S moke S ignals
JUNE 15, 2016
9
Annual Community Input meeting held June 8
By Brent Merrill
Smoke Signals staff writer
The Tribe’s annual Community
Input meeting was held Wednes-
day, June 8, in the Tribal gym
and provided the membership an
opportunity to help shape Tribal
programs.
Sixty-one people signed in with
General Manager Executive Assis-
tant Barbara Branson and Tribal
Council Administrative Assistant
Shannon Simi, who supervised the
sign-in table. The total included
staff members.
Those who attended had the
opportunity to talk to Tribal staff
one-on-one and tell them how they
feel about each program offered to
the membership.
Tribal Council Chairman Reyn
Leno and Tribal Council members
Chris Mercier and Brenda Tuomi at-
tended along with staff from Health
and Wellness, Housing, Education,
Culture, Social Services, Police and
Emergency Management, and Nat-
ural Resources. Staff manned 22
information tables in all.
Planning and Grants Develop-
ment Manager Kim Rogers wel-
comed everyone and provided a
PowerPoint overview of how com-
munity meetings work and how
the Tribe uses the information
gathered from talking to the mem-
bership.
“This annual meeting is offered
as an opportunity for members
to provide comments and sugges-
tions, which will help guide Tribal
programs and grant applications,”
said Rogers.
Education Department Manager
Leslie Riggs said the information
gathered is vital to Education staff
efforts to improve the program for
members who access the education-
al services offered.
“We actually take the comments
and suggestions very seriously,”
said Riggs. “If it’s a good idea it
doesn’t matter where it comes from.
We (Education staff) really value
the membership’s opinion and the
membership’s feelings about how
our program is run. So whether
you have a child in the Early Head
Start program or you have a youth
in the Youth Ed program or you
are accessing higher education or
the library, your opinion matters
and we really want to hear from
the membership about what they
think.”
Riggs said the information gath-
ered from the membership at input
meetings is used for short- and
long-range program planning.
Recreation Coordinator Har-
ris Reibach was stafing his irst
Community Input meeting in his
new position with just a month on
the job. He said getting everyone’s
input will help him shape his pro-
gram to better fit the needs and
wants of the membership.
“That’s what we’re all about is
making sure that the gym and the
whole Recreation program helps
the community and helps people
have a healthy outlet to exercise,”
said Reibach. “We just want to get
as many people involved as we can.”
Nursing Supervisor Christa Hos-
ley sat at the Health and Wellness
information table with other staff
members. Visitors to Hosley’s table
were asked to ill out a community
feedback survey.
The survey asked members when
their irst visit to the Health and
Wellness Center was and how
many times they had been there.
The survey asked general informa-
tion about what type of care had
been received and if the current
hours of operation and the current
medical services offered fit the
membership’s needs.
Tribal Wildlife Biologist Lind-
say Belonga staffed the Natural
Resources information table and
asked members how they feel about
current hunting regulations and
seasons, and how membership feels
about the public accessing Reserva-
tion lands.
Belonga also shared with mem-
bers that her department is doing a
DNA study of local deer populations
and using sonar to conduct fish
surveys on Agency Creek.
“We’re trying to understand the
population,” said Belonga. “That
information is going to be used to
determine how many additional
hunting and fishing tags we can
issue to the membership. What
we’re trying to get from the survey
is what would the membership
beneit from in terms of what would
those hunting and ishing regula-
tions look like.”
Belonga said she wants to know
if hunters want to have their addi-
tional hunting opportunities before
or after the regular hunting season,
or both. She said she wants to know
how Tribal members feel about pub-
lic access to the Reservation during
hunting seasons. She also wants to
know if they are ine with the way
things are now or if they want to
limit public access at some point.
“That kind of information will
help us develop those regulations
as we move forward under the
Tribal Wildlife Management Plan
and continue to issue those hunting
tags,” said Belonga.
Mercier said anytime that the
Tribe has an opportunity to share
information with the membership,
it’s a good idea.
“I think it’s good just to have an
open house of the Tribe and all
its programs because I think a lot
of the Tribal members that live
locally are familiar with some of
the programs, but not everybody
is familiar with everything that
we have going on,” said Mercier.
“This is a good way to get the word
out. They (Tribal members) can
interact with a staff member of a
department. I have found that this
is so useful and goes a long way in
letting members know everything
that the Tribe has going on. Some-
times you just have to make these
opportunities available.”
A dinner was provided and door
prizes were rafled off, as well.