Jesse Fudge
Community Communications Facilitator
Community Communications Facilitator
Jesse now has his own website.
Beverley Kirby was the facilitator in the fall of 2000.
More reports can be found on the Sharing Our Future discussion board.
Click here for the Stephenville Communications Needs, Skills and Resources Mapping Assessment
Reports from Stephenville
April was certainly a busy month and one with a great sense of accomplishment. After a number of attempts at organizing and attempting to stage a forum, it finally happened despite having to scramble for a location and substitutes for a panelist or two because of the strike. The attendance was rather small as expected for those topics, "The Nature and Violence Against Women," but the forum was a success with great participation from the panel and audience. The event was publicized through the radio station, newspapers, posters and by personal contact.
I also made contact with the staff at Kindale Public Library and arranged for a taping of the Preschool Easter Storytime party. Storytime takes place every Wednesday, but on special occasions the staff host a party for them. A copy of that tape and all other tapes are deposited at the Community Education Centre. This resource is available to anyone wishing to view it.
The monitoring of the CAP sites at Stephenville, Stephenville Crossing and St. George's continues. The site at Kindale Public Library is quite busy with training on Wednesday evenings and Friday mornings. The Genealogy Association makes use of the computers one evening each month. This site is utilized by the local residents, tourist and crews from various boats that visit the port. The library at Stephenville Crossing has experienced an increase in Internet users with additional operational hours and the installation of the CAP site. The site at St. George's is operational but not officially opened until a new staff member is hired to cover eight additional hours, which came about as a result of the CAP site. Both libraries will be open twenty hours each week when the new schedule goes into effect.
All reports from facilitators were downloaded and reviewed for highlights to be included in a column for the Georgian, which was published on May 1. This column will be published monthly and also placed on the Web Page. The next issue will be sent to facilitators via e-mail for a perusal before submission to the Georgian or the Web Page just in case there is a need to omit, add or change an item. I designed a brochure for April with the theme of women's issues, which was distributed to certain locations; participants at the forum and copies were forwarded to Fred and Kelli.
Arrangements were made for a show on May 1 on Foster Parenting. All the necessary arrangements were made for the taping of that show, but unfortunately the main participant had to withdraw at the last moment and that particular taping had to be cancelled. However, we decided to visit the studio to familiarize ourselves with the technology and three students from Cindy O'Neill's group read poems on the theme of foster parenting.
The community channel in Stephenville is still off limits to us. I was unable to reach John Reid, Marketing Manager and after many attempts I left a message on his answering machine. It produced no response. My e-mail to Lloyd Pretty, Manager of Advertising and Community Programming did produce a prompt response and he directed us to Jack Cook a Lion's member and a representative for Regional Cable in Stephenville. According to Lloyd Pretty, Jack's mandate is to organize a committee to oversee any broadcasting ventures.
Those were the highlights of the activities undertaken for the month.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
There isn't much I would have done differently except for the show I had planned for May 1. I would have engaged more participants so that if one person cancelled out at the last moment a replacement could, possibly, be found to cover that aspect of the discussion. When the program depends primarily on one person, it is impossible to replace that person at a short notice.
WHAT WORKED BEST
Personal contacts work best especially when you need a commitment from a person. Telephone calls, e-mails etc. have to be made, but in addition to that there has to be personal contacts. With the busy schedule people have, it is becoming more difficult to meet with them to organize an event.
THREE ISSUES IN THIS AREA
The Status of Community Television in Stephenville
Employment for the Youth
A Coordination of Efforts among Different Organizations
ONE SUGGESTION FOR SUSTAINING SHARING OUR FUTURE PROCESS WITHIN THIS COMMUNITY
If we could avail of the technology of Regional Cable to air some of our recordings, the community might show a keener interest in what we are doing and hence give us more support.
WHAT I DID
I started at the beginning of March to plan a forum for the month, made a few contacts and things seemed to be coming together to schedule a forum. A number of people had committed their time, but unfortunately one of the participants had an accident and could not participate and another person did not respond to my request. I then made other contacts for a forum of a different nature with a group of young people, who seemed to be enthusiastic at the beginning, but failed to follow through when we got down to the specifics. Two groups having failed to deliver, I became interested in what Lorraine Sheehan had to say at a meeting, which I attended and I asked her if she would join me in doing a forum. She consented and I met with her about the details of the forum and the two of us agreed to take on specific responsibilities. Lorraine left for Alberta a few days later and is scheduled to be back in the province March 28. I will contact her on her arrival and hopefully the Alberta scenery and weather has not dampened her enthusiasm. I did the taping at the Youth Conference held at the Middle School and ran into a number of students from the College of the North Atlantic. One group in particular which called themselves Circle of Friends seemed to be interested in their cause and I approached them with an idea for a forum and at first contact they appeared to be quite interested. I have had contacts with them since and it appears now they do not have the same interest citing the reason that it is getting close to the end of the year. They have assignments to catch up on and examinations to prepare for, which no doubt are legitimate excuses. Summing up on the forums, I have made a concerted effort to get four going. It looks as if one may take place, which is scheduled for 4:00 on April 11. However, let's keep our fingers crossed and I will need your prayers for that one. It is scheduled for the college pending the strike and its effects??? A tentative agenda has been drawn up for the forum and a brochure is being designed with that specific theme in mind.
There have been contacts with Yvonne Young and Joan Downey regarding the CAP sites at St. Georges and Stephenville Crossing and with Kelli regarding computers, furniture and modems. Everything is on site except a new modem for Stephenville Crossing, and Kelli has been contacted regarding this omission. The staff at Stephenville Crossing has been offered training at Kindale on Friday Mornings or Wednesday Evenings if Joan wishes to take advantage of this.
A meeting took place with Cindy O'Neil, Brenda Pittman and myself on the proposal of a school/community production. Brenda suggested she would talk with the college and recommend the proposal be taught as a mini course in April when instructors from the college visit the school to do the mini courses for a four day period.
I attended the forum at Cape St. George, which was well received and well done, great work by Mary and her group.
A Community Studies student and a Journalism student from the College of the North Atlantic did interviews with me.
I attended a session of the Community Leadership Program given by Jim Marsden at the W.E. Development Centre
A number of messages were posted on the bulletin board, posted first quarter report (OLT), read the CRTC books and found interesting comments, noted how ironic these apply to the situation in Stephenville, updated the Community Communications Map, completed weekly reports to Beverly of the activities during the weeks, visited the CAP site at Kindale on a regular basis, sent a number of e-mails to Kelli and did the monthly CAP report, e-mailed the report to Kelli ccs. to Mary Barter and Beverly Kirby and did a number of copies of the taping of the Youth Conference at the Middle School.
These are some of the activities carried out during the month of March.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
I cannot think of anything I could have done differently for the month of March. I had specific goals in mind and I pursued them as vigorously as possible. Some of initiatives did not come to fruition because of circumstances beyond my control. However, that will not prevent me from trying the same things the same way in the future.
WHAT WORKED BEST
I still find personal contacts one of the best approaches for getting the message out. Because of contacts I receive e-mail and phone calls for information on various topics. The brochures work well, especially, at the CAP site since each brochure deals with specific topics and also leads the patrons to various sites on these topics which in turn lead them to others which develops a greater interest in the internet.
THREE ISSUES IN THIS AREAv The status of community television in Stephenville
Caring for our town
Employment for the youth
ONE SUGGESTION FOR SUSTAINING SHARING OUR FUTURE PROCESS WITHIN YOUR COMMUNITY
The one suggestion I have for sustaining Sharing Our Future in this area is definitely getting the cooperation of Regional Cable so that any event that is taped may be aired on their channel and live programs can also be broadcasted. At the present, we can do neither, which leaves us with a great handicap in trying to get our message out. It is rather unfortunate when most of the technology is in place in two centres and we prohibited from using each of these centres either to show a video or to broadcast. If the public can see more of what we are doing, we would certainly get more support and people would come forward to partake in our endeavors.
WHAT I DID
At the beginning of February it was realized there was a problem doing a broadcast using the equipment belonging to Regional Cable. We were prohibited from using the equipment at the Lion's Club and there was no modulator at the College of The North Atlantic. We were also instructed not to do any broadcasting until a committee was in place. However, on last checking there was no committee in place and no modulator had arrived. It appears there will be no live broadcasting in Stephenville until these matters are settled.
However, in spite of these set backs we are proceeding forward and things are still getting done. The CAP site at Kindale Library is one of our success stories. The site is well utilized and people are using it daily, from banking on -line, to sending e-mail, to checking their grades at the various universities, and the list goes on. Organizations have been reserving certain nights to get training in the use of the computer. Fridays from 10:30-12:00, time has been designated to give training to interested people. Two new computers have replaced two older ones at the site. I visit the site at regular intervals and note any special events that take place. Pictures were taken of the new sign and also of the patrons working at the site. The Genealogy Association meets there twice a month and gives training to anyone who is interested.
My brochure for February, which will be distributed in a few days. It is based on the theme of genealogy and includes a few pictures of the past. It also lists interesting genealogy sites which, hopefully, will encourage interested researchers to use the sites.
In partnership with Tracy Snow and Cindy O'Neil we are hoping to produce a school/community play whereby students at the school will interview seniors in the area and based on their interviews will produce a play role playing the characters they interviewed and in turn will tell the story of the town in song and story. This production will be video taped and hopefully someday played on the Community Television Channel. In preparation for this, I have developed a working guideline consisting of a brief description of family history and local history, what questions to ask in an interview, aims and objectives of the project. notes on the student collector, how to prepare for an interview, questionnaire, etc. We will also view a video that was taped of a similar nature some years ago when students of junior high school age were brought together from two separate schools for such a project. The people who were interviewed and their families were also invited to the production. That production took place at the Arts and Culture Centre and was a tremendous success. This project is in its initial stages and over the next few weeks we will determine how it will proceed
Yesterday, (February 26) Beverly, Vanessa, Mary and I met with Kelli Penney, and discussed some of the issues concerning the CAP sites in the area.
That is a summary of the thing I did.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
This month I cannot think of anything I would have done differently. If the technology had been in place, I would have channeled some of my time in that direction, but that is beyond my control and therefore I have time to do a better job with the things I am involved in at the present.
WHAT WORKED BEST
Personal contact seems to be the best avenue of getting the message out of what we are all about. Brochures and newsletter get into the hands of people and it appears they do share some of the information with others.
THREE ISSUES IN THIS AREA AT THIS TIME
1. Medical Care
2. Community Channel Television
3. Status of Stephenville Airport
I commenced working as a facilitator on January 10,2001. It took a few sessions to get oriented to the job. That began with a session with Beverly, Mary Barter, Tracey Snow, Mary Gaultois and Brian Foley. Beverly and I met later with Tom Hutchings to decide on a work place, which turned out to be at the W.E. Cormack Development Centre. I am working seventeen hours per week, and I had hoped by this time would have set down a more regular schedule as I became more familiar with the role, but yet leave some flexibility in the schedule. Some day I may accomplish that objective!
A contact was made with Eric Nippard, the lead teacher in the Robotics project, "Canada First", to ask if we might be of some assistance in the taping the videoand probably offer some assistance in advertising the project. Mary Barter did a session with the students and I participated in that session. I visited the school the following week, checked on their progress and asked them to contact me if further assistance was needed.
A visit was made to the Lion's Club to become aware of the technology at the club and to determine the potential of doing broadcasts and forums from there. In the evening, I played a tape of a Christmas production produced by Tracey Snow and Cindy O'Neil.
The CAP site at the Kindale Library has been experiencing great success. The computers are occupied approximately 90% of the time. Periodically I visit the library to discuss with the staff any problems they may be experiencing or any success stories they wish to relate. Individuals and groups book the computers on a regular basis. The Genealogy Society reserve the computers once a month and invite those who are interested to attend those sessions to introduce them to the computers and to share with them the information gathered from various sites. The Women's Institute of Kippens has been using the site one night a week for two weeks now and have other sessions reserved.
Contacts was made with the Mikmag centre in St. Georges regarding a workshop being planned for February, in Stephenville with the possibility of playing a role in the workshop or the possibility of some type of a forum, but I didn't pursue it any further since we don't have the technology as of yet to proceed to that stage.
On January 15, I set up office at W.E. Cormack Centre and in the afternoon met with Beverly and Fred concerning the objectives of the program and the role of the facilitator.
Press releases were given to the Georgian and The Western Star. This gave a little more publicity to the role than was intended since the Lion's Club was concerned about using the building and the equipment and the possibility of broadcasting or doing forums from there died before it got started. However, the college is still available when a modulator arrives. I am in constant contact with Don, at the college, and he will inform us when it arrives.
There is some interest in setting up a committee for a community channel. It was hoped the meeting was to take place this week. I designed a brochure for "Sharing Our Future", explaining the role, defining the partners, A few snap shots of the buildings where the partners have their offices, my address and some interesting web site to browse. These brochures are in the process of being distributed to various places around the town. (I will attempt to e-mail these to you later.) A few people in the group already have copies.
A report was forwarded to Kelli Penny on January 22, which was due on January 19. I was given a few days of grace, not being on the job too long.
There are on going sessions at the CAP site with the ladies of The Women's Institute of Kippens. I took in the first session and two of the staff members, Monica and Joe worked with the patrons, who enjoyed it immensely so much so they came back the following week and have other times booked. (I have snapshots of the first session)
On January 26 I attended a planning session for the forum, which is to take place at McKays in March.
With Don's assistance, an inventory was taken of the technology available to produce a forum etc. at The College of The North Atlantic. Outside of work time am associated with a committee planning to bring a refugee family to Stephenville and have attending sessions related to that concern. I video taped a presentation given by Jocelin(her spelling) Laldin, a young girl from Pakistan, who is here on a visitors visa and has seen those refugee camps first hand. This is a community project and I am hoping to gather this information for a project later on not knowing for sure yet how it will work out, but I will have the video along with others I hope to gather.
It's now on to other things for the month of February. Some thing I am thinking of while others will fall in place as the opportunities arise.
WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY
The only thing I would have done differently would have been put less thought into community forums and things of that nature until the technology was in place. However, that was not a waste of time since it will come eventually and the ideas will still be there.
WHAT WORKED BEST
Press releases seemed to have worked well since everyone I meet now know about the position and usually I am obligated to explain the role to them and they in turn will no doubt pass some of the information along to others. I think newsletters and, in my case, a brochure will have an effect when placed in locations that are frequently visited.
