Kootenay Association of Science and Technology (KAST) Annual General Meeting

Castlegar, B.C. | June 8, 2011

As prepared for delivery by Selkirk College President, Angus Graeme.

What a great thing to be asked by a friend to say a few words about a great friendship. And that is indeed how Selkirk College views our relationship with KAST at Selkirk College. So thank you for the opportunity to be the keynote at this year’s AGM.

My own association with KAST goes back to 1994 when Claudia and I partnered on a proposal under the “Skills Now!” fund to deliver entrepreneurship and management skills to small business owners in the forestry consulting sector.

I have made a small and probably incomplete list of what we have worked together since then on over the past 15 years or so:

• Development of drinking water curriculum for the regional districts and local governments.
• Student summer work project for waste analysis surveys for the regional district.
• The Selkirk Geospatial Research Centre; KAST was a named partner on our successful proposal to the Canada Foundation for Innovation that has led to a very successful venture in geomatics research and advanced diploma and degree programming.
• The Regional Innovation Chair in Rural Economic Development and continued service on our advisory committee. This has now grown with the recent announcement of our partnership with Columbia Basin Trust in launching the Columbia Basin Rural Development Institute.
• KAST partnered with us to put on the successful “It Pays to be Green conference” on green technology.
• We work as a team to annually host the Environmental Network lunches where students from our Environment and Natural Resource programs meet and network with employers and begin to establish their professional relationships and contacts.
• The “Tech Village” initiative where IT and digital media professionals and SMEs have a platform to collaborate.
• The Community Science celebration; we have literally seen thousands of kids and their families come through those celebrations featuring science careers, ideas, and innovations.
• Last fall we collaborated on the “Business Boot Camp” with high school aged kids focusing on the young entrepreneur.

And there have been other projects I’m sure.

The effect of this support from KAST has been substantial for us and is really quite simple to describe: without the support of partners like KAST, especially with such common purposes, Selkirk College is unable to provide the kind of relevance to students, and our broader community so critically important and expected these days ...

Continue reading and download the full-version of Angus Graeme's KAST Annual General Meeting speech .