Sylvan Lake Councillors Travel to Jordan

This November, Councillor Megan Hanson and Councillor Teresa Rilling, along with the Rob Simonds – Chief Administrative Officer for the Town of Colchester, Nova Scotia, traveled to the country of Jordan.

The group worked with five Jordanian municipalities to provide peer-to-peer technical assistance, and to provide support in the development of a both a Strategic Plan, and a Community Engagement Plan for each of the five municipalities. Strategic Plans, for those unfamiliar with Sylvan Lake’s, identify a vision, mission, values, and goals of a municipality. Two-day workshops were hosted in each community, and provided the platform needed to share knowledge, and complete the planning process.

Collaborative international initiatives like this, are important in that they provide developing municipal governments an opportunity to plan and prepare for successful growth; they also provide a wealth of experience for those individuals participating.

Both Councillors Hanson and Rilling returned to Sylvan Lake with a number of experiences and take-aways from the trip, and we’re happy to share some of that with you.

COUNCILLOR MEGAN HANSON

Why are initiatives like this important, and furthermore, why are they important to you?
“I think we all have a duty to help our neighbours, and to share knowledge when we can; this was no different, just on a larger scale.” 

What was the highlight of your trip?
“Spending time with both Councillor Rilling, and Rob Simonds from Colshester. In our day-to-day work, we don’t often have an opportunity to really dive deep and share knowledge like you do on this type of intensive mission…the food was also incredible! Half of our return luggage is full of sweets and treats.”

What did you learn or take away from this experience that can enhance either your professional or personal goals?
“Although we went to Jordan to share our knowledge, as with most volunteer experiences, I am pretty sure we took more away from the workshops than we put in. Jordan is a very tourist friendly country, and being that we are a community that thrives on tourism, it was exciting to see first-hand what it looks like when every person we encountered was excited to share the best parts of their community with us.  Everyone from the taxi cab driver to the local development officer was eager to speak with us and show us the best parts of their culture and history.  

We also were reminded the importance of long-term planning. Providing a workshop on the topic, and hearing of some of the issues that arise in communities that respond to concerns in more of a reactive way, rather than a strategic way, reminded me that the Town of Sylvan Lake is on the right track; I sure do appreciate being on a council with other long-term thinkers.”

COUNCILLOR TERESA RILLING

Why are initiatives like this important, and furthermore, why are they important to you?
“Since becoming a councillor in 2017, I have learned so much – when this opportunity was offered, I took it because I suspected there would be more I could learn, through a cross-cultural perspective; also, it’s important to me to share my learnings with others.” 

What was the highlight of your trip?
“Working with Councillor Hanson and Rob Simonds was definitely a highlight.  Realizing our different skills, and how as a team we could share with the participants our perspectives; you could really see the connection happening.  With having staff and elected officials presenting, all those in attendance were represented at some level, which opened up conversations that may not have occurred if one or the other was missing.  

Connecting with the participants on a personal level - learning about their families was certainly another highlight for me; one lady shared how she has been helping women in crisis, but had never told anyone – that was a really powerful moment.”

What did you learn or take away from this experience that can enhance either your professional or personal goals?
"The opportunity to dialogue and learn with people, from another culture, dealing with many of the same issues (we do in Sylvan Lake), was a great take-away.

I found the Jordanian people to be warm, friendly, and open to learning. It was my distinct privilege to work alongside a strong and capable team from FCM/JMSP – both Hadeel and Ledia were exceptional hosts.

Growing together, although from very different cultures, is such a gift. I went to train and teach others, but feel like I learned more than I gave. Strategic Planning is something we take for granted, but to see those “light bulb” moments happening within participants was so exciting; they were realizing the value and purpose of strategy.”

About the Jordan Municipal Support Project

The Jordan Municipal Support Project is one of many initiatives offered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), which is the national voice of local government, with over 2,000 municipal members of all sizes, including the Town of Sylvan Lake.

The JMSP is a five-year project of FCM in collaboration with Jordan’s Ministry of Local Administration, and 12 Jordanian municipalities, and funded by Global Affairs Canada. The trip, and associated expenses, were paid for through FCM, and not the Town of Sylvan Lake.

The five municipalities visited were: Al Gweirah, Al Jadeeda, Al Ash’ari, Bsierah, Al Jezah, and Um Ak Basateen.