Sunrise Community Futures Development general manager Chantelle Ernst was the guest speaker at the Weyburn Multicultural Council annual general meeting at the Signal Hill Arts Centre on April 8.

Ernst was on hand to discuss the progress being made with the Immigration Settlement Committee.

The council is hoping to work with the committee to create more awareness and celebrate new cultures. With the rate that Weyburn is growing, the council and the committee want to increase ethnic and cultural diversity.

"We discussed how the Multicultural Council can be more interactive with the committee," said council vice-president Sandra Marcotte.

It was also announced at their annual general meeting that the Multicultural Council will not be holding their Folkarama next year because of weather concerns from organizations from outside of the city. Folkarama usually takes place in mid-March in conjunction with the International Day of Eliminating Racism.

In the future, the Multicultural Council will look into holding a smaller scale Folkarama at a smaller venue in the fall time.

The council also went through the past year's events, finances and went through their goals.

"There was some discussion on how to increase the number of people involved and what it will take to get more people involved with events," said Marcotte.

A new executive was elected with everyone agreeing to stay in their positions. The president is Stan Ganczar, vice president is Marcotte, the treasurer is Gennie Girardin and the secretary is Judy Buzowetsky.

The Multicultural Council board consists of Eileen Ganczar, Jim Brown, Roberto Roman and Art Wallace.

Along with being involved with the Multicultural Council, Stan Ganczar sits on the board for the Saskatchewan Organization of Heritage Languages, Buzowetsky is an advisory committee member for Sask. Culture and Eileen Ganczar is a board member for the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan.

"We have a diverse group on the board and very active in more than our group as such," said Marcotte.