Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (fun to say, Eh!)

Soooo, whut is da deal, why is Ken in Saskatoooooon? Eh!

 

I had the opportunity to come here, courtesy of my company, for a Regional Meeting of the Project Management Institute (PMI).  I am the president of the local chapter, PMI Michiana, in PMI Region 2 (there are 21 chapters in Region 2, from Saskatoon to Central Iowa to Central Indiana to Fort Wayne to Milwaukee to Minnesota to Manitoba and back to Saskatoon).  We get together twice per year to exchange ideas and learn how we can be better stewards of our chapters, thereby providing value to our members.

 

This trip, I am concentrating on getting more information regarding outreach; which for the PMI Michiana Chapter, means reaching out to our remote members in Michigan and Warsaw Indiana, finding ways to interface with the community and local businesses, and finding ways to give back to the community.  We currently have 83 members, and I want to grow that number substantially in the next 2-3 years.  With that in mind, today was a productive day, with some good ideas on how to proceed.

 

But enough about why I am here – tell me more about Saskatoon?  you might ask :o)

 

Well, Saskatoon is about 300 km from the US border (they are metric here, so that would be 186.4 miles), which puts Saskatoon as central in the Saskatchewan province (that’s right, provinces versus states in Canada).  The temperature range here is -22 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit.  The motto here is Saskatoon Shines because they get 2381 hours of sunshine here per year, making it one of the sunniest parts of Canada. 

 

The city is about 100 years old, and has a population of 208,300.  The Saskatoon area grows 50% of the Canadian export corps, consisting of wheat, barley, rye, and oats.  They also have the biggest Potash mining operation, a subset of which is uranium ore. 

 

The name Saskatoon is derived from the Cree Indian name “mis-sask-quah-toonia,” a local indigenous berry (which I had on my salad as a vinaigrette tonight, sweet, but good with some fresh pepper). 

 

Some fun facts:

 

• In the 1970’s, the winter Olympics were held in Saskatoon.  They had to build Trash Mountain, because the only other way to ski around here is to ski into a hole in the ground.
• It is so flat here, that you can watch your dog run away for three days.
• There have been 98 reported UFO sightings in the area.
• July is the only month they have never had snow here.
• Al Capone used to go to Moose Jaw (near Saskatoon) to get whiskey to run back do Chicago during prohibition. 

I plan on walking around some tomorrow afternoon, so hope to have some more facts to share. 

Tags: Saskatoon, Al Capone, Saskatchewan