Serpent River puts meetings online

By Marci Becking

SERPENT RIVER FN – Citizens of Serpent River First Nation living anywhere in the world with a high speed internet connection can now watch their band council meetings in real time.

“Our goal is to ensure transparency and engagement,” says Chief Isadore Day, whose community has had the Cisco WebEx system in place for two months.  “We’ve had about four meetings with the WebEx and so far, it’s very effective.”

Citizens can even talk among themselves in a forum while the council meeting is taking place.

“I can upload a presentation and our Citizens can see the information and the meeting at the same time,” says Chief Day.

The WebEx system is a “secure feed”, meaning users require a password to access it.

“We send out an e-mail to our community members and they have to e-mail us back to receive the password.  It’s a great way to connect to our off-reserve population as well as recognize our citizens,” says the Chief.

The system cost the community about $10,000 and Chief Day says the investment has already paid for itself because of those who have participated in meetings without having to travel.

“We initially got the system for community engagement projects and now we use it for meetings.  It saves a lot of travel dollars.”

But open and honest communication with First Nation citizens is seen as the system’s main benefit.

“We’re coming to a point where we need to use technology to be transparent beyond the current way we offer access,” says Chief Day. “We need the added edge with government.”

The Serpent River Ogimaa — who currently serves as Grand Chief for the Anishinabek Nation’s Lake Huron Region – has been among First Nations earliest adopters of new communications technologies. His Facebook and Twitter accounts have hundreds of followers.
“Social media has helped us provide information and remain informed,” he says. “The more information that we give, the more people want to participate.”

The chief says that it may come to the point where communities with the ability and capacity to use new technology may be directed by their citizens to make it the normal way of doing the business of community governance.