Message From ALBERTA DIVISION President

Alberta Division President's Update - April 15, 2020

Good day everyone. I hope you are all keeping safe, well, and busy during these very interesting times.
As we settle into the current “normal”, I want to ensure all our officers, branch, cadets and parents are kept in the loop.

Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Announcement
Earlier today Brigadier General Cochrane announced that all in-person cadet activities are cancelled until August 31, 2020. All training will be marked as completed. Please click the links below for full details.

Message from Commander - English [PDF]
Message from Commander - French [PDF]

Navy League Cadets
The Navy League of Canada has announced that all Navy League Cadet activity is suspended until August 31, 2020. Please click the link below for full details.

COVID-19 Update April 15 [PDF]

From an Alberta perspective, Fleet Days has been cancelled for 2020.

What’s New and Exciting?
Alberta Division has secured status as an educational entity with Google. That means we now are authorized to offer the full resources of Google Classroom to all of our cadet corps. While this is organized via the Division Council, we will not be inserting ourselves into the day to day operations. Without this status, the cost to use the full resources of Google Classroom would have been in the thousands and there would have been an ongoing user fee of $6.00 per user per month. Instead, we are able to offer it to our corps with no associated costs.

How does it work?

Each corps will be set up as its own “class” and the corps officers can determine how to provide both ongoing training and social interaction for their corps. We anticipate virtual parade nights will begin very soon.

Navy League Corps:

The NL corps have been set up already because PSICORP Group was able to import the cadet and officer information from the Rollcall system. Video conferences were set up with the NL officers this week to provide training.

Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps:

At this time RCSU Northwest has declined our offer to provide access to Google Classroom to the sea cadet corps. If circumstances change, we will reach out with information on how to get set up.

Branches:

Google Classroom presents us with a unique opportunity. Over the next few months members of Alberta Division will be designing content for Branches. All members of all branch boards will be able to log into the Branch Class and access a variety of training essential to building and maintaining a strong, effective board. This is the fulfillment of a dream ignited by our past president, Ms. Pat Randall, when she created a training portfolio on the Division Board and began taking training on the road. We have always struggled with the reality that Alberta Division’s board did not have the resources to be able to travel to each branch and spend the time we felt necessary on training. Now, with the implementation of the Branch Classroom, the goal of providing high calibre, easily accessible training to all branch board members, no matter their location, will soon be a reality. Details to follow!

Operation Thank you Video Series
While we were very sad to learn that DND would not permit the use of any sea cadets in our video, we were very excited that the Navy League of Canada became a full partner in this. If you haven’t seen the first video, check it out!

Watch Video

Videos two and three will follow.

Province Wide Raffle
The early bird draw will take place on May 7, 2020 as originally planned. Please follow the raffle rules and timelines for submitted all ticket stubs. If you have questions, please email raffle@abnavyleague.ca We already have the required funds to cover the early bird prize.

We have requested a change in the grand prize draw date for obvious reasons. We are requesting October 24, 2020, which is the Saturday of the scheduled Division AGM at Olds College. We know all branches and corps will need funds quickly so thought the AGM date allowed enough time for ticket sales as the cadet training year begins in September. We recognize that any fundraising seems impossible right now but we encourage all participating branches to move forward as we will all need the funds the raffle can generate, especially with casinos and other fundraisers cancelled.

Battle of Atlantic Sunday
As you know, all public events such as the traditional B of A parade have been cancelled. However, our Navy League Corps, under the leadership of Commander Doram and LCdr (NL) Neville Johnson, and the support of very talented officers around the province, are planning a virtual tribute…..stay tuned for more details!

Leadership Training Opportunities
Thank you to everyone who responded to the Survey Monkey on this. However, we are now going to hijack our own agenda because a new program specifically designed for the current world situation is available to us.

Today we live in crisis with the COVID-19 changing our day to day lives in ways not imaginable just a few short months ago.

What is interesting about the current crisis is that without playing it down too much it is just another crisis we face in our lives with the biggest difference is that, we are not alone as an individual, family, team or group, community, or country this is a pandemic affecting the entire world creating global, local and personal crisis.

The mastermind “Leading Through Crisis” designed by John Maxwell (a world leadership expert) and presented by certified team members will dive into eleven different principles of dealing with crisis.

This forum will be limited to 8-10 people and offered on Thursday nights (approx 1-1.5 hours) starting Thursday, April 23, delivered via Zoom. Handouts for the participant use will be sent out 2 days prior to the mastermind program.

This is an opportunity to learn and grow focusing on Leading Through Crisis. Strong conversation on leadership and life learning will certainly be shared.

If interested please contact sterling.martin@abnavyleague.ca

Take care and stay well.

Jocelyn Park
President/Navy League Chairperson