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We’re Moving Back Home!

As many of you know we’ve been moving our Blogs around a lot lately! (Sorry for the Inconvenience)

Due to the 777 Ifrme Virus causing problems with our old Blog System we moved here to WordPress. In fact we’ve fallen in love with WordPress and want to continue using it.

However, we’re aware that WordPress does have a “No Advertising Policy” This means that even things like our free announcements for non-profits, artists, community groups, etc., stood on shaky ground. Although WordPress has been very generous and not yet told us to move it, we’re moving back home to YarmouthCounty.com.

The good news is we’ll still be able to use the WordPress System, just on our own Site. This move should be pretty seamless for most of you. Likely the only thing most of you will notice is that we’ve changed our template and header image. However, if you’re subscribed to the RSS Feed for this Blog you may want to change it to our new feed.

We will be updating the RSS Feed on our Yarmouth County Toolbar and News Ticker. So, if you would like notification of our Blog Posts right on your desk top you can download out toolbar for free.

This move will allow us more control over our content, and what we are able to do for the promotion of Yarmouth County and surrounding areas of Nova Scotia, Canada.

So although we appologise for any inconvenince, we’re moving back home and we invite you to visit our new Yarmouth County Blogs at YarmouthCounty.com/blogs.

A final word for WordPress, I personally want to thank you for your wonderful system and the new Word Press MU that we’ll be using at YarmouthCounty.com/blogs.

In the famous words of Tony the Tiger, “They’re GR-R-REAT!!!

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Helpful Links

YarmouthCounty.com/blogs

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Now you can read our Blog,
Listen to our Podcast,  or
Download our MP3

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This Post was inspired by a recent article at The Nova Scotia Business Journal.

Acted upon due to my, and I believe our, growing frustration at Bay Ferries ever changing schedule and growing list of excuses.

Oh how we lament: How many lives can the CAT have left!

Loosing our precious Bluenose and those precious people who served us for so many wonderful years was more of a blow than we ever thought possible!

Reading this you may think that it’s impossible for us to loose even more! Yet, I predict that if something is not done, it will happen!

Though we strive to make Yarmouth County a true destination we have to put up with those who just don’t understand.

The fall and spring tourism seasons are growing in most places as the Baby Boomers age and retire. They are the biggest bubble to flow through in the past hundred years and now they are Grand Parents who often baby sit their Grand Children in the summer and travel during the spring and fall seasons.

As for winter their are many winter sports and other activities that would draw people to our area if they had reliable transportation and infrastructure to get here!

Yet, all we hear is the CAT whining that their are fewer and fewer people coming and so they continue to shorten the season.

It is really all quite easy to figure out!

If people have a reliable means of transportation and improved infrastructure to support their habits and that they can depend on year after year they will come more, and more often!

However, if every year the schedule changes, shortens, and becomes less efficient, then the would be travellers learn they can not depend on the service and stop using it. If it continues they’ll stop using it altogether!

How many lives can the CAT have left!

How many more lives will be affected if they don’t stop their whining and provide some real service.

How long will they continue to promote a short seasonal sub tropic vessel that can simply not handle our North Atlantic waters!?

When will we get a real boat? A company who understands the local economy, what it takes to become a real destination, and the marketing skills to survive!???

Oh how we lament! How many lives can the CAT have left!

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Helpful Links

Bay Ferries

The Nova Scotia Business Journal

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The CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee was held April 14, 2007 and all the contestants were amazing. Drawing stiff spelling competition from across Canada meant all who participated deserve to be congratulated. Spellers described watching their competitors with mixed emotions. Describing each other as friends and although happy to see the others eliminated, it was also difficult to see their friends have to leave the stage after being eliminated. when all was said and done the top two contestants were from Ontario and Nova Scotia.

So, we want to especially congratulate first place champion speller Soohyun Park of Toronto, ON who took first place while representing the National Post. As well as Amrit Sampalli of Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, who took second place. Both spellers did a wonderful job and are to be commended.
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Soohyun Park – Toronto, ON

First Place Champion Speller

Won the CanWest CanSpell Spelling Championship

April 14, 2007

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Amrit Sampalli – Hammonds Plains, NS

Second Place Champion Speller

Won the CanWest CanSpell
Spelling Championship

April 14, 2007
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The CanSpell website is full of exciting information and activities for teachers, parents and spellers.

Complete details can be seen at the CanSpell website.

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Helpful Links

CanSpell website

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Helpful Resources: SpellCheck.net

This weeks helpful resource is SpellCheck.net, which I use for checking individual words and passages, and much more!

Not only does SpellCheck.net provide free online spell checking, it also has the best collection of related links that I’m aware of online. Including links to mathematics tools, kitchenmath.com, calculator, tabulator, and language tools including text tools, encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, as well as a number of other very helpful links and tools.

In my opinion there are few places online that offer so much under one roof so to speak.

Whether your a writer, mathematician, student, teacher, parent, business owner, or Blogger, or have other reasons for using proper language and mathematics tools you will definitely benefit from discovering SpellCheckn.net.

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Helpful Links

SpellCheck.net

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Sorry no audio currently available for this post.
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As many of you know that receive our “News from Yarmouth County” newsletter I’ve been having some health problem. First I hurt my back and then developed an ear infection! Fun, Fun!

You also know that in our last “News from Yarmouth County” newsletter I spoke about how it was making me think about who would carry on with YarmouthCounty.com if something serious would happen to me!

At least one of you wrote in to say, that although he hoped I wouldn’t to worry about that any time soon, he did think I had made a valid point. We all need to be thinking about what we’ll leave behind and who will take care of things when we’re not here.

Now, one would think that this is something that business owners would look after, and individuals would postpone. Well, I encourage both groups to make preparations for such a time as this. Live for today, plan for tomorrow, so to speak.

Then I discovered a survey that says succession plans are definitely lacking. According to a recent survey, nearly 40% of advertising and marketing executives surveyed feel uncertain that someone in their company could fill their shoes if they had to suddenly leave their positions.

The poll was conducted by an independent research firm and developed by The Creative Group, a staffing service providing marketing, advertising, creative and web professionals on a project basis.

Advertising and marketing executives were asked, “If you had to step down from your position tomorrow, how confident are you that someone in your agency/firm would be prepared to assume your responsibilities?” Their responses:

Very confident: 22%
Somewhat confident: 38%
Not very confident: 25%
Not at all confident: 14%
Don’t know: 1%

We hear a lot about disaster planning, yet although people know they should do it, they often put it off till it’s to late. Whether the head of a large private firm, or a family of one or two, we should all be ready for theinevitable. Although disaster may be avoided, I know of only one who overcame death, and He left a whole discipleship behind to carry on His work!

Creating a succession plan for our future, or for point when we’re no longer here, — whether public, private, or personal — has benefits that provide leadership for businesses, employees, andfamilies, to grow professionally and leads to increased loyalty, productivity, and peace of mind.

When developing our plan it is best to start early, taking time to prepare and train our replacement. Even if we doubt we’ll need a replacement anytime soon, preparing someone to assume our duties creates a safety net should we have to leave our post.

By not overlook anyone, we stand a greater chance of identifying the ability and skills necessary, and determine more easily who may show the greatest potential for acquiring them. By sharing our vision with others around us we may better find and develop leadership skills. Not to mention the feedback we’llreceive that may lead to broader vision and revision of our goals.

Then, once we’ve found those who may carry on in our place, we need to provide regular communication and open dialogue so together we can continue to develop and expand our shared vision. Offering ongoing incentives, developing a shared vision, and delegating moreresponsibility , will help keep everyone engaged and committed to the shared vision. I feel that allowing ourselves to open up to a shared vision is crucial to our own development and to that of our successors.

It may be a good idea to have trial runs during our vacation and other times away from our usual posts. Having potential successors assume responsibilities during these time will allow our successors to gain experience while we learn how prepared the person is to take on a greater role.

This is also the reason I’ve been seeking people interested in Learning New Computer Skills For Free. In exchange for working on YarmouthCounty.com, and helping us to promote Yarmouth County and surrounding areas, I’ll help these individuals not only learn computer skills, but to truly learn what it has taken me over ten years to learn and develop. Everything from Computer Skills, to Online Applications, to Sales, Marketing, and Customer Skills.

Some people have questioned if I’m giving away to much? I figure if these people stay with YarmouthCounty.com for the short or long term, or go on their own to promote Yarmouth County, or another project of their own, we all win and I’ve done my part to help continue my work in promoting Yarmouth County and to make the online world a better place in the process.

This has been reworked for our purposes based on information from a Nova Scotia Business Journal article and related information from the The Creative Group Succession Survey.

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Helpful Links

Nova Scotia Business Journal

The Creative Group

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(English to Follow)

Fricot au poulet au Musée acadien
le mercredi 18 avril de 11h30
Prix : $6.00

Soupe, dessert, thé ou café
Take out disponible

au profit du Musée acadien de Pubnico-Ouest
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April 18, 2007
Acadian Fricot au poulet (Acadian chicken soup)
Musée acadien & Centre de recherche, West Pubnico
11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m . Cost: $6.00

Soup, dessert, crackers, tea or coffee
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Musée acadien et Centre de recherche
C.P. 92, Pubnico-Ouest
Comté Yarmouth, N.-É.
B0W 3S0
P.O. Box 92, West Pubnico
Yarmouth Co., N.S.
B0W 3S0

Tel: 902-762-3380
Fax: 902-762-0726
email: musee.acadien@ns.sympatico.ca
websites:
http://www.museeacadien.ca

Musée acadien et Centre de recherche
C.P. 92, Pubnico-Ouest
Comté Yarmouth, N.-É.
B0W 3S0
P.O. Box 92, West Pubnico
Yarmouth Co., N.S.
B0W 3S0

Tel: 902-762-3380
Fax: 902-762-0726
email: musee.acadien@ns.sympatico.ca
websites:
http://www.museeacadien.ca

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Sorry no audio currently available for this post.
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Th’Yarc

Presents The Award Winning Musical

OKLAHOMA

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Set in American Indian territory at the turn of the century, Rogers and Hammerstein’s musical Oklahoma opens April 19, 2007.

This Broadway favorite features a cast of 40, colorful costumes, 12 members of the Yarmouth Orchestra choreography by Deanna McCarron, and musical favorites such as, ‘People Will Say We’re In Love’, ‘The Surry With the Fringe on Top’ and ‘Oh, What a Beatiful Morning’.

Directed by Sandy Fevens,
Vocal Director, Mark Palmer
Music Director, Gordon Rothwell,
Great family entertainment!!

Showdates:
April 19,20,21,26,27,28
Curtain: 7:30 pm
Non Members $16.50
Members $15.00
Box Office 742-8150
www.thyarc.ca

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Sorry no audio currently available for this post.

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Yarmouth Home & Leisure Show

The Yarmouth Home and Leisure Show is back in Yarmouth and running from April 13 – 15, 2007.

This year the show is sponsored by Eastlink, who have been running an ad about a printable $1 off coupon for the show. However, I’ve spent to much time looking for it, and still don’t see it! So, I’m going to give you the link for Eastlink and hope you have better luck than I had looking for it for you! In fact, if someone does find it, please do us all a favour and provide the proper link in the Comment section of this Blog Post.

The 2007 Yarmouth Home & Leisure show will focus on two major themes, Home and Community.

While the the core of the show continues to revolve around homes and renovations, Master Promotions promises that many community-related topics will be addressed at Yarmouth Home & Leisure Show.

Master Promotions is Canada’s largest independent trade and consumer event management company, and has been producing trade, consumer, and conference type shows in Canada since 1973.

Community related topics to be addressed at this years Yarmouth Home & Leisure Show include such things as food, healthy living, youth programmes, seniors interests, outdoor recreation and gardening.

Newly included will be a series of special on-site features designed to generate excitement. There will be gardening, landscaping, barbeques, power lawn equipment and much more in this section.

Community features will highlight kids and seniors issues, food, furniture, electronics, sporting goods, and toys for men. Master Promotions claims, “this feature will be the talk of the town!”
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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

List of Helpful Links

Yarmouth Home & Leisure Show

Eastlink

Master Promotions

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(English to Follow)

RÉUNION LA SOCIÉTÉ HISTORIQUE ACADIENNE DE PUBNICO-OUEST

le jeudi 12 avril ,2007

à la Salle Blanche d’Entremont
au Musée acadien de Pubnico-Ouest

à 19h (7 h pm)
Conférencier : Roseline LeBlanc, Points de croix comptés
Les travaux de points de croix comptés de Roseline LeBlanc sont en exposition au Musée acadien de Pubnico-Ouest.

La cotisation de membre pour la Société est $10.Nouveaux membres sont les bienvenues.
Bienvenue à tous

Pour plus info, contactez le Musée acadien
762-3380

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Monthly meeting of the West Pubnico Acadian Historical Society
Thurday April 12 at 7pm at the Musée acadien in the annex room – Salle Blanche d’Entremont
Guest speaker :Roseline LeBlanc
19 works of Counted cross stitch belonging to Roseline LeBlanc are on display at the Musée acadien in West Pubnico.

Membership to the Society are due, $10.00 membership fee.

Everybody interested is welcome.

For more info call the Museum at 762-3380
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Musée acadien et Centre de recherche
C.P. 92, Pubnico-Ouest
Comté Yarmouth, N.-É.
B0W 3S0
P.O. Box 92, West Pubnico
Yarmouth Co., N.S.
B0W 3S0

Tel: 902-762-3380
Fax: 902-762-0726
email: musee.acadien@ns.sympatico.ca
websites:
http://www.museeacadien.ca

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

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Sorry no audio currently available for this post.
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In recent days we’ve had two scheduled showings of Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” scheduled for showing in Yarmouth County.

Now according to a Nova Scotia Business Journal article by Greg McNeil it seems that Global Warming may be to blame for the thin ice conditions and low harvest rates in this years Seal Hunt off the south coast of Newfoundland.

I’ve been monitoring the situation there and it seems that a Department of Fisheries chopper pilot with over 20 years experience has been reported to have said he has never seen this lack of ice. While Dept of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) officials believe a fair amount of seals have already left by the Cabot Strait.

Much debate has been stirred up over this Seal Hunt and the viability of it. DFO figures show a drop of $4.5 Million in direct revenues from the Seal Hunt, with only $16.5 Million in 2004, down from $21 Million in 2002. Yet Proponents claim that some fisherman earn up to 75% of their annual incomes from the Seal Hunt. While other people protest saying there is no need for the Seal Hunt.

So, what is the truth? Where do we turn for answers?

Well, according to The Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance there is a flurry of misinformation from animal rights organizations, such as the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), every year during the Seal Hunt.

COHA says, “these organizations specialize in lies and misleading information designed to trick the public into pressuring the governments involved into ending this traditional, and scientifically proven sustainable, harvesting of a natural resource.”

Does COHA make a valid claim?

Well, for that we need to look at some IFAW claims. If you visit IFAW’s Stop The Seal Hunt website you’ll see they claim, “More than 300,000 seals will be cruelly killed this year.” Yet, their own Press Release more accurately states the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) is only 270,000. It’s a small one, but they obviously contradict themselves for the sake of sensationalism.

Another press release by Katie McConnell (IFAW, U.S.) Canada’s 2007 commercial seal hunt starts today.
States: “Last year, the government set the limit at 335,000 seals, while the total number of seals actually killed was more than 354,000, based on official government figures.”
The Press Release goes on to say that this is “unacceptable and unnecessary” yet, nowhere does it say that the Gov’t. has already taken measures to correct this!

According to a March 29, DFO News Release, The Honourable Loyola Hearn, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) announced the (TAC) and other management measures for the 2007 Atlantic seal hunt.” Among these measures Minister Hearn also announced tough new measures to reduce the possibility of quota overruns. “Fleets that overrun their quota will see their allocations reduced by the same number of seals in their overrun on a one for one basis the following year.” Thus the problem of overrun had been addressed prior to the IFAW claim and complaint mentioned above.

As for IFAW’s claims that the Seal Hunt is “unacceptable and unnecessary” the DFO reports differently. Based upon the “Technical Briefing on the Harp Seal Hunt in Atlantic Canada” and slide five, which deals with the “Sustainable Hunt” seals are managed under the Objective-Based Fisheries Management Approach (OBFM). Which is a management regime adopted following extensive consultations and a Seal Forum in which over 200 organizations from industry, government, aboriginal, conservation and animal rights groups were invited to provide their input on the proposed management regime.

The DFO’s “Technical Briefing on the Harp Seal Hunt in Atlantic Canada” also states, “Canada’s seal population is healthy and abundant. The harp seal herd — the most important seal herd for this industry — is estimated at around five million animals, nearly the highest level ever recorded, and almost triple what it was in the 1970s.”

Thus it would appear that according to the Dept of Fisheries and Oceans Canada the Seal Hunt is necessary and sustainable.

So it appears that claims made by the Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance, (COHA) are substantiated by the Canadian Government and the DFO, and that the Seal Hunt is a scientifically proven and sustainable harvesting of a natural resource.

For more information on the Seal Hunt, COHA, DFO, IFAW, and other resources see the List of Helpful Links at the bottom of this Blog Post.

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So, for YarmouthCounty.com, this has been Brian Hurlburt, and I invite you to Make it a great day!

Sincerely,

Brian Hurlburt

customerservice@yarmouthcounty.com

List of Helpful Links

Nova Scotia Business Journal article by Greg McNeil

Report of the Eminent Panel on Seal Management

The Canadian Outdoor Heritage Alliance (COHA)

International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)

IFAW’s Stop The Seal Hunt

IFAW Press Release by Katie McConnell

Technical Briefing: Harp Seal Hunt in Atlantic Canada

Honourable Loyola Hearn, DFO Minister announces (TAC)