BARRHEAD - A study commissioned by the Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) recognized the County of Barrhead's work in helping combat the declining rate of volunteerism's impact on community halls.
The RMA is an independent association comprising 69 counties and municipal districts of Alberta. Its purpose is to advocate for issues impacting rural municipalities at the provincial and federal levels.
The organization commissioned the study conducted by the University of Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Studies to help its membership understand the reasons for the decline in volunteerism and the impact it would have on local not-for-profits, which residents depend on.
The study called the municipality's Community Hall Strategy "an excellent example of a municipality proactively engaging with relevant community groups in the difficult conversations around viability and strategic planning".
The strategy outlines challenges identified by community hall organizations and sustainability goals, creates a framework for assessing solutions and recommendations, lays out the roles and responsibilities of the municipality and community hall organizations, and identifies performance measures for the county.
In addition to receiving recognition in the study, the RMA asked the county to give a presentation on the municipality's Community Hall Strategy and the way it engaged community hall boards at the organization's fall convention last week.
Reeve Doug Drozd said the municipality was pleased to participate in the study, and he hopes the information they learned through the engagement process could also help other municipalities and other not-for-profits.
He added the municipality started working on the strategy in 2022 after including it in its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, but had to accelerate the timeline after the Camp Creek Community Hall board disbanded after they sold the hall and its surrounding property to an energy company, Pembina Pipelines, in the spring of that year. Camp Creek's board asked the county to hold the $1.5 million proceeds of the sale in trust and asking the municipality to come up with a plan to use the money for community and recreation purposes. The funds will be in trust, in an interest-bearing account, after which the former Camp Creek board will have the option to accept the county's plan for the funds or to take the money, including the interest.
Drozd said that as part of the process, the municipality met with community associations in the fall of 2022 and then again after narrowing the discussion topics in the spring of 2023.
"With our [15 community halls], we discussed their plans for the future, their hardships and challenges, what the county could do to help and if they considered themselves still viable, or did they want to hand in their keys and quit," he said. "What we heard from the vast majority felt they were still viable, and they want to continue to operate because they feel that they are an important and dynamic part of the community bringing value to their friends and neighbours," he said.
Drozd added that the council offered free building condition assessments as part of the engagement sessions with community halls in a further effort to help them remain viable.
"We also made them aware that they could access monies for projects and events through our Community Grant Policy," he said.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
