Tyler Sommers' Blog

Good Morning everyone!

It's been quite some time since my last entry and since you've heard much about the CYA I'm sure. The reason for this is that I've been incredibly busy with a variety of things. I became the new Coordinator for Democracy Watch about a year ago and in September of last year I started at Carleton's new Political Management program. Needless to say that this has kept me busy. I'm also helping with a paper that will be published in the summer - I'll be sure to let you know when that is (we're looking at motivations for voting, volunteering, and generally community engagement among youth).

As I have been the main pusher of people at the CYA my lack of involvement meant that things sort of stagnated a bit (if you're interested in taking a key role like mine in the CYA, email me! sommerst[at]cya-ajc.ca (replace centre with '@').

That said, in the past little while there's been movement here at the CYA. I've been able to meet a lot of fantastic people through the Master program and we've secured some firm commitments for speakers when we make this happen. This includes a former politicians, political insiders, community enthusiasts, academics, and more.

I also had the pleasure of meeting James Baxter of iPolitics last night - I'll be sending him an email soon and hopefully getting together for coffee. They're planning some fantastic things and I'm looking forward to meeting him and figuring out how we can work together.

What I'm going to be doing is blogging about the people I meet and the experiences I have through my involvement with the CYA and perhaps some other things I think you'll find interesting. No political commentary, rest assured - we do seek to be neutral in our roles at the CYA.

That's it! Now you know what I've been up to, why there's been a bit of a lull and what's happening next.

PS. Our forum is in maintenance mode because it was flooded with spammers. I'll be bringing it back up, but password protecting it or something so everyone can see posts, but not make them until I can figure out how to stop the spam.

Talk to you soon,

Tyler Sommers

Okay, so I thought there was some sort of a problem with our blogs, but fortunately I had just forgotten my login information!

Well the election is underway and everyone is super busy! The CYA has launched a new project - Bridge the Gap - where we get questions from you to ask community leaders.

Our first participant is Fair Vote Canada! So, if you'd like to ask them a question (think of them as experts on electoral reform) please email me at sommerst(a t)cya-ajc.ca.

We're always looking for new volunteers, so if you have an interest please email me! I'll start blogging here more often now that I remember my information

Tyler

So the Canadian Youth Assembly has been going through a rather interesting and sweeping change as of late. After our elections we realized the role we'd envisioned for the members simply didn't work, heck, it didn't even make any sense. So, we've had to change quite a few things and those changes will ensure that the CYA develops rather quickly into a heck of a lot more than we've been in the past. Mind you, we've all learned a lot and the experiences I've had with the CYA have been nothing short of life altering; I guess that's really an incredible benefit from doing things yourself... you may take a lot longer getting wherever you're going, but you learn more than you'd ever thought you would.

Going through the process of a failed organization, the discussions whether to continue (at first I was not a fan of doing anything like the CYA ever again), and learning that the passion and drive of the people you'd been working with was so phenomenal and so inspiring, changes you. If I had to relive that whole situation, I know I would take that same path.

But I'm digressing from the original purpose of my entry today. I'm writing today to spread the word about a couple of websites I was forwarded which are absolutely amazing.

The first paragraph of this site says it all (http://www.samaracanada.com/Best_Political_Writing). It's important that we read about and understand the political landscape in which we live. Knowledge is power, and while it may be cliche to say things like this, it's honestly true. You'll avoid the mistakes made in the past, you'll learn things you may not learn otherwise, and if nothing else you'll learn a lot about the system that operates around you (and includes you!). You will learn, trust me, because no one knows everything (though people seldom hate to admit this) and we're all uninformed and ignorant about a great deal of things.

Check out the site which includes a list of some of the most interesting and informative political writing about Canada: http://www.samaracanada.com/Best_Political_Writing. You'll be glad you did.

Oh, and they run a contest! You guess who said the quote they post and you could win a selection from their list! The next quote will be put up on August 30th! Neat contest and great reward. It's also worth checking out at http://www.samaracanada.com/Guess_Who_Contest

Till next time,

Tyler Sommers

Hello hello.

So the public side of things has kind of drifted off in the CYA.. posting on the forums is lessened, which is rather unhealthy for our goals.

So we're going to be whipping things back into shape.

Our website is getting a much needed reorganization, making it easier to know what we're doing and to keep you informed.
Our forum and social networking will be revamped.
Our volunteers will be posting on the forum regularly (I'll see what I can do about getting them blogging as well).
I'm also floating the idea of having regular focus groups with our members on various topics - to get a youth perspective on things (using our chat software).

So we have a few more volunteers and we're changing the way we handle and get them working because we've lost too many of them due to lack of communication.

We do, however, have a great document on outreaching to Aboriginal peoples from one of our volunteers, expect that up on the site (I think it's on the forum already) soon.

And a big thing the February 20th Conference in Ottawa. February 20th we'll be holding a leadership conference in Ottawa, our first keynote speaker is Steve Paikin of TVO's The Agenda.

Check out our Facebook event

Information is also on our main website

If you have suggestions for the CYA, feel free to visit the ideas section of our forum

Till next time,

Tyler Sommers

Alright, so things have been a little slow, that's normal though so don't worry.

September was slow for us last year as well, so I'm not worried. Things will pick up. We're still planning a smaller conference for November, in Toronto. Larger one in 2010 in Ottawa. Woopee. If you can help, please let me know (sommerst[ a t]cya-ajc.ca (replace middle with @)).

Now, there are a couple of reasons I'm writing this.. the first one I actually forget. Great.

Well, we do still need volunteers (badly) so if you have friends/relatives/strangers who might be interested, give them our info and my email.

If you like to write or draw, send me some stuff for The Representative!

Now, I've seen a lot going on with CYA parties and most of it is great! But I do have to stress one thing very, very clearly: Do not do anything if you would be upset that we (the CYA) did it.

That means, if you do something, make sure it's something that you would be alright, happy, anything but unhappy/displeased at all (because we all want to take whatever steps we can to make everyone happy) with us doing.

So, would you be happy if we restructured the organization without even mentioning it to you? Unlikely. Would you like it if we just appointed a bunch of positions that are supposed to be elected? Unlikely. etc, etc.

In order to have the CYA parties work and in order to get the most out of them, you really need to work toward doing things the way you want everyone else to do. CYA parties are a micro-version of what some of you may well be doing in the future - the primary difference will be the level of accountability you face. While there are many things you can 'get away' with in CYA parties, you won't be able to do the same thing 'in real life' (and probably won't get a second chance if you try to do it). So please, treat the CYA parties properly and have respect for your peers.

The CYA is a shining example that everyone's input counts and will help make a strong whole. The sum of the pieces are indeed greater. The CYA has been built (bylaws included) by our membership! I'm very proud of this and mention it relentlessly.

And finally. Please be honest with us (the volunteers). We're very open to 'bending the rules' and making exceptions if the situation warrants for them. Just send us an email and say "we're thinking about doing x. I know that we're technically not supposed to do it, but we feel it's best because of z y and p. Do you mind if we go ahead?" - Our response (given that your z, y and p are legit) will likely be something like "so long as you let your members know and are doing the best for them, sounds good!"

Don't hide things from us or lie.. we're really not stupid and we will find out. While we may not run to you and question you, we'll make note of it. Respect is something that must be earned and if you are respectful and honest to us, we'll do our best to ensure we accommodate your unique situations.

Let's be sure to act our best and show Canada what youth are capable of!

Until next time,

Tyler Sommers - signing off.

(I couldn't think of something more original, but I'll give it a shot next time).