Director Leanne Salter wants branded items such as pins and other souvenirs that are unique to Electoral Area F (Coombs, Hilliers, Errington, Whiskey Creek, Meadowood).
Salter made a motion at the Regional District of Nanaimo board meeting on July 12 asking that staff be directed to establish a budget for Area F to provide branded items to be made available and given to organizations for public events such as tournaments, conferences or other such events to improve awareness of the communities. She wants this done as part of the 2023-2027 financial plan.
The idea was suggested by residents who informed Salterwhenever they attend tournaments or events they don’t have anything to exchange with other people with things that specifically represent their communities.
“I have been getting requests mostly from kids who made the nationals. So they’re going out of town,” said Salter. “So they’ve been going out of town and we have nothing for them to take with them. And apparently the kids share things with one another, whatever … pins, a pen and things from wherever they live. But we don’t have anything in Area F. So they’ve been going to Parksville and giving out Parksville stuff because there’s nothing here.”
Salter said although they’re nicely supporting Parksville, they would love to have items that represent the different communities in Area F.
Area E (Nanoose Bay) director Bob Rogers supports Salter’s motion, but reminded the board that there was an attempt to do this in the past but staff ran across some issues that included patent of the items to be created.
“This could bring more of a challenge than what she expects,” Rogers explained. “Because there may be people wanting to copy it and so on. So there’s come copyright issues that were brought to our attentions some years ago when we looked at doing a similar thing withing Area E and Nanoose Bay.”
READ MORE: New brand strategy being planned for Town of Qualicum Beach
The RDN does not have a policy or bylaw regarding branding for a specific area and how they’re distributed. The regional district at its 50th anniversary did produce items that include pins, and other materials and staff indicated they can revisit those items.
The RDN board supported Salter’s motion by a 13-5 vote.