We had our best practices meeting here at the Creston and District Community Complex a couple weeks ago and it was probably the best attended one I had seen in some time. These twice-a-year meetings involve our leisure services colleagues from Castlegar, Nelson, Trail and, new this year, Slocan Valley.
With the exception of Trail, we all fall under the cloak of Regional District of Central Kootenay, but you would find that most leisure service providers in the province (and most likely Canada) follow similar philosophies or mission statements as well as all the pitfalls and challenges that accompany the business. Each attending facility tries to have representatives from each department within their area such as maintenance, aquatics, fitness, and dryland programming as well as customer service heads and management.
In order to cram as much into a day, a quick overview on what each facility is doing is followed by a session that is applicable and beneficial to all departments. The afternoon has breakout sessions for each department and a more intense focus on current issues and resolutions. In seeing this type of meeting develop and mature over the past years, you really see the benefit of colleagues meeting, sharing ideas and overcoming obstacles in a face-to-face interaction uninterrupted by phones ringing, emails beeping and people tapping on your door that need just a minute of your time. I am a firm believer in not reinventing the wheel — somewhere out there, your ideas exist in one form or another, awaiting your particular experience and input to develop and enhance them further, and by meeting as a group, you sure see how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
Drifting from philosophy to reality, make sure you take in the Creston Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Home and Garden Show this weekend either on Friday from 2-9 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The show returns to the hockey arena this year after the construction in 2011 relocated it to the curling arena but the days of displacement are coming to an end as we wrap up the last remaining areas this summer construction-wise. I would have to check to see how long the show has been going on in one form or another, but in my tenure this past 17 years, there haven’t been too many seasons that have been missed. Events like these are one of my favourites because you can circulate around and visit whomever you want, avoid whomever you don’t want and you don’t have to go through a grocery checkout at the end.
If you haven’t seen the new board system and lobby in the arena yet, now is your chance; just remember that we have a bit more flooring and paint to go in. Hats off to the folks at the chamber of commerce and anyone else involved in providing this event for another year. See you there!
Neil Ostafichuk is the recreation supervisor at the Creston and District Community Complex.