MAKING FULL USE OF DISCUSSION INPUT

Introductory Comment

What I present here is a group discussion methodology which is much more complex and requires much more effort than the usual methods. However, if one is sincere about wanting to capture the input from participants, this methodology is well worth the extra effort.

In my previous post, I described how contributions in discussion groups are almost always filtered and distorted as they are recorded by scribes and repeated by reporters. The wisdom, knowledge, passion, and depth of the discussion participants is often lost in the translations. "Final reports" are usually poor representations of what actually transpired in the discussion.

I have used a different technique based on the assumption that every word in every statement by every participant is important.

I will describe how the process worked in a typical project. I will first describe the setting of a hypothetical discussion event:

A community service organization is about to launch into a strategic planning process and they want to do a comprehensive assessment of their current performance. They decide that they need input from all of their stakeholders: Board members, staff, clients, funders, partner agencies, suppliers, etc. They develop a list of key questions for which they would like answers. They also want to give each group a chance for open comments that they feel are important.

The Process

Focus groups are arranged for each of these groups. In this example, all participants are gathered in the same place at the same time. Each focus group is limited to about 6 to 8 people in order to allow for plenty of input opportunity from each person. Each group is homogeneous; that is, all members are from the same group: board members, staff, clients, etc.  (There can be other situations where you want mixed groups to develop mutual understanding. That is not the objective in this scenario.)

Each group gathers around a small table. There is a discussion leader for each table to keep the discussion flowing, on topic and to watch the time, All members have the list of questions that will be discussed. In the middle of the table is a recording device capable of receiving voices from all directions (or a hand mike which can be passed around). The discussion proceeds through all the questions and open discussions. The complete record of the discussion has been captured at each table. The recording identifies the group involved. Maintaining identities of each speaker is optional, but usually not necessary.

The crucial part of this methodology comes into play at this point. here are the key functions that need to take place now.

The analyst identifies the list of entities that will be used to define each part of the audio file. Here are the entities that I normally used:  
Group (Client, Staff, Board, etc.)
Question being discussed (1,2,3,4....)
Response Type: Positive,  Negative, or neutral
Subject (This would include a long list of subjects which can be added to as new subjects show up. Some examples to illustrate this field: funding, cost control, staffing levels, leadership, strategic planning, budget control, legislation, community involvement, transportation, staff training, etc.)

Each statement will be analysed so that it is fully defined. It will be known to what question it refers, what group it came from, whether it was a positive, negative, or neutral point of view, and what aspect of the subject was mentioned. (Usually the person making the statement is not identified, but there are valid exceptions to this.)

An important design factor needs to be mentioned here. Statements in many cases will be complex and multi faceted. One statement could refer to two or more subjects, could be partly positive and partly negative. Because of this, you really need a well designed relational database to manage the data. A simple spreadsheet would not be an efficient way to process this material. Each statement may relate to one or many subjects. Each subject may be referenced by one or many statement. These are known as :many-to-many relationships which are best handled by a well-designed relational database.

1.  Each audio file is transcribed, verbatim.
2.  A separate copy of the transcription is then parsed, i.e. broken down into sentences or parts of sentences that deal with different subjects.
3. Each statement is assigned the attributes that apply to it. Group, question, Responses type (positive, negative, or neutral), subject or subjects alluded to.
4. Then all of the responses from all of the groups are combined in the same table structure in order to facilitate a very comprehensive analysis. We often describe this process as slicing and dicing the data.

The end product of a survey such as this can generate literally hundreds of thousands of observations  obviously more that anyone would have time to consider, absorb, and react to. The analyst will conduct a large number of queries in order to identify the most descriptive and revealing snapshots of the data, and builds these into a report.

General Reports 
Here are some typical high level reports that might be presented:

Percentage of positive, negative and neutral statements.
  - same for each Group (staff, clients, board members, etc.)
  - same for each subject dealt with in the survey
  - same for each question on the survey

Percentage of positive, negative and neutral statements on each of the questions discussed.

Listing of all the personal statements from each group on each topic; then the same for all the negative statements.

Comparisons of all groups on a spectrum of issues arising within the discussions. Special note can be made of major differences among various groups - not to decide who is right or wrong, but to understand the different perspectives within each part of the organization.

Normally the recipients of the reports will find that many of the observations confirm their own perceptions, but at the same time they find many surprises - surprises that come about when the perspectives of some groups in the organization differ from theirs. We often find major divides in perceptions from people at different levels of the organization (executives. middle management, front line staff, and clients) and this kind of open participatory discussion is very effective in providing full understanding of why the perspectives differ.

It is not at all unusual when this kind of report is presented to the organization for people to present additional questions. This style of study makes it easy for us to drill down into the data to answer specific queries. For example, if someone were to ask if there is a correlation between those who expressed concern with the leadership in the organization and those who were positive about the need for strategic planning, it would easy to make a query to answer that question.

It is fairly difficult to describe this whole process. I hope that the above is sufficient to give you a sense of how this approach works.

I am having difficulty to enable comments but readers on this blog format, but if you have questions, I am in the phone book. On Facebook look for "brockest", or write me at Box 492,  Blyth Ontario N0M 1H0, and I will answer you.

Blog address is https://allaboutblyth.blogspot.com

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF A FOCUS GROUP

You may have had this experience before.

You are in a group that is discussing a serious matter of business, social issues, goals and objectives for an organization, etc. 

It is decided that the ideas that come our of the discussion should be captured for future consideration. If the group is rather large, it might be broken down to small separate groups which will allow everyone to have a better chance to participate and express their ideas.

Typically, there will be a recorder for each small group listing the points made on a flip chart for later sharing with all the other groups.

When all of the small groups have completed their discussions, the large group will re-form and someone from each group will orally describe the highlights of  his/her group. While this is happening, another person is summarizing those presentations perhaps on a larger chart or smart board.

Quite often, this final summary will be printed up and sent out to the participants for their reference. 

I wonder if you have had the same feeling as I have had in these groups.

I look at this final summary. Then I think back to the great discussion that we had in that initial small group. There is usually little resemblance between what I remember of our discussion, to the sparse, disconnected, scattered phrases and diagrams in that final summary.

What has happened is that the rich ideas expressed by the discussants have been reduced to a few key words, interpreted with varying degrees of accuracy by the recorders, re-interpreted by the group reporters and then by the final reporter and recorder.

The end product is usually, I would argue always, a faint shadow of the original. The richness is lost, the meaning is at least somewhat distorted, the passion and excitement of the original expression is lost.

What a shame! If the organizers were sincere in wanting to capture the ideas and views of the group, they have to be disappointed in the "pablum" that usually comes out of this multi-filtered process,

I have developed a solution for this problem. I have used this system and it works. It involves a lot of work and considerable specialized skill but the end result is worth it. My clients were ecstatic about the rich report that emerged. In fact, the report that comes out of it is usually considered richer than what was derived by being part of the group.

That may be hard to believe, but if you know about the process, you will understand why that is so.

If you are interested in finding our about this, please look for my next Blog entry which describes my methodology.

(This format does not allow for comments from readers.)

Brock Vodden

AVON MAITLAND DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD IS NOT OUR FRIEND

THINGS WE MUST REMEMBER

 

We realize that Blyth Public School is gone and will never return.

 

But there are a few things surrounding the loss of the school that none of us should forget.

 

I refer to the manner in which the Avon Maitland District School Board, its members and its senior staff conducted themselves, and the way the Minister of Education and her officials encouraged those behaviours.

 

When someone lies to me, or deliberately does something to me that is unwarranted, unfair, and harmful I will never enter a trusting relationship with that person again unless I am given absolute proof that he or she has transformed himself or herself in some spectacular and convincing manner.

 

We should apply the same standard to public servants who mislead us and betray our trust. We must not forget! Not ever!

 

The school board and staff misled us. They manipulated the ARC process so that the Blyth business community and our municipal council were not involved to represent us. Only one of the ARC meetings was advertised in the Citizen. Their spokesperson publicly denied those proven facts.

 

Board staff long denied rumours that they were planning to move Grade 7 and 8 students into F.E. Madill School. In a meeting we had with two senior staff and a contractor, the word slipped out that they had been planning this for the previous three years. The flustered administrators tried in vain to cover up the unintended disclosure.

 

Our school board representative never asked for our opinions, never explained why she voted to close our school, and never apologized afterwards for what damage the board did to our community. Some representative!

 

And then the whole sham was white-washed by a facilitator who ignored the intrigue and scolded us for objecting.

 

The end  results of these events are what they are, and will not be changed. But my message is that we must not forget about the ethical breeches and the manipulations done by people who should have represented us. We can only guess what other secret schemes they are harbouring if we renew their mandate.

 

Brock Vodden

Blood Money From Sale of Our School

Former Blyth Public School

Director of Finance for Avon Maitland School Board, Jane Baird-Jackson, proudly announces that the sales of this school and one other (Brussels) have been concluded. She adds that there are very tight restrictions on what these funds can be used for.

It is important to point out that there were also "tight restrictions" on how the AMDSB could go about deciding which schools to close. The board paid very limited attention to those rules, board and staff members routinely manipulated the ARC process to frustrate the community's needs and rights. They gave out false information, ignored the community's petition. And the Ministers of Education through that time period turned a blind eye on the entire sordid process.

We are not told what those restrictions are on the use of the blood money they are getting from these sales, but we as a community cannot trust that the uses will be of any benefit to this community. Given the board's track record, can they be trusted to adhere to these restrictions?

Gone are the days when school trustees represented the community by whom they were elected. Instead we have only leeches which draw out our blood and build monuments to themselves at enormous and unnecessary public expense.

This community has been severely damaged by this board's malicious theft of our school. Whatever the board decides to do with their ill-gotten gains, our only consolation is that there is nothing else left that they can steal from us.

CAUTION: B R & E MUST BE DONE PROPERLY

BUSINESS RETENTION  and  EXPANSION (B R & E)

THIS IS AN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM WHICH, WHEN CARRIED OUT PROPERLY, CAN MAKE A DRAMATIC IMPROVEMENT IN THE ECONOMIC CLIMATE OF A COMMUNITY. WE HAVE LEARNED RECENTLY THAT THERE IS A NEED FOR OVERSIGHT TO ENSURE THAT THE PROJECT IS CARRIED OUT PROPERLY. A BADLY CONDUCTED PROJECT CAN HAVE POWERFUL NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON THE COMMUNITY.

   

BR & E  is a process which has been in use for many years and was adopted in Ontario in the late 1990s by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). It is an important economic development strategy, an important adjunct to the popular strategy of attempting to recruit businesses and industries from other places. The argument behind B R & E is that "we need to build on what we have, by doing whatever we can to keep the businesses we have and help them to succeed and grow. Businesses that we can lure from other communities may be just as likely to slip away somewhere else, whereas our existing businesses already have an allegiance to us. Why not do our best for them?

I was involved with the introduction of BR & E in Ontario in the late 1990s by OMAFRA. Along with four or five others, I was on the committee chaired by Harold Flaming which developed the original questionnaire as well as the procedures that would be used throughout the process. The program was tested in several communities throughout southern Ontario. I worked with the pilot program for Seaforth and along met periodically with all of the pilot teams around the province to compare notes and fine tune the program.

We were all very proud of what was achieved by these pilot projects, and now, many years later, we can still see the benefits of the things we learned and the relationships that were formed by that entire process.

In recent months many more B R & E projects have been launched across Huron County. In most cases we see similar kinds of success due to the identification of challenges and the discovery of new visions all of which lead to positive plans and renewal. I have noted that the questionnaire has undergone some updating and refinement, but a surprising number of the questions remain the same as those of the original survey document.

Unfortunately, some of the projects completed recently have failed to measure up to the potential of B R & E quality results. In my view this has come about because along the way some groups have made changes that they feel will improve the process in certain ways, but in so doing, they have eliminated some of the very qualities that made the BR & E process so successful. Chief among these changes have been measures to make the process more efficient. In many cases these efficiencies have eliminated some of the activities that contributed enormously to the success of the program. This is a program in which the steps in the process of doing it are all important and part of the original design. Somewhere along the line newcomers have seen this as a simple completion of a questionnaire. They have missed many of the essential points that have had as great an effect on the community as the survey itself. In other word the process of the project is of as great an importance as the final report itself.

I will indicate some of the original features that have been altered by some groups:

Direct involvement by municipal council.

The B R & E process has been so successful in large part because it put together the elected officials, municipal staff, business representatives, and other community members. All the members see that the whole community is working together determined to make the community better for present and future business to serve the community more effectively. Thus it was not just a matter of the work that these people did, but a matter of how they perceived other people and other segments of their community.

Later groups have felt that that arrangement was very inefficient, and have a “lean and mean” committee with perhaps a staff representative from the municipality and a committee of mostly business people. In some cases they hire one or more “experts” to do the interviewing, complete the forms, and submit these to OMAFRA for processing. This is certainly more efficient if seen as nothing more than a form filling exercise, but completely lost is the community impact which was derived from the joint participation of members of the total community. It's a cheap way of doing the job that misses the rich results that should be available. 

Volunteer Interviewers

The original design called for a large number of volunteers from the community to do the interviewing. Most of these people are very busy and cannot afford a huge amount of time to devote to this task. Thus the aim was to have a large number of interviewers each performing from two to four interviews. In that way the interviews could be completed in a very short period of time – probably within two weeks or three.

The other feature was that each interview would be conducted by two volunteers: one to ask the questions, the other to record the responses on the questionnaire form.

There were two evenings of preparation to familiarize the interviewers with the questions in the questionnaire and to prepare them for responding to questions that the interviewees might ask. Some role playing exercises were held which added to the comfort level of the interview teams both on interviewing and recording.

Not surprisingly, this demand for dozens of volunteers appeared to some as a huge waste of volunteers. For several years now I have not heard of any groups that have taken this route. The loss, however, is enormous. In the Seaforth pilot, great care was taken to impress on everyone that these interviews were given in confidence. The questionnaire form would be sealed and sent to Guelph for processing unseen by any other individuals. The exception to this would be a “red flag” item: some issue that came up in the interview that required immediate attention by someone or some body. In this case, the interviewee would give permission for the team to present this information to the individual who was designated as the red flag coordinator who would then take the issue to the appropriate authority for resolution. That might be the Mayor, the Director of Public Works, the telephone company, the landlord, the neighbour, or whoever had the authority to deal immediately with the matter.

This approach had a huge effect on the entire community. It involved a huge number of regular community members who saw first hand the genuine concern and effort being put forth by their community and business leaders to make substantive improvements in the community. It increased the amount of civic involvement. The effect showed up in the crowd that showed up to hear about the results of the BR & E project.

The BR&E is a whole community event

The BR&E program is intended as a community-wide process – not just a council or a business project. When it is taken over by one or two segments of the community, it can be turned into a very divisive process with finger-pointing, blame-laying, community fragmentation, and the very kind of dysfunctional behaviour which might be one of the major obstacles to retaining and attracting businesses.

The ideal is to get all groups together, ensure that all are in agreement to the goals of  B R & E, and go forward to determine what “we” need to do to retain and attract business in our community. Otherwise it can become a witch hunt whose only purpose its show up the inadequacies of “those other people”.

The Municipal council must be involved in the planning and organizing of the project because it will have a major role in dealing with obstacles or issues that arise in terms of public works, water, sewer, storm water, traffic, roads, etc. Also, it is essential that the councils members have a complete understanding of the B R & E purpose and goals and their responsibility in working with the community to address these issues. Furthermore, as the project is dealing with the issues arising, the council can advise the participants of the opportunities available through the municipality as well as to constraints under which they operate.

It is important as well to have a representation of regular citizens working on the project. Some could be on the central committee but a large groups could serve as interviewers. Besides those functional roles, they will serve as ambassadors to the community at large spreading the word about the goals of the project and building anticipation for the outcome and encourage participation and support for the remediation that takes place to implement to changes recommended.

RECENT TRENDS

A common trend is to minimize the involvement of large groups of volunteers to assist with the interviewing. The mythology is that those early projects were bogged down with volunteers, were very inefficient, and the projects dragged on for 6 or 8 months. I am aware of some projects that took an inordinately long time, but they were always ones that involved only overworked staff who had difficulty finding time to do the interviewing. My recollection of the Seaforth pilot is that the interviews took place over a period of no more than three weeks. (that is just my recollection. I was on a team of two. We had about three interviews that took place in a span of two weeks.) The results were sent quickly to Guelph for processing. They were a little slow coming back because they were still adjusting to the process, but were in reasonable time. The process was not only more efficient than the consultant route being used now; it was much more productive as a result of the other benefits of community involvement.

We have witnessed a few B R & E projects which have failed to achieve the optimum results that are generally reached by the original process.

LONG TERM EFFECT OF B R & E

I attended a meeting last week in Seaforth at which the Gateway Rural Health Research Institute was signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Western Ontario faculty of Medicine and Dentistry as an agreement to work together to enhance the education of medical and dentistry students as well as to contribute to our rural health across Canada and our understanding of the special health issues in this rural area. Attending that meeting and directly involved in that institute were several people who began working together on that B R & E program almost 12 years ago and are still working together today.

Brock Vodden

AMDSB: Another Communication Screw Up!

  “Blyth area schools to see enrolment increase”

This was a front page headline in this week's Citizen. 

How could a seven word statement contain so many false and misleading concepts? It suggests that there are several Blyth area schools, and there are not; in fact, there are no Blyth area schools. The last one was closed last year by the Avon Maitland District School Board, the institution that issued the press release. Besides, the Blyth area schools cannot increase their enrolment, because they do not exist and have no enrolment.

The article continues talking about other schools in Wingham - MRES, the monster school,  and F.E. Madill Grades 7 & 8. What happened to the discussion of Blyth? Very few of the Blyth students have opted to attend those schools; most are trundled off to Huron  Central School in Londesborough. They apparently don't warrant a mention. To the Avon Maitland Communications Department, that school doesn't exist either.

Yesterday, I got my copy of the Wingham Advance-Times EXTRA, and it all became clear how this very slip-shod communication process went off the rails. Its headline reads:

"Wingham and area student numbers to increase"

What follows is the exactly same content as the "Blyth area" piece except Wingham is substituted for Blyth. In the name of efficiency, the Wingham version of the article seems to have been written first, and with no further thought, they substituted Blyth for Wingham thinking that they have saved a lot of time and made the little people in Blyth happy that they are being recognized.

Interesting to note that they had no mention of Brussels which is an equal partner in the Citizen coverage area.

The AMDSB's communication department has never been accused of being honest or intelligent, but this fiasco takes the cake.

Communications departments are usually intended to create a positive image of the organization in the minds of the public, but this communications department seems to project and amplify the very internal inadequacies the Board would like to cover up.

They do a surprisingly good job of representing the board at the macro level, but, like the board, they are hopeless when it comes to dealing with and representing individual communities throughout the "empire". They could learn something from Alexander the Great or the Roman empire, about the danger of taking over more territory than your limited abilities can manage effectively.

Superintendent Ash, however, according to the article is very pleased with the fact that elementary head count has stabilized. (I wonder if he realizes that the Blyth children have gone AWOL, statistically speaking?) He is really pleased that the ARC process is going to “sustain good building utilization”. 

Good building utilization!

That is a performance measurement I never heard of when I was a Superintendent of Education. I guess we were hung up on trivia such as education quality and service to the community.

I am beginning to think that this perpetual abandonment of Blyth and Brussels by AMDSB may be a great advantage to these communities. If we expect nothing of them, we’ll never be disappointed when nothing is what we receive. 

That sense of being on our own as far as education is concerned, casting off the yoke of a board that nether represents us or serves us, may just spur us on to create a better service than that board would be capable of providing even if they really cared.

Brock Vodden

NEW HOPE FOR BLYTH

BLYTH FACING UNPRECEDENTED OPPORTUNITIES

The closing of our only school by Avon Maitland District School Board was a serious blow to our community. My pessimism is fading as I begin to see glimmers of new ways of mitigating that tragic loss. Sometimes it takes a shattering blow to enable us to discover potential we did not know we possessed.

BLYTH: FREE OF ITS SHACKLES

I have had a lot to say about our community of Blyth being abandoned by the school board which, we assumed, should represent us: our community and our children.

We now know, and everyone knows, the kind of people who run the Avon Maitland District School Board. The questions which now come to mind are these:

“Would we really want to be represented by this group?” and

“Why are we not celebrating the fact that we are no longer shackled by that dysfunctional and misguided board which has sacrificed our school (and others) in order to erect a monument to themselves?”

I really believe that Blyth will survive and thrive in spite of, and perhaps because of, our being abandoned by the Avon Maitland District School Board.

There are signs that encourage this optimistic viewpoint.

Blyth is unique. Despite the fact that we share the struggles of small rural communities across Canada, we are special.

Ø  We have the Blyth Festival of the Arts, approaching its 39^th year of achievement.

Ø  We have the Huron Pioneer Threshers’ and Hobby Association with over 50 years of annual Threshers’ Reunions.

Ø  We have a new and exciting Emergency Services Training Centre, attracting the attention of emergency services organizations across Ontario and beyond.

Ø  We have one of the largest serviced campgrounds in Canada which is just beginning to realize its true potential as a destination for camping groups.

None of these are “branch plant” entities. They benefited from outside support and ideas, but they emerged from local initiative and vision.

As impressive as these achievements are, they reflect only a thumbnail view of their potential for the future. Whether we take advantage of that potential or not is moot.

The potential lies in our response to changing circumstances that are already in motion. Many of our past disadvantages are becoming advantages. Societal changes are rolling over us willy-nilly, but we have the choice of riding the tides or drowning.

BROADBAND INITIATIVE

History keeps repeating itself. Technologies are initially adopted in large centres and only slowly rolled out to the hinterlands.

• The first telephone systems were confined to cities and towns. It was considered too costly to extend telephone lines into the sparsely populated rural concessions.
• Many rural areas failed to get hydro services until the late 40s. The barrier was the perceived prohibitive cost of distribution through those areas.
• Recently, in this area we participated in a project to get internet access out to the rural parts of Huron and Perth counties. Like the others involved, I firmly believed that wireless technology was the only way to reach these areas. It never occurred to us that fibre would be a feasible delivery vehicle to the farm gate.  This opinion, unless over-ridden, would confine rural areas to sub-optimal broadband and bandwidth access.
• The Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus has launched a project to change all that. They are holding conversations across SW Ontario to try to develop a business case for extending super high speed internet service to every household and business in this entire area. 

If successful, this initiative will open up for us the opportunity of a lifetime – literally.

We have been shackled by the concept of being too far away from the big cities and Highway 401 to be successful. Well, 401 has become Toronto’s disadvantage (for many people). With commuting times growing annually, life in or near the big city is becoming intolerable and unsustainable for many people. We can offer freedom from those commuting hours, less expensive housing, cleaner air, calmer life-style, so long as we can also offer unlimited, extremely high speed, reliable connectivity. Hundreds of thousands of people are able to do most of their work from any location on earth (or even from a space station) so long as they have the ultimate in connectivity.

Face to face meetings are often necessary for people who work remotely, but even these are accommodated by advanced technologies and excellence of connectivity.

CULTURE AS AN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PILLAR

We enjoyed a presentation last week by Gordon Hume, a respected commentator of matters cultural and municipal.

Many of our local communities continue to view cultural matters as effete, frilly, and frivolous matters for people who have more money than they know what to do with. Mr. Hume convincingly demonstrates that culture is as important as the physical infrastructure of our communities, and stands as an equal element within our economic development portfolio.

We have known for some time that a community like Blyth cannot function effectively by relying exclusively on local commerce. We need customers, clients, tourists, culture seekers from outside of our area to keep our community buoyant.

We have also been selected as a key community within Tourist Region 4 enabling Blyth to benefit from regional promotion of what we have to offer visitors from far and wide.

Our Blyth Festival of the Arts has demonstrated the ability to draw that kind of traffic to our community. I believe it has the potential to do even more, based on the concepts of the former Artistic Director, Eric Coates, with his concept of the artist community in “Banff East”. We have been further stimulated by the vision provided to us by a community-based presentation headed by Interim Artistic Director, Peter Smith. They talk of refurbishing the quintessential Blyth Memorial Community Hall, but also blending that in with the initiative to create a new streetscape of the village. The presentation also proposes further development down the road to broaden the footprint of the theatre and other arts. It is important to note the powerful endorsements that came from many community leaders and groups for this initiative.

BROADBAND AND OUR SPECIAL ASSETS

How can we link our technology capabilities, cultural assets, and unique community assets to assist Blyth to achieve its full potential?

That is the topic we need to consider as a community.

SUPPORT REQUIRED

It is important to note that all of these initiatives have come about by community leadership as opposed to local government initiative. All levels of government, including the local municipality, have contributed financially and in other ways, but the spark and the drive have all come from the community.

As we move forward, support will continue to be needed from the Municipality of North Huron as owners of the Memorial Hall, and other facilities in Blyth. But I predict that there will be other matters that will arise which will require a more venturesome and proactive role for the municipality. Whether the council of the day will rise to those occasions or not will depend to a great extent on the vision and the open-mindedness of the members. The municipality will never be expected to lead in these activities, but hopefully, will be prepared to take on a significant and fundamental supportive role to ensure that positive innovations are sustainable.

CONCLUSION

I see this article as a very preliminary view that will become richer and more predictive as time unfolds, but in the meantime, I would welcome comments from people who read this. You can comment within the blog structure or email me directly at hbvodden@ezlink.on.ca

If you contact me through the blog, you can request that I not publish your comments.

Looking forward to hearing from you:

Brock Vodden

THE JOY OF CONCLUDING WIN-WIN FIRE AGREEMENT

NORTH HURON AND MORRIS-TURNBERRY ARE POISED TO SIGN AN AGREEMENT FOR FIRE SERVICES

What a relief! In a protracted stretch of negotiations over many months, we have finally come to an agreement that makes both councils feel like winners.

No loosers!  Just winners!

The people of our two municipalities, it seems to me, went through a number of emotions as they observed the proceedings over many months. Puzzlement, Impatience, Anger, Frustration! I hope the feeling now is mainly one of Relief and Satisfaction.

I have talked to several Morris Turnberry councillors and officials. They are all expressing relief, and calling it a win-win situation.

That's the feeling of North Huron council as well. It's certainly how I feel.

From my perspective as a North Huron councillor, our partners are delighted with the result, and I am pleased that there is no change in the fire service costs to North Huron residents.

We have agreed to Morris-Turnberry's request to provide fire coverage for the portion of Turnberry ward which had been covered by another fire department. This is for no addition cost to M-T and will not require North Huron to buy extra equipment or increase its budget.

Our policy to provide fire service to our neighbours at cost can continue without change.

Brock Vodden

(My opinion only)

SEX, RELIGION, AND POLITICS IN BLYTH

WARNING: 

DON'T TALK ABOUT SEX, RELIGION, OR POLITICS UNLESS YOU ARE PREPARED FOR A TERRIBLE ARGUMENT.

That's the conventional wisdom, but the issue of the Blyth Standard of September 10, 1980 tackled all three topics.

I guess this was a reflection of the topics of the day.

The United Church of Canada was in the process of opening up a discussion on matters of sex, marriage, and inclusion.

Public schools were noting a declining enrolment without suggesting that the rise of schools based on fundamentalist religious preferences.

The danger of radical fundamental religions in the Middle East and the divisive attitudes of the Ayatollah Khomeini were compared to the fervent religious commitment of Mother Theresa in a column written by Keith Roulston, publisher of the Citizen today. Religions have both positive and negative effects on our world.

A local church group was engaged in the study of Japan, from the standpoint of missionary work based on the assumption that traditional Japanese religions are inferior to the Christian brand. Missionary work had long been looked upon as a great cause, but is increasingly seen as self-righteous interference with other cultures and belief systems.

Rhea Hamilton's regular Standard column in this issue was all about "welcoming". It deals initially with welcoming shoppers into our community and our business places, but also accepting them and treating them as equals and persons of value. She alludes to people in our communities who are not completely welcoming to people who are "from away", not one of us, not speakers of our language, or colour, or culture.

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The discussions of these topics indicate that the trends were not equally appreciated or understood by all.

The United Church article shows the complete rejection of the national United Church body even thinking about ordaining homosexual clergy men or women, and the thought of what we today refer to as gay marriages. The speaker posits a totally biblical opposition to these issues, and does not recognize this topic as a matter of exclusion, of equality of rights and freedoms. These aspects are not even considered. The approach by this speaker is more characteristic of the fundamentalist, evangelical groups, as opposed to the more liberal framework that has long been the major thrust of United Church thinking.

The rise of religious based education in this area was significant in this issue of the paper - not in terms of what was written about it, but by the fact that it was not discussed at all. My personal view is that part of the drift away from the public schools is the decline that has been taking place in the Ontario Ministry of Education's leadership in the field of education, and the alienation that has taken place from communities as the areas of administration get larger and larger and consequently less accountable to the students, parents, and community. Of course, the growing move towards fundamentalist religions is also a factor as people seek simplistic answers to the complex issues of our times.

An increasing number of people are urging the creation of a single, public education system with no religious affiliation allowed. That would be my preference, but I do not expect to see this happen.

Inclusiveness is a very important basic requirement for a harmonious and peaceful world and community.

Our local paper from September 1980 was documenting a critical period of time from the perspective of a small Ontario village.

If you are interested in seeing these articles for yourself, just send me a note by email and I will send you a .pdf file of that entire 16 page issue of the Blyth Standard of September 9, 1980.

Brock Vodden

hbvodden@ezlink.on.ca

MUNICIPALITIES PAYING THEIR FAIR SHARE FOR SERVICES

An editorial in the Blyth Standard of January 30, 1974, in case you missed it, is quoted in part below.

Time to start sharing costs

“The situation surrounding the Lions Swimming Pool project this week illustrates one of the basic weaknesses of the current system of county government.

The Blyth council decided it could not expect the ratepayers of the village to pay an extra 10 mills on their taxes to pick up the expected annual deficit of the swimming pool. Most of the people who would be paying the taxes would not be making use of the pool. Yet a good many of the pool who would be using the pool, would be paying nothing. These are the people in the surrounding townships. Their chjildren would be making use of the pool, but because they do not contribute tax dollars to support the Blyth recreation program they would be getting all the benefit with none of the expense......

Blyth is in the strangest situation of all the municipalities though all the financing comes from the village taxpayers. Most recreation facilities such as the arenas and the proposed swimming pool are used by more people from outside the village boundaries than from within.

Most residents of the rural area around Blyth, we’re sure, would not begrudge the extra few dollars a year it would take to pay their share of the bills, but their township councils, again with the odd exception, guard eh purse strings jealously.

This is exactly the kind of pettiness and short-sightedness that has brought regional government plans into effect.”

BROCK'S COMMENT: 

Time has changed some of the cross-border services in question and the representatives involved. Amalgamations have shifted some of the boundaries. But the fundamental issues remain. Unfortunately, when we try to reach agreements with our neighbours, quibbling about the costs sometimes absorbs more dollars than the amount in question.

Here we are almost 40 years later with only nominal solutions, and continued reluctance of some to pay their fair share. 

Brock Vodden

WARTIME LIFE OF BLYTH - 1942

SOME EFFECTS OF WORLD WAR TWO ON BLYTH

Looking through the 1942 issues of the Blyth Standard is always an intriguing experience for me. I celebrated my 7th birthday a few days before the dawn of 1942. Consequently, I have some personal memories of that year, but the papers reveal many other facts to me - things that I never knew or have forgotten.

For those too young to know about that era or remember it, I think you will find some surprises. Even though the conflict was far removed from us in this small Ontario village, we were affected in many ways, and some of those effects were tragic, and many were inconvenient, but necessary.

Wally Bowen joined the Canadian army and was sent overseas in 1942. The Blyth Standard reported every letter that we received from family and friends who served anywhere in the world.

Wally never returned to Canada. He was seriously wounded, spent a long painful period in hospital, but succumbed to his wounds.

We were reminded regularly of the duties of citizens to do all we could to support the war effort even though we were not close to the fighting. We were asked to help out financially whether by purchasing  Victory Bonds of fifty dollars or hundreds of dollars, or just by purchasing War Savings Stamps. When paying for some items you had just purchased you might accept part of your change in the form of these stamps which aggregated into certificates which could be redeemed later with an interest gain of abut 3%.

In the above advertisement, issued by the National War Finance Committee, we were reminded of this duty.

This little ad appeared in the Blyth Standard for July 1, 1942 announcing a Bingo game to raise money for cigarettes to be sent to the soldiers. Note that few details were considered necessary like the time of the event or the prizes that would be given.

The Canadian Red Cross was very active throughout most communities in Ontario (as well as other provinces) throughout the entire war. They had several rooms in the front of the second floor of Industry Hall . This is the building at the south west corner of Queen and Dinsley Streets. Here is a list of items from the Blyth Standard of June 3, 1942 which the local Red Cross group had made or purchased and sent to their National Headquarters where they would be bundled up a shipped to action areas of the war as well as to prisoners of war and hospitals where wounded service men and women were being treated and also to displaced families in Europe or Asia.

3 layettes, 3 Seamen caps, 1 scarf, 2 pairs seaboots, 16 pairs grey socks, 5 pr. navy socks, 10 pajamas, 3 pairs pajamas pants, 2 small quilts, 3 pairs children's PJs, 1 child dress, 2 knitted suits, 1 child's skirt, 8 womens' work dresses, 5 crepe dresses, 1 knitted skirt, 3 suites of boy's underwear, 2 boys' coats.

In the same issue we were told about almost 2 1/2  tons of scrap paper which had been gathered and packed up ready for shipment by Mr. James Sims and his employees, Stuart Robinson and a Mr. Creighton. This will be accompanying paper that had been collected by the Blyth Fire Brigade. Incidentally, Jim Sims was in the process of retiring from his grocery business at this time.

ERNIE ROBINSON BAILS OUT

In the April 15 Blyth Standard we learned about Ernie Robinson having problems with the bomber he was flying over England. He decided they were going to crash so ordered his crew to leave the plane. When they were all out, he also parachuted from the plane. He landed in a plowed field on a large estate of a wealthy English family. In his letter to Ken Whitmore, the editor of the paper, he told that he was treated very kindly by the host. He was anxious to learn of how his crew fared in the landing. All had landed safely, This gave Ernie the distinct  honour of receiving the Caterpillar Badge which is given only to those pilots who, with their crews, have bailed out and landed safely.

Ernie was a good friend of my family. He worked for my parents in their Blyth bakery before signing up for the RCAF. We always enjoyed his witty letters that he sent from across the pond. In one he declared that he thought they should be dropping loaves of Vodden's bread instead of bombs. The would do far more damage.

HELP FOR FARMERS TO BRING IN THE CROPS

A representative from the Department of Agriculture came to request the village clerk, JHR Elliott, to set up an arrangement whereby farmers needing help with the harvest could put in their request, and people willing to help could so indicate. So many of the young men were in military service that many farmers were having difficulty harvesting their crops. At first there were no farmers asking for help and no volunteers were coming forward. Ken Whitmore, editor of the Standard, put out a special appeal and twisted a few arms.

Gradually the requests for help came in as did the willing volunteers. Ten people went to George Sloan's farm and stooked 20 acres in two hours. the group consisted mainly of Blyth business people: Del Philp, Wilf St. Pierre, Sam Creighton, Ken Whitmore, Bert Tasker, Harold Vodden, Herb McElroy  Norm Floody, Jack Cowan, Milne Cole, and Jack Watson Jr.

Later as many as 50 people were showing up. By August 19, the Standard was reporting that the stooking was pretty much completed for that season.

LIMITATIONS PLACED ON GOODS AND SERVICES

• Gas stations were not allowed to be open any evenings to conserve gasoline. Later each station was allowed to be open one night per week.
• Businesses that delivered products to other communities were restricted to a 35 mile radius for deliveries.
• All fabric bags such as those for flour, potatoes, grain, animal feed, etc. were to be returned to their source undamaged for re-use. The cotton bags which were used for 100 lbs of  flour could be adapted for other uses, but you had to contact government officials in either Toronto or Ottawa for permission to do this.
• To save material, it was decided to discontinue placing cuffs on the trousers of all military uniforms.
• Trucks were to be used for only serious purposes of moving products. They were not to be used for travelling to picnics, to visit fairs or community concerts. This would help to extend the lives of these vehicles, since there were no new vehicles being manufactured for civilian use during the war.
• Shades of lipstick, face powder, nail polish, and the number of perfume scents, were limited to 3 or 4 options. This was to limit the inventories required by retailers, as well as reducing the amount of metal required for containers and the number of fancy glass bottles to be manufactured.
• A large chain which served as a guard on Saltford Hill at Goderich was removed to be melted down and used for essential manufacturing and replaced with a much lighter chain. The original chain weighed 14 tons and the replacement was just one ton.
• Men's clothing stores were required to report by name any customers who purchased two or more suits since "last February", since they might be hoarding suits against potential future shortages.

ICE CREAM

Luxuries, such as ice cream, were not always available in stores and restaurants. Ice cream took on a very special ranking as a treat.

Miss Margaret Grieve and a Home and School representative took Miss Grieve's Junior class up town to Frank Gong's Huron Grill for a treat of dishes of ice cream. There were 37 children in that class (Grades One to Four). When they went to pay for the 39 dishes, Frank said the ice cream was free.

LONDESBOROUGH CHILDREN'S SALVAGE DRIVE

The children were going door to door collecting "junk", items that were made of material which might be of use in the war effort. They stopped in at a farm and happened to mention that items made of rubber would be  appreciated. With that, the farmer took off his rubber boots and handed them to the children. then he proceeded to the barn to work in his stocking feet.

COMPULSORY SERVICE AGE RAISED

In July of 1942, an announcement was made in the House of Commons that the compulsory service age was being raised to 40 years. War Services Minister Thompson's announcement meant that  single men and childless widowers 20 to 40 years old inclusive were subject to compulsory military service in all Canadian provinces and territories.

FARMERS ASKED TO LEND THE WAR DEPARTMENT 10% OF THEIR CHEQUES

Farmers were asked to receive War Saving Stamps in lieu of 10% of the cheques they receive for their milk, cream, and eggs

"Payment is made by giving the producers War Saving stamps instead of cash for the 10 %

The stamps are placed in folders until $4.00 worth is collected when they can be exchanged for certificates. Every $4 certificate will be redeemed by the government in 7½ years by the payment of $5.00 which means a 3% investment."  Blyth Standard August 19, 1942

URGENT NEED FOR WOMEN WORKERS IN FRUIT DISTRICTS

Needed to help with the harvesting this year.

Peach crop is good and it cannot be harvested without the assistance of volunteers in the Farm Service Force who did splendid service last year.

Volunteers must be over 16 and not over 45 and must be in possession of a National Registration card.

They will work 9 to 10 hours per day with overtime emergencies

There may be some Sunday work

Wages up to 24 cents/hr.  Camp board is $4.50/week.

Transportation is paid one way for volunteers who remain at least 3 weeks.

It is hope that as many as possible will volunteer from this community.

COMMENTS ON SOME OLD BLYTH STANDARDS

EXPLORATIONS OF BACK COPIES OF THE BLYTH STANDARD

We have hundreds of back issue of the Blyth Standard going back to 1900 and a few odd pages before that. I find these to be absolutely fascinating and hope that you - some of you - will find them equally interesting.

My plan for this blog item is not to follow any particular theme, but just random accounts of things that catch my attention as I browse through the old stuff.

THE WEEKLY'S CHANGING VIEW ON WAR

The second Boer War was raging in Southern Africa in 1899 to 1902, and WW2 was raging in Europe from 1939 to 1945. The front pages in the Blyth Standard in Boer War years was totally dedicated to war news.

Front page of a 1900 issue.
All articles concern the war in South Africa

Front page for April 12, 1942

Articles indicate life going on pretty much as usual

The Boer War information obviously came from reports provided by the British and Canadian governments. There were numerous illustrations and photos. The local news was rarely accompanied by  photos in those days. I don't know much about printing, but assume that the local paper must have been provided with plates which enabled the printing of photos and maps which appeared regularly.

The war news was not confined to the front page. Many additional articles and photos were sprinkled throughout inside pages. Another possibility is that the paper received large packages of newsprint already printed leaving space for the local masthead to be printed as well as space for the other local news to be printed

The papers during WW2 contained references to the war as it affected the community directly. The activities of the Red Cross Society, the sale of Victory Bonds, notices of local service people being wounded, missing, or killed - these would appear throughout the paper. But if one just glanced at most issues of the paper, one would scarcely realize that a war was in progress. Those who subscribed to national daily papers would get their war news from that source as well as from radio broadcasts.

The Blyth Standard for May 27, 1942 featured a 2 full column list of people who had donated money to the Red Cross to help with the great work they did to assist the local service men and women. This list contained almost 300 donors who gave from 25 cents to 25 dollars to the cause. It was common in those days to publish the names of donors and the amount donated by each. There were two donations of $25. The Red Cross sent care parcels to soldiers and prisoners of war, corresponded with many of these young heroes. The knit socks, scarves, made up bandages and slings, as well as sending treats, cigarettes, and other gifts.

The Red Cross did their work and held meetings in the second floor rooms at the front of Industry Hall, which is the building on the southwest corner of Dinsley and Queen Street.

MORE LATER

Brock Vodden

LETTER TO NEW MINISTER OF EDUCATION

February-13-13

Ontario Ministry of Education
Att. Hon. Liz Sandals
Minister of Education
2^nd Floor, 880 Bay Street
Toronto, ON  M7A 1N3

THIS IS AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO

Dear Minister:

First of all I would like to congratulate you on your appointment to this very important position in the new cabinet.

I have written several letters to two of your predecessors about the matter of the unnecessary closure of schools in small rural communities and have been sorely disappointed by their responses.

I will speak only from the perspective of the community of Blyth which I represent as a municipal councillor in the Municipality if North Huron, Huron County. Over the past three years, I have been working with many communities from all corners of Ontario, communities whose schools, like ours, have been torn from them for no legitimate reason.

Our Blyth Pubic School no longer exists. It was closed as of June 2012, the building has been sold and now our community and our local council are faced with the problem of finding ways to mitigate the loss of this central institution and this blow to the education for our children.

Though the school is gone, there lingers within our community the memory of deception, the smoke and mirrors, the false pretense of consultation and community involvement which was exercised by the Avon Maitland District School Board, and your ministry. You are moving into a position which represents to us an anti-rural, dishonest, mean-spirited group of thieves that have allowed our local school board to mirror your duplicity. They (AMDSB) violated most of your Pupil Accommodation Review Guidelines, ignored the required tests, deliberately avoided involvement of sectors of the Blyth community which might have questioned the proceedings and decisions of the ARC committee.

Our community requested that the minister provide a facilitator to review the conduct of the board’s accommodation review. The facilitator, Margaret Wilson, instead of reviewing the board’s duplicity, scolded the community for not behaving properly in the meetings and completely ignored the fact that the ARC meetings were given only perfunctory advertisement. There was no Blyth municipal representative and no Blyth business person involved in the ARC. (There was a North Huron councillor from a different ward in attendance at one or two early ARC meetings but he was told by the school board that he did not need to attend.)

There was no process put in place to do a proper valuation of the school to the community or to the local economy. Asked by a citizen why no impact study was conducted, the Superintendent of Schools said they did not need to do that because the other valuations were sufficient.

We took up a petition against the closure, the petition being presented in the Legislature several times by our MPP Lisa Thompson. In this community of 1,000 people we had signatures of 631 people.

I was interviewed on a local radio talk show on this subject. The interviewer asked me if the community of Blyth was properly represented on the ARC, and I replied in the negative. I added that the ARC meetings were mainly advertised by students taking home flyers from school, giving the strong impression that this was totally a school issue rather than a community issue. Later a staff member from the Board came on the talk show and by implication called me a liar. He said that Blyth was fully represented on the ARC and that every one of the ARC meetings was advertised in our local papers. His comments were not in line with the known facts.

I have repeatedly asked the board to identify by name the local councillors and the local business persons who were on the ARC group. They have never replied because there were no such people. I proved that only one of the six ARC meetings, the second meeting, was advertised in The Citizen (for Blyth). And only two of the six meetings were advertised in the Wingham Times Advocate. The first meeting, the very launch of the process, was not advertised in either paper.

There is a fundamental flaw in the entire process engineered by the AMDSB. They apparently began by responding to the declining enrolment in elementary schools in this area. They were saying essentially, we have too many schools and not enough children. Then they come out with a plan that is totally contradictory: a plan to build a new 24 classroom school right on the north edge of this area. Hence the need to close several schools in very good condition.

Now we see that the closing of schools had nothing to do with declining enrolment. The school closing was merely a way to justify a long secret plan of the board: the construction of a big school to match the school built previously in the Perth part of the board’s jurisdiction. Our Blyth Public School has been sacrificed in order to satisfy the hunger of our largely acclaimed members of the AMDSB for a monument to themselves.

There is on the positive side a  spin-off to the new school even though it has no educational justification or value. The presence of this new school has been partly an incentive for a large gradual construction of a residential development in Wingham. It will continue, I am sure, to generate other kinds of economic development which North Huron needs.

It is ironic that the source of funding for this monster school came not from the educational funding source, but from economic stimulus money. So the many millions of dollars which might have been used to help build a factory are now being used to build a school. Ironically, it is also being used to damage the economies of several other communities which from now on will be without schools.

Minister, this is part of the reason that the  power of school boards to do whatever they wish without considering the plans and needs of the community must be stemmed NOW. Changes need to take place in the Education Act in which school boards have the absolute right to close any school they choose regardless of what the community wishes or needs.

I understand that the Ministry of Education plans not only to continue its ill-conceived policy of closing schools in spite of community wishes and needs, but also to accelerate that process.

It’s too late to save our community of Blyth, but I would urge you at least to take a very hard look at the ministry’s plans and get them for once to deal honestly with citizens and try to get school boards to be honest as well.

H. Brock Vodden  B.A., B.Ed., M.Ed.

http://allaboutblyth.blogspot.com

www.hbvodden@ezlink.on.ca

OTTAWA UNRESPONSIVE TO JAMES BAY 1ST NATIONS 1968

A TRUE STORY ABOUT ATTAWAPISKAT AND KASHECHEWAN

In 1968, I made my first trip to Attawapiskat and Kashechewan. Indian Affairs staff in Moose Factory told me that those communities had no respect for education and that they never insisted that their children show up at school. They said the attendance stats were always deplorable.

I decided to do some research on the attendance while visiting these schools.

What I learned is that classrooms were almost empty in September and early October and the same was true for late May and June.

During those periods, entire families went out to the James Bay coast either to hunt geese or to fish - traditional food gathering, and part of traditional life and livelihood.

The only children attending school during those weeks were those who stayed with grandparents or other families that did not hunt or fish.

The interesting fact was that the attendance levels during the late October to mid May period were higher than the average in the city of Toronto, and just as high as any southern Ontario school I knew about.

Thus, most children in these communities  were getting about 7 months of schooling, three months less than most other children.

In meeting with the chiefs and councils of each community, I asked them what they would think of our changing the school year so that the school would remain open in July and August when everyone was at home. They were very excited about that idea, because of the extra two months of schooling. But they also pointed out that it would be good to have more supervision during the summer since that is the period when some children drown in the fast flowing rivers that flow right past their community.

I met with the teachers involved and they all agreed to the unusual school year configuration.

Let me remind you that there was another large group of children in these communities who were not receiving any schooling because there was no room for them in the school.

I proposed to my regional office that we build temporary classrooms right away and hire more teachers to accommodate the children up to 9 years of age who had never been enrolled in school. Also I urged that plans be put in place to build permanent schools to accommodate present and future needs.

I also proposed the adjusted school year to give children an extra two months of education.

The senior bureaucrats in Ottawa agreed to the temporary schools and to the planning for "permanent" schools......

BUT - only on condition that we retain the traditional September to June school year.

I was never able to get any of those bureaucrats to admit who made that very insensitive decision or the reasons for that decision. These schools were not subject to provincial regulations; they were federal schools which could have been adapted to meet local needs.

Brock Vodden