System opens Council meetings
System opens Council meetings
to entire reservation
By Glenda Embry, Tribal Public Information Officer
V. Judy Brugh had a vision for her people. Having recently graduated from the University of Mary, Bismarck with an MBA, she knew her tribal nation would have to learn the technology of the 21st century if they were to compete in a world of information technology that was developing rapidly and changing daily. Having been an administrative assistant for eight years to the 4-Bears council representative, she knew Council was just becoming comfortable with cell phones, faxes, conference calls and the Internet.
In 2006 when the seat for 4-Bears representative came open Brugh decided to run for election and won her first 4-year term to the Tribal Business Council, she was selected to serve as Executive Secretary of the Tribal Business Council. In 2009, she began to pursue her vision of having a state of the art communications system in the Council chambers. She set her staff to researching different companies. They looked at state-of-the-art comparability. Brugh said they wanted the best, top of the line digital video streaming for the Council meetings that would link all six Segments of the Reservation. There are miles between Segments and Tribal Administration headquarters and Secretary Brugh wanted tribal members, especially elders out in the distant Segments to have the ability to participate fully in Council meetings while they remained in their home Segment. She knew the capability was there.
