Best Ever Inside Joke for Facilitators

Everyone's alway offering us feedback. That's great, but sometimes all you really want is a bag of Hawkins' Cheezies.

(Image courtesy of Utne Magazine)

Doing It Right: Evaluation in First Nations and Inuit Communities

Meaningful evaluation is hard work. It means more than just crunching numbers and summarizing interviews.  It requires patience, respect, and a willingness to be flexible in scope and approach in order to get at what's really happening within an organization, a program or a project.  And when working with First Nation and Inuit stakeholders, this can be challenging.

Over the last few years Stonecircle and Aarluk have been developing a reputation for their ability to connect with communities and come away with real results. Earlier this week Jennifer David and Greg Smith were invited to talk about their approach. 

Quite Possibly The Least Convincing Phishing Scam Ever

Okay, look, all you internet scammers out there. Some friendly advice. If you're going to pretend to be Revenue Canada offering Consilium a $189.82 refund in return for visiting your virus and spam-laden website, PLEASE have the courtesy to put a little effort into it, would you? I mean, put a Canadian flag or something in the email. Or spell check it. Or lose the Chinese characters.

And make it worth our while, would you? Heck, if we're going to get scammed, it's going to be by that nice widow from Uzbekistan who's got Consilium's name from a priest and wants our help to smuggle out her husband's illegally confiscated gold bullion. We're going to get 20 million from her: why waste our time with your paltry $189.82?

Decision 2011: The Voters Have Spoken.

No, not that other election. We're talking about the vote that really matters. In our first ever Consilium online poll, you, the people, have made your views known. Asked to respond to the question: "So What Do You Think Of The Blog, Huh?", here's what you said.

• 12 readers voted for "Unbelievably Awesome".


• 14 readers voted for "An Astonishing Achievement".


• 2 readers voted for " The Best I've Ever Seen".


• 21 readers for "All of the Above".

There you go. A completely objective, rigorously scientific, and absolutely unbiased assessment. Congratulations to our obviously accomplished and appreciative readership. And don't forget to vote in this week's poll!

First - the Firsts.

First hit the "Publish" button for the new blog: 10:57 a.m., March 29


First hit from outside the Consilium Consulting Group: 10:59 a.m., March 29.


First Day: More than 700 hits.

First Official Registered Follower: Melanie "Have You Seen These Shots of My New Puppy?" Legault. Thanks, Meme, this one's for you!

First International Hit: Indonesia (yeah, we're not sure either.)

First Comment: Ah. Well, there's an honour that's still available. C'mon, you KNOW you want to.

Welcome to Curve Lake

It's a beautiful drive up Highway 7, and the Stonecircle team will be getting to know it very well this summer. Jennifer David and Alex Ker returned last week from the first planning session kicking off an organizational review project with the community. The the First Nation will be assessing their administrative and governance functions to determine how they can improve their operations, and Stonecircle will be organizing community meetings, conducting interviews, doing research and analyzing data throughout the spring and summer, leading to a report and recommendations.

Welcome to Our Times: the Official blog of the Consilium Consulting Group, Aarluk Consulting, and Stonecircle Consulting

The Consilium Consulting Group, Aarluk Consulting and Stonecircle Consulting are pleased... no, excited... no, THRILLED to welcome you to Our Times: The Blog!


Yes, we loved the old newsletter too. But think of this as the newsletter on steroids. You'll still be informed of upcoming events, new beginnings, ongoing projects, happy endings, and of course gossip and trivia.

But now, for the first time ever, YOU can join in on the fun through the comments section! See that Ron Ryan will be coming to Sanikiluaq? Don't be shy, ask him to bring you a box of Timbits! Recognize someone in one of our pictures? Tell us how you know them!

Here's a page to  help get you registered for commenting.


We know how hard it was, struggling through the dry and lonely weeks, kept afloat only by the knowledge that the beginning of the next month, and with it a new edition of the Consilium Newsletter, was inching ever closer. Now you need wait no more. Our highly trained of content specialists (well, same people, actually) will ensure new content is delivered fresh and wholesome to your monitor every single day.


So look around, say hello, and remember to come back soon!

5 Thrilling Factoids You Didn't Know About Axel Heiberg Island

Our Man Galin Kora is not someone who does things by halves. We're not saying he gets obsessed with his work; but he's been working for three months now on study of Axel Heiberg Island for the Government of Nunavut's Department of the Environment, investing its potential as a protected area. Among the Heibergian Trivia Galin has shared with us: 5. Axel Heiberg Island is the seventh largest island in Canada, and the third largest uninhabited island in the world. 4. It's actually the fifth island named after ol' Axel, an energetic Norwegian patron who sponsored the polar expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen and Otto Sverdrup, He got a glacier, as well. 3. About 27% of Axel Heiberg Island is covered by glacial ice, and most of it rests on rock dating back between 250 and 65 million years ago. 2. In spite of all that ice and rock, approximately 130 species of vascular plants and 30 bird species have been reported on the island, and it features three International Biological Program site. 1. However, the island isn't really known for its live plants and animal - but for for its dead ones. Axel Heiberg features one of the oldest, largest and best-preserved fossil forests in the world. of its kind in the world, dating back 45 million years. The site includes both plant and animal remains, with fossilized tree trunks more than six meters long and 2.5 meters wide, and the remains of rhinoceros-like creatures, soft-shelled turtles, alligators and a number of small mammals. If you want to know more, you're going to have to ask Galin.

Overheard at Consilium... (REALLY!)

Best quote of the day:

"This project is only going to work if we can stay completely on focus. Or maybe not."

(Source - we ain't telling.)

Ethics and Evaluation

Greg Smith brought to our attention some of the findings published by the Canadian Evaluation Society, the results of survey conducted of 455 professional evaluation consultants across the county. It's not quite a Letterman list, but here are the five top challenges evaluators experience.

1. Conflicting stakeholder expectations
2. Stakeholder pressures evaluator to alter presentation
3. Evaluation findings are suppressed or ignored
4. Stakeholder declares relevant questions 'off limits'
5. Stakeholder had decided what findings should be in advance

If you're commissioning an evaluation, think about the impact those factors on the value of your findings. If you're truly interested in an accurate profile of your program or service, be prepared to let the evaluators do their work, and remember that ultimately your organization and your clients are best served by objectivity and honestly - even if the findings aren't all sunshine, lollipops and rainbow.

And to our brothers and sisters evaluating out there in the field - especially Wayne MacDonald, Kelly Babcock and Heather Buchanan, who wrote the article - sigh. We hear ya.

Helen's Summer

Aarluk founder and President Helen Klengenberg has a remarkable summer planned. She will be traveling to some of the sites that matter most to her from her own life, rediscovering her biography in the landscapes of her childhood and adolescence. Here's the map:


A note from Helen's travel plan:

Klengenberg’s camp across the bay from the point on the north side.

113°32'48.99"W

69° 3'0.30"N

Going across about mid May and spend ice breakup until mid July. This is a family camp where mom and dad spent every summer before they moved to Kugluktuk. Grandpa Klengenberg and Grandma Kimnik lived here also. Kimnik died here and is out on the land somewhere: perhaps this is the summer she will be found and given a burial. Grandpa Klengenberg was going to build a school here, but customs confiscated his stuff - it had something to do with customs at Herschell Island. He didn’t make it back that year. He died on Vancouver Island; his son Patsy had him cremated and his ashes are spread around at this area also. So it is going to be interesting. I have not been back here for many years. This will be my first return - hopefully not the last.

Consilium Supports Development Through Microlending

Thanks to Team Leader Jennifer Bradshaw, the CCG is now a proud member of a micro-lending team on Kiva.org.

Microfinance is based on the idea that low-income individuals are capable of lifting themselves out of poverty if given access to financial services. Micro-lending is a way to provide those financial service to low-income individuals or emerging businesses without access to typical banking services.

The process is simple. We collected money internally, and provided it, through Kiva, to one of their Field Partners on five continents. The KIva Field Partner structures and administers our contribution as a repayable, no-interest loan to a struggling small business with a good idea but no capital. Over 98.6% of Kiva loans are completely repaid, without interest.


For more information, go to http://www.kiva.org/ .  OR you can join our lending team by clicking here.