<html><head></head><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div>Susan,</div><div><br></div><div>I'm so sorry to see you stepping down but I know you've had a full plate the past year or two and without any burning challenges at GREN it can be hard to balance everything.</div><div><br></div><div>I would agree that GREN seems to do best when we have pressing challenges such as when we have Rapid Transit, Pipeline, Regional Official Plan, etc. battles, debates, presentations, decisions, etc.<br><br>Thankfully things are quieter on the environmental front these days - more monitoring, sheparding, and pushing already made decisions along and ensuring things don't get too far off course like the LRT or Official Plan Appeal at the OMB.</div><div><br></div><div>I think there will be busier times when we will have to gear up for pitched battles and efforts and other times when it is quieter and we can coast along a bit. I think the important thing is to keep the framework of the organization so that it can scale up and down as required. This means ensuring that we have the infrastructure, membership, communications, etc. in place to be able to be really effective when needed.</div><div><br></div><div>I hope that while perhaps not on the Executive you will continue to be engaged and we can count on you as a valued member and for special projects as needed.</div><div><br></div><div>Keep in touch, let us know any ideas, and thank you for all your work over the years.</div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Kevin.<br><div><br></div><div>------------------------</div><div><br></div><div>Kevin Thomason</div><div><br></div><div>Phone: (519) 888-0519</div><div>Mobile Phone: (519) 240-1648</div><div>E-mail: <a href="mailto:kevinthomason@mac.com">kevinthomason@mac.com</a></div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------</div></div><div><br>On 2013-03-25, at 12:40 PM, Susan Koswan <<a href="mailto:susankoswan@execulink.com">susankoswan@execulink.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12 (filtered medium)"><title>FW: [GREN-Exec] Two items for discussion</title><style><!--
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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Hi GREN Exec.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I’ll be stepping down from the GREN executive. My participation with GREN has been almost non-existent for the last few years and even though there are many issues that need addressing, I’m just not feeling the “fire in the belly”. I’m not sure if it’s because the issues are too “generic” without specific goals, or if I’m just feeling tired and disheartened about anything that involves dealing with politicians and a bureaucracy that don’t align with our vision of the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I think when I worked on the pesticide issue, I worked with friends who had made it a priority, so there was a goal and a focus and an immersion that I’ve never found with GREN; all the GREN “work” feels too “part-time”. I work best with a few people who can laugh, toss around ideas, go for lunch sometimes and work together to make magic happen. I haven’t found that in GREN.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I know it’s a bit of ego on my part - I kind of “claimed” the pesticide issue as my own and ran with it. 8-) And it was personal, as long as my idiot neighbours kept spraying their yards<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But I’m happy to help with writing and formatting things; just feed me the facts. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Susan K <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm"><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> Executive [mailto:executive-bounces@gren.ca] <b>On Behalf Of </b>John Jackson<br><b>Sent:</b> March-24-13 10:21 AM<br><b>To:</b> GREN Executive<br><b>Subject:</b> [GREN-Exec] FW: Two items for discussion<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12.0pt"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br>-- <br>John Jackson<br>17 Major Street<br>Kitchener, Ontario N2H 4R1<br>519-744-7503<br><br><br>------ Forwarded Message<br><b>From: </b>Kevin Thomason <<a href="kevinthomason@mac.com">kevinthomason@mac.com</a>><br><b>Date: </b>Sun, 24 Mar 2013 10:07:56 -0400<br><b>To: </b>John Jackson <<a href="jjackson@web.ca">jjackson@web.ca</a>><br><b>Subject: </b>Re: [GREN-Exec] Two items for discussion<br><br>John,<br><br>Good questions. I would suggest that we do the elections at our April 11th meeting if possible. As for the website we desperately need to update it. It would be great to get it into WordPress or some sort of template form that make it easy for us to update ourselves. I'm wondering if somebody's kid could do this for us or if we have any connections at Conestoga, TriOS or some place where a student might be able to help.<br><br>Lets definitely make it a priority.<br><br>Cheers,<br>Kevin.<br><br></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif"">----------------------------<br></span><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br>On 2013-03-24, at 8:46 AM, John Jackson <<a href="jjackson@web.ca">jjackson@web.ca</a>> wrote:</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">Two items for discussion <br>There are two that we should decide how to handle before the April GREN meeting:</span><o:p></o:p></p><ol start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">how do we want to carry out the executive committee elections? </span><o:p></o:p></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">how do we get help for keeping the GREN website up-to-date. Theo is too busy to do this.</span><o:p></o:p></li></ol><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br>John<br><br>-- <br>John Jackson<br>17 Major Street<br>Kitchener, Ontario N2H 4R1<br>519-744-7503<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Executive mailing list<br><a href="Executive@gren.ca">Executive@gren.ca</a><br><a href="http://mail.gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/executive_gren.ca">http://mail.gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/executive_gren.ca</a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif""><br><br><br>------ End of Forwarded Message</span><o:p></o:p></p></div></div></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><div><span>_______________________________________________</span><br><span>Executive mailing list</span><br><span><a href="mailto:Executive@gren.ca">Executive@gren.ca</a></span><br><span><a href="http://mail.gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/executive_gren.ca">http://mail.gren.ca/mailman/listinfo/executive_gren.ca</a></span><br></div></blockquote></body></html>