-1705.
