First Impressions count

Town Council

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Joanne Robbins of Saugeen Shores Chamber of Commerce came to Council Monday night to present the new "First Impressions" Community Exchange concept.

Robbins explained that the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) had contacted the Chamber with a view to entering into an exchange with Grand Bend, as the two communities share many similarities such as a coastal location, population size, tourism based summer economies, youth retention issues and proximity to urban centres among others.

Volunteer teams from each community visits the other unannounced and incognito. They record their observations and then give their feedback to their host exchange community on both their strengths and possible shortcomings.

The teams themselves are made up of residents from various backgrounds, occupations and ages that undergo training by an OMAFRA coordinator. Each team then travels together to the exchange community, usually two to three hours away, where members spend either several hours or overnight gathering information either as individuals or in pairs. The team then returns home, prepares a written report and presents it to the exchange community visited.

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10/08/2009 11:14 PM

The planned exchange is expected to take place in mid-August and the Saugeen Shores team will consist of members of the Port Elgin Community Improvement Plan (CIP) committee in addition to two or three Southampton residents.

According to Robbins, the idea is to give each community a fresh perspective from the viewpoint of first-time visitors. "This is an exciting project and hopefully will give us all insights into how our community is perce4ived by the first-time visitor ... we can then use the recommendations in the report to deveolop action plans to build on local strengths and address local weaknesses."

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