Bridging the Gap
External Evaluator Monthly Report
December 1 – 31, 2002

Activities:

• Attended a meeting with the Zone 15 CLN and Ken Clements, the Director of the Labour Standards Board. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss and get Ken's perspectives on what are the requirements and legal limits of the ability of the CLN and the employer to screen people for physical and mental competencies.
• Met with Provincial Co–ordinator and Financial Manager to review the project progress.
• Following and documenting evidence around the BTG progress and impacts – including the linkages between the BTG participants and the industry and customers of their employment partners. The Triton site is attending the Boston Seafood Show primarily compliments of the employment partner (Jason Roberts) providing the bus, and the local HRCC covering a lot of the other costs. Participants are also doing their own fundraising.
• In Lethbridge, the participants are bagging and selling their hampers of vegetables and are able to retain the $3/hamper commission as an incentive to sell. It gives them good hands on exposure to what the market is looking for in terms of price, quality, packaging, sales convenience, etc. They have also been given exposure to the owners/produce managers of stores and what they see in the local vegetable markets.
• Reviewed the assessments that Michelle did on the participants from the Catalina BTG project.
• Completing the first draft of the Social and Economic Landscape. Some of the questions are proving problematic for statistical reasons. At this point, it doesn't appear the SSP Regional Planners schedule for doing their Landscapes and ours will coincide, so we will complete ours as best we can, given the information available.
• Reviewed new job advertisement for the Academic Instructor with the Provincial Co–ordinator
• Reviewed (again) Michelle, Barb and Ina's "Observations and Recommendations" file. Emailed the other Co–ordinators for their thoughts in a similar format as well
• Planning the Quarterly Evaluation meeting for January, 2003 with Provincial Co–ordinator
• Used WEB CT on a regular basis, still am not a fan. I listened/lurked on a chat room of Michelle and the BTG Co–ordinators in December and this may be a redeeming feature of WEB CT! It is much less expensive than a conference call, the meeting discussions is captured as people type, and it keeps people focussed on the issues. Requires good keyboarding skills though.
• Received and reviewed a variety of reports and minutes from the five sites, the Program Co–ordinator and the Provincial Co-ordination Team.
• Dropped into Random North and they gave me a lovely Christmas Present!! Something to do with Moose poop!