The Municipalities of Saskatchewan, which represents the urban municipalities in the province, held its annual convention last week.
Unlike in past years this year's convention was a virtual one due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, and Yorkton Councillor Randy Goulden was the chair of the virtual side of things.
"The Board of Directors made the decision to go to a virtual convention in June," she said, adding that meant organizing the event became a "huge challenge," but it was simply not an option to bring people together for the event given the health risk.
To be ready, Goulden looked at what other municipal associations were doing.
"Ontario went virtual in August and I took part on some of their sessions," she said, adding she also followed a virtual convention held in British Columbia.
As for the Saskatchewan event Goulden said it appeared to go well.
"From what I'm hearing it was really well-received," she said.
There were more than 900 registered for the event, down somewhat from a more normal 1,100.
"So we were down some," said Goulden, then added some smaller community councillors gathered to watch the proceedings.
In terms of those proceedings, everything delegates were used to took place albeit virtually, from a trade show, to speakers, to bear pit sessions with the five provincial ministers municipalities most often deal with including; Government Relations, Highways, Environment, Justice/Corrections/Policing/RCMP, and Rural and Remote Health.
There were also sectoral meetings held where delegates representing cities, towns, villages and resort communities could meet online to discuss issues specific to their communities.
One huge advantage of the online presentation is that registered delegates have 30-days to check out sessions, including the trade show.
"They can go back to any of the presentations," said Goulden, meaning they can actually check out all concurrent sessions, or events they may have missed because of personal engagements.
Goulden said while the organization hopes to be able to gather for conventions again in the future, she said they are likely to be "blended" events, with an online/virtual component.
