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Golf Tournament
The Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council is pleased to announce
its first annual golf tournament on August 26th, 2005. Profits from
the event will be donated towards activities benefiting the youth
of our six member communities.
The event will take place at the Club de Golf Algonquin (18 holes),
located in the heart of the Maniwaki region. The tournament (best
ball) will end with a
supper, distribution of prizes and entertainment. The registration
cost is $90 and includes the game, a cart, and the supper.
So come perfect your game while contributing to a great cause!
We invite you to contact us at (819) 449-1225 to register. This promises
to be a memorable day!
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Annual Assembly
The Algonquin
Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council is
holding this year its Annual General Assembly in the community of
Eagle Village. The meeting will take place during the week of August
15, 2005. More detailed information will be sent out shortly.
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Eagle Village
Elections
Elections were held on June 3rd, 2005 in Eagle Village. Chief Haymond
was re-elected and the new council is now composed of Gail Joly,
David McLaren and Madeline Paul.
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Lac Simon Pow Wow
Lac Simon is holding the second edition of its annual Pow Wow the
weekend of July 22-24, in Val d'Or at the St.Joseph site.
Everyone is welcome. For more information, please call (819) 736.4501.
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Kitcisakik Annual Games
Kitcisakik will hold its annual Games from July 21 to July 24 in
Kitcisakik. A 172 tournament will take place Thursday, July 21. Then,
on Friday, two tournaments will be organized: horseshoe tournament
and a 45 tournament. On Saturday, participants will be able to register
to big caliber shooting, 22 shooting, and skeet shooting. There will
also be a bingo at the community hall. The day will end with entertainment
and the crowning of a prince and a princess. Finally, on Sunday,
canoe races will take place. The weekend will end with a closing
ceremony and a show by Anwatan Wasche. For more information, you
can call (819) 736.3001.
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Traditional Herbs
As mentioned in the last issue, from now on we will publish in every
newsletter a section featuring a cultural element. This month the
information we present comes from the Val d'Or Friendship Centre's
newsletter “The Centre's Notebook”.
The four purifying
plants
The plants used since the beginning of times by Native people
are sage, cedar, sweet grass and juniper. Sage is the most masculine
plant and is a powerful purifier. The Canadian cedar, called the
Great Tree of Peace, has the perfect balance between feminine and
masculine polarities. It predisposes to prayer, tranquility and serenity.
Sweet grass is the most feminine of these plants and often called
the hair of Mother Earth. The juniper is used for remembering dreams
and to purify the sleeping place.
The Ritual
These plants were mainly used to purify the ambiance in
a given place. Current applications are: before a ceremony, to offer
help for a
healing, to purify a new house… Often, these plants were burned
in a shell, the abalone shell being the most common.
According to tradition, it is recommended to offer the smoke to the
four directions, beginning to the North and East and to say a prayer
while holding the shell. Native spirituality teaches us that the
smoke of the sacred herbs brings our prayers into the spiritual world.
The remaining ashes are sacred and consequently should be given back
to earth in a respectful manner.
Source: Val d'Or Native Friendship
Centre
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Human Resources Section, by Angela Benedict
First Nation Management Training
The AANTC is happy to announce the
success of the fifth unit Management of Priorities. The session was
held at the Val-d'Or Native Friendship
Center on June 7-8, 2005. This unit was the fifth amongst a series
of twelve to be delivered within the next couple years. In collaboration
with COSE Consultation, sessions were offered in English and French
with participation from 20 directors, managers and supervisors
within the member communities. We look forward to seeing you in
October for the sixth unit.
Labour Standards Workshop
An information session was held the afternoon
of June 8, 2005 at the Val-d'Or Native Friendship Center for all
management staff within
the member communities to review the Labour Code. The AANTC was pleased
with the participation rate and the overall information that was
covered. This session provided management staff a better understanding
of the code and employee protection. We will be offering Part 2 -
Occupational Health & Safety in October 2005. We look forward
to full participation.
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Environment Section
I had a chance to visit the school for a day (For Environment week)
to present videos on reducing, reusing, and
recycling. After the video presentation, we had enough time to do
a short activity. The students were very cooperative and we had a
great time! Going to the school was a great experience for me, and
hope to do it again real soon!
Migwetch,
Patricia Polson
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Economic Development Section, by Carole Whiteduck
Inventory Management Strategies for Cost Reduction
Inventory occupies
valuable storage and display space, so naturally you want to maximize
your return on investment. But inventory is
money that's been invested at a negative rate of interest: the longer
it sits on your shelves the more it costs.
It's best to manage that inventory so that you've got just enough
of it to service your customers and maintain adequate cash reserves
for other business operations.
Analyze patterns to establish forecasts
If you've been in business
for a while, you probably have some record of what sold and what
didn't sell throughout the year. Analyze
that data. Break the inventory down into categories and try to
correlate the categories with customers. You may very well see
a trend or pattern emerge. Depending on what business you're in,
that pattern could correspond to the rhythm of the seasons, or
it could be in-sync with the financial year-ends of your biggest
customers.
Once you've discerned a trend or pattern, you can begin to plan acquiring
and paying for that merchandise according to your needs. The idea
is to stock the inventory just before you need to sell it, so that
the money you've invested comes back into the business as quickly
as possible.
A good inventory information system should allow you to capture sales
history, and forecast sales, based on that history.
Turn dead inventory
into cash
To recover some of the cash you have tied-up in dead inventory,
it's best to mark it down for quick sale. Segment your dead inventory
into the "bad" (meaning not selling right now) down to
the "unsellable". Be realistic and merciless. Display
and price the bad stuff so that it will sell. It's not important
what you paid for it. What's important, is what your customers
are willing to pay for it right now. Alternately, you can talk
to your distributor who may be willing to take some of that inventory
back.
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Re-burial of Ancestral Remains and Burial Items
“Three years ago, we committed ourselves to a work-plan required
to succeed in this unique and historical undertaking. Today, because
of our convictions in the belief of redressing one of many injustices
exercised against our cultural heritage, our mission to act upon
a shared Algonquin desire to have our ancestral remains and their
belongings returned to the territory's soil, is near completion.
Three years ago, we designated June 21st, 2005 as the deadline to
finalize our mission in the repatriation of our ancestral remains
and their respective artifacts. Today, because of being encouraged
by the collective endorsement of our people, we have succeeded in
doing what we set out to accomplish. June 21st, 2005 is confirmed
to be the day when we will remove our ancestral human remains and
their belongings from imprisoning cabinets and return them to the
soil of their territory.”
Rene Tenasco, Coordinator
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