Strathmore Library hosts financial advice seminar

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Strathmore Municipal Library hosted a financial planning seminar with Brianna McKinnon, representing ATB Financial, on May 23, to offer advice and information to the community. 

A similar event has previously been hosted at the Library with ATB in February 2023. 

“It was really well attended. (McKinnon) just does basic financial planning with adults … she (goes over) tips and tricks, and then answers questions,” said Laura Henderson, Public Services Manager with the library. “We (did) a very similar program … she has got a really good program, and she extended it just a little bit so that she could stay and answer questions.”

The program operated in 2023 saw roughly 20 participants, which Henderson explained was well-attended for a program of that nature held in an evening. 

The May 23 program was able to be preregistered for, as well as dropped in on.

“I think just in the way that the world is right now, and everything is so expensive, any tricks that we can get are useful and then it is just about making that dollar go as far as you can,” said Henderson. “I think particularly even more so than a year ago, it is even more important now than it was then to have this information.”

She added the library’s adult literacy program also runs financial literacy programs, based on similar ideas and curriculum to McKinnon’s presentations.

The idea being that the library aims to offer both fun and informative types of sessions through its adult literacy programs. 

“This one sort of falls in that informational side of things to just help educate the community and give them these really worthwhile tips,” she said.

The session was set up as a sit-down, informational opportunity, with time set aside to address individual questions from attendees. It had been scheduled to take place over the course of a two-hour block.

By design, the seminar was to be effectively the same information which was made available during the first iteration in 2023, updated for more current economics. 

“This whole adult programming series is really meant to try a lot of different things and see what is important in the community for our community members,” said Henderson. “If you have a lot of people show up for a financial planning seminar, then maybe we need to do a Financial Planning 2.0 sort of thing and just gauge what the community needs.”