Smoke Signals
March 3, 1995
Page 8
Former construction worker: Haller's
new work is building dreams, jobs
By Frank King
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Bob Haller has been a member of
the nine-person Tribal Council for
almost six months. In that time he
had learned there is a lot to do and
learn.
"There is much study, preparation
and thought that goes into council
decisions and actions. Before I was
on the council, I did not know how
much effort and time is spent on
arriving at decisions," he said.
About ten years ago, Bob and his
wife, Leveta, decided that they
wanted to live in an area close to
both of their families.
"This is where we wanted to be,"
Bob said.
The move was a pilgrimage home
for the Haller family.
Bob's father worked in sawmills
and the woods in Northern Califor
nia and the Willamette Valley, and
moved between the places in when
Bob was young.
He had 18 brothers and sisters.
"I was right in the middle," Bob
said.
The Ha Hers moved to Turner,
Oregon when Bob was in his jun
ior year of high school
"Shortly after that I got into the
union and became a construction
worker," he said.
That early decision was a first step
in a career that took him through
out the United States and to Ven
ezuela. "I followed construction jobs,
mostly the big dams," he said. He
worked on the huge, multipurpose
water resource projects on the
Lower Snake River, and a big dam
job in South America.
"I did a lot of work for Guy F.
Atkinson Co.," he said.
When he ended his heavy con
struction career, Bob was a concrete
placement supervisor. He had
worked his way up from laborer to
a management job.
After 20 years in construction, the
Haller's wanted to put down roots
in their cultural homeland.
"All of our relatives lived in this
area, and we decided this is where
we wanted to be," Bob said.
To keep busy, he began buying
old home, fixing them up, and sell
ing them.
Bob decided to run for a position
on the Tribal Council after several
people approached him on the sub
ject "When I came back to the area, I
started listening to sonic of the con
cerns. I just decided to get involved
and run," he said.
He believes that the Tribe should
provide more health and welfare
benefits for all tribal members, re
gardless of where they may live, as
revenue begins to grow from tribal
economic development programs.
The most satisfying experience to
Bob Haller as a Tribal Council
member?
"Just meeting all of the people -being
part of the decision making,"
he said.
Bob said that when he was grow
ing up, Indian children and youths
frequently faced the pain and iso
lation of racial discrimination.
"It was a very real thing," he said.
"Times have changed. There is less
obvious discrimination, and being
an Indian now is a good thing. Now
everybody wants to be an Indian."
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde
Community of Oregon
9615 Grand Ronde Road
Grand Ronde, Oregon 97347
Organizational development,
environment. Self-governance has
created an opportunity for us to re
design these programs based on
community needs and goals.
The Tribe has established
two re-engineering teams; one in
Family Services and one in Health
Services. The teams will be
looking at all aspects of service
design, including internal systems
and processes, communication and
services to clients, dealing with
outside agencies, dealing with
vendors and complying with regu
lations. The Family Services Team
has met three times. The first
meeting was for orientation and an
introduction to re-engineering. It
was the first time these particular
people had come together as a
group. The purpose of the second
meeting on January 31, 1995, was
to establish a common starting
point for the Team's work in re
engineering programs and services
affecting families of the Tribe. The
meeting began by identifying
significant historical events which
have impacted families and indi
viduals. The process then moved
through a discussion of accom
plishments and regrets to the
identification of key trends the
Team envisions will impact fami
lies in the future. After the
identification of key trends, the
Team shared its hopes and fears for
families in the future. Next, the
Team identified key values essen
tial to healthy families. The final
step was to create a shared vision,
including a vision statement, of
what the family service program
should be in the year 2005. The
Team's last meeting on February
17, 1995 provided an explanation
of the re-engineering process and
allowed the Team to discuss their
next course of action. The Health
Services Team will go through the
same steps as the Family Services
Team. Their initial meeting is
scheduled for March 1, 1995.
Human services, in an
effort to decentralize decision
making and planning, has estab
lished three other planning teams.
The teams are broken down into
the following categories: Informa
tion Services, Researching and
Facility Design.
Another step in the Tribe's
development efforts is for all staff
to attend, "Techniques for an
Empowered Workforce." This
team building training is offered
by division, and is facilitated by
Kit Devine, Human Resource
Director. The teams go through a
series of training modules which
continued
cover topics including: assessing
improvement opportunities, valu
ing differences, determining causes,
working in teams, reaching agree
ment in teams, targeting improve
ment ideas and implementing
ongoing improvement. Three
divisions have completed the
training and are utilizing the
techniques learned to address
improvement opportunities.
A large part of the Tribe's
reason for increasing focus on
organizational development and
efficiency stems from the upcom
ing opening of the gaming facility.
While we try and position our
selves for the impacts of gaming
we cannot know them all. We must
take advantage of the quickly
closing window of opportunity to
prepare ourselves. The efforts
mentioned above are just the
beginning. We intend to continue
to utilize these organizational
development techniques such as
re-engineering and team building
to prepare ourselves to adapt in a
continuously changing environ
ment. We will continue to keep
you updated on the progress of the
organization through monthly ar
ticles in this publication.