40 METIS NA TION Of ONT ARIO Annu A l Repo R t 20122013 Gr owing str onger within the M no MNO citizens in an ar ea wher e no MNO community council has been charter ed can appr oach the MNO leadership indicating their inter est in forming a council The MNO leadership will dispatch MNO Community Relations staf f to work with these citizens to plan community meetings to gauge local inter est in forming a council The initial meeting between inter ested citizens and a MNO Community Relations staf f is for information sharing and if appr opriate the election of an interim council Once in place the interim council sets the dir ec tion for the council and looks for ways to str engthen community r elationships and develop sustainable partner ship with all citizens in the ar ea Once a council signs its MNO Charter MNO Community Relations staf f will work with the council to develop and ratify their gover ning documents and set an election date for their ballot box elections in which a pr esident and council executive will be elected Capacity building Metis citizens who support the MNO with thousands of hours of volunteer work ar e at the heart of the Metis Nation Some of these gener ous individuals who allow their names to stand for election however do not have training in the ar ea of local gover nance T o assist these citizens develop this expertise the MNO pr ovides local gover nance training for MNO community council members with funding fr om the Ontario gover nment s New Relationship Fund NRF MNO local gover nance training is of fer ed thr ough MNO Community Relations staf f and pr ovides instruc tion and r esour ces needed to start building capacity at the local r egional and pr ovincial levels In addition to ensuring that MNO community councils operate in a transpar ent and accountable way the training ensur es that cor e capacity is in place at the community level to facilitate consultation work with gover nment and industr y Curr ently MNO Community Relations staf f of fers two types of training sessions These ar e the Gover nance and Finance course and the Meetings and Negotiations W orkshop The Gover nance and Finance course is a two day seminar It explains wher e MNO community councils ft into the MNO gover nance structur e and explains their r ole as local gover nment The course covers ever ything fr om how to run ef fective meetings and engage citizens in council activities to budgeting and the various fnancial practices r egulations and legislation that MNO community councils must follow The MNO started of fering the course in 2010 and over a dozen MNO community councils have taken the training since then The Meetings and Negotiations workshop was only intr oduced at the end of 201011 The frst workshop was of fer ed in August 2011 to all MNO community council members and PCMNO r egional councillors The Kwiijikwewag m et is W omen s d rum Gr oup perfor ming at t he T al bot p ark m et is f est ival near p ort m c n icol l on s eptember 23 2012 mno a t ikokan and a r ea m et is Council Council lor Kristy Camer on wit h her paint ing Grandmot her s pider t hat was featur ed at t he p ictograph Gal lery in a t ikokan in s eptember 2012