Annual Partner Meeting Provides New Strategies for imagineCALGARY Partnership

This March, imagineCALGARY Partners attended an Annual Partner Meeting to discuss opportunities for growth within the Partnership. More than 20 Partner organizations were represented at the event, and provided enthusiastic input and ideas.

Jesse Row, Chair of the Steering Committee, offered an overview of accomplishments within the Partnership. “Today, imagineCALGARY Partners represent four of the five largest employers in Calgary,” Jesse says. “The fact that we have a diverse group definitely adds to the value of the organization.”

In his presentation, Jesse outlined the key goals for the imagineCALGARY Partnership:

Goal 1:	To advance realization of the selected targets in the Long Range Urban Sustainability Plan
Goal 2:	To promote the imagineCALGARY Partner value proposition
Goal 3:	To engage existing and new Partners with selected targets in the Long Range Urban Sustainability Plan
Goal 4:	Determine resource options for 2009/2010 and project forward for 2011-2012 with particular emphasis on forming cooperative arrangements with education-based Partners
Goal 5:	To record, evaluate and communicate effective progress with the imagineCALGARY Partnership Strategy Plan by a metric of “indicators of success” document

During the meeting, Susan Macaulay, a Learning Leader from the Calgary Board of Education, shared her students’ perspectives on sustainability and the role of imagineCALGARY. Five years ago, Susan was one of the 18,000 Calgarians who participated in answering imagineCALGARY’s four key questions. Today, she is sharing her passion for a sustainable future with her students at Olympic Heights Elementary.

“Sustainability is needed in a growing city to balance everyone’s needs. It is planning for the future forever. It is about making a city a better place for future generations.” Students on sustainability and Calgary’s downtown

Susan's students have talked about the value of sustainability and imagineCALGARY, and have hosted discussions with City planners, Aldermen and imagineCALGARY representatives. Students have explored the issue of sustainability across the community, touring historic sites, visiting the city’s core, writing poems, painting pictures, researching the city’s history and heritage and even joining forces to protect the green spaces around their school. “We hope imagineCALGARY and some of the other experts will come back and see the work we’ve done,” Susan says. “imagineCALGARY and the Plan have been a huge source of inspiration. The students are starting to understand they have a voice.”

The Annual Partner Meeting was organized by the three imagineCALGARY committees – Steering, Communications and Awareness and Collaborative Action. “Our goals with the Annual Partner Meeting were to generate enthusiasm and energy around the Partnership, and to discuss ways Partners can become more involved in achieving imagineCALGARY’s vision,” says John Lewis, Communications and Awareness Committee Coordinator. “Progress within the Partnership really depends on the actions of each of the Partners themselves. The event was a great opportunity to help people see the contribution they can make.”

“To make our history and identity sustainable we need to look at what and who have made us what we are today. We need to build a relationship with those things so we can recognize, protect and celebrate them. We need this relationship to the past in a city that is always changing. We need to know who we are or we become just like everyone else.” Students on sustainability and Calgary’s history and identity

Participants had a chance to participate in five different round-table discussions designed to provide practical strategies for enhancing the Partnership.

Recruitment
Participants discussed the importance of broadening the membership base for the Partnership. Strategies included:

•	Challenging/encouraging peer groups to become involved
•	Promoting greater understanding of the value of being an imagineCALGARY Partner, and what it means to be a Partner
•	Working with the corporate world to tailor a recruitment approach
•	Preparation of materials and supports necessary for recruitment
•	Engaging diverse elements of Partner organizations (i.e., students, volunteers, etc.) within the Partnership

Committees
Participants discussed the role of the three Partnership Committees and the potential for recruiting new members.

“We believe that sustainability is about communication, education and value.”Students on sustainability and Calgary’s green spaces

Communication
Participants recognized the effectiveness of existing materials, particularly the imaginecalgary.ca website and the e-newsletter, and expressed the desire to expand the imagineCALGARY presence into social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. (A Twitter account for imagineCALGARY has already been established – you can follow it here).

There are more than 50,000 post secondary students in Calgary today, and the idea of working with students to develop imagineCALGARY success stories was also discussed.

A branding package to promote imagineCALGARY and working with videos and media outlets like Shaw TV to share the message were also discussed.

Engagement
The idea of working with other sustainability organizations to engage and motivate Partners was discussed. Opportunities for promotion and engagement with groups like Make It Good and Sustainability for Breakfast were encouraged, and the idea of co-branding events with other organizations was discussed.

“A focus on keeping the human impact on Calgary under control is critical as the city continues to grow and grow. Nature provides all our basic needs. Nature also provides us with places to play, learn and be happy. We owe it to the future generations of Calgarians to work responsibly towards sustaining and even expanding nature’s presence in our city. When we destroy nature, we destroy a piece of ourselves.” Students on sustainability and Calgary’s green spaces

Partnership Promotion
Participants discussed the role of a Speakers Bureau that would allow imagineCALGARY Partners to share information about the Partnership with the community in general and potential Partners in particular. The idea of making Partners aware that membership in imagineCALGARY is not an onerous task was discussed, and support for promotion (i.e., PowerPoint presentation) was considered.

Look for a variety of these strategies to be implemented throughout the Partnership and the community in coming months.

In the end, the Annual Partner Meeting met its goal of inspiring participants to continue their involvement in imagineCALGARY, and to encourage others to do the same. Many, like Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman of Faith and the Common Good, view their role in imagineCALGARY as a priority in terms of ensuring a sustainable future for Calgarians. “When I look at the challenges facing the city, I see there’s nothing more important,” he says.