This fall, Six Nations Elected Council (SNEC) has been in a trial period for its new administrative structure.

The "Kentyohkwa Structure" was put in place to streamline the way council operates by making the most efficient use of time, resources and staff, according to the SNEC.

With the new structure, there have been two significant changes. First, committee meetings will be temporarily placed on hiatus, and all items that were discussed during committees will now be shifted to the appropriate council meeting to be more effectively addressed and resolved before full council. Second, there has been an addition of another political liaison meeting.

SNEC began the trial period on Sept. 5. Jill Hill, political analyst for SNEC, presented the preliminary study period midterm report for the Kentyohkwa Structure during today's meeting. Jill said the feedback was taken from a survey that half of council members took part in, as well as half of the senior administration leadership team for SNEC. She said the feedback generally showed that the new structure change could benefit council in its process, but did stress challenges and issues were brought up by council members. This included the need for members of the senior administration leadership team to be present and to able to speak on certain topics before full council to be able to properly inform councilors on topics being seen by SNEC. Jill stated that since the timeframe would be so short for this change to take place, it was recommended that the trial study period be extended until Dec. 16.

Chief Mark Hill also spoke on the challenges found during the study period.

"[We're] trying to separate staying out of administration and staying in governance lane and really looking to our political advocacy pieces needed across the board for the different sectors of each department," he said. "I was glad to hear that some felt the same in that we could still have our directors in full council meetings to provide any updates that's happening in the departments, especially the larger ones like health for example and all the changes politically happening."

Some councilors expressed their concerns with the new structure. Coun. Melba Thomas asked how the departments were running now that committees were not involved in the operations. Meanwhile, Coun. Helen Miller said that disconnect between SNEC and community members was a concern of hers, and she felt it should be addressed in this new process.

The chief acknowledged the concerns and asked for "patience" from council members as the new council structure is fully adopted.

"My words to full council would be to have patience as we move through this process and what it looks like. I think it's easy to knock something down quickly when there's a number of concerns, but I think once we start to iron out things, and start to look at fixing and what can be addressed, is when we'll start to see the true and full benefit of what this structure and the intentions behind it work," he said.

SNEC did agree to extend the trial study period to Dec. 16. At that time, council will meet and make a decision on whether or not the Kentyohkwa Structure will remain in place.

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