The National Board Needs YOU!

By Juanita Soutar
2004-2005 National President
   

Hello, fellow Progressians!

We’re now into a new fiscal year, and clubs are busy meeting to create or review their strategic plans, and to begin organizing their projects and membership drives for the upcoming year.

Also, we’re just days away from attending the 55th Annual National Convention in beautiful Saskatoon.  As always, our convention hosts and the National Board have put together a full, fun and motivational agenda planned, which I know we’ll all enjoy.  In addition to an array of educational seminars, exciting entertainment, on and off-site events, and hospitality suites, the Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Saturday, followed by the President’s Ball in the evening.

At the AGM, you will be asked to review and approve the National operational budget for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.  Included in this year’s budget is a provision of $15,000 to complete the new National promotional video, which can be used for membership recruitment, acquiring sponsorship money, goods and services, and for public relations endeavours.

You will also be asked to approve an amendment to the National By-laws, which will add the Canadian Progress Charitable Foundation (CPCF) Chair as a voting member of the National Board.  This resolution is contingent on the CPCF Board making a reciprocal change to their By-laws, adding the CPC National President to their Board as a voting member.  The reason for this change is to recognize the reliance and synergies of both entities on each other — i.e. Progress Club members created and continue to almost exclusively fund the CPCF, and the National President is elected to act on behalf of and to represent the best interests of our organization; and conversely, the CPCF relies on the National organization for members to serve on their Board and their goals and operations are substantially reliant on the continued success and strategic direction of the Canadian Progress Club.  Therefore, it is beneficial for each entity to ensure that the Chairs of each Board can actively participate and vote on the other’s Board.  The National Board endorses this change and asks for your support.

The National Board Needs YOU!

Another important function of the AGM is to elect the members of the incoming National Board.  As you’re aware, there were five positions up for election this year - National President Elect, National Secretary Treasurer, National Director of Communications, National Director of Public Relations, and National Director of Education.  While we were fortunate to receive a nomination for each of the first two positions, as of press time, we still had not received any nominations for the three Directors’ positions.  This is obviously very disconcerting to me, and should be of concern to you.

We are members of the best service organization in Canada, and it is extremely important that we have a full and functional National Board in order to help ensure the long-term success and continuity of our club.  It is the responsibility of the members of the Board to set the strategic plan, and put the tools and resources in place to help all clubs and members grow and flourish in order for us to continue to serve and support our communities.

This is a particularly exciting time for the Board and Progress, as the groundwork has been laid to implement a new strategic plan, focused on promoting Progress nationally, growing our membership by targeting certain demographic groups which have previously been untapped, and refining the roles and responsibilities of the members of the National Board.  There are a number of components to this plan, some of which we expect to implement over the next few months, and others that will be fine-tuned and rolled out over the next couple of years.

We are looking for energetic members who are passionate about our organization and want to provide their input into completing the new strategic plan and help implement its various components.  It is also important that we have members on the Board from all areas across Canada, so that all clubs and regions have effective representation.  We have a number of qualified members across Canada who would be productive and valuable Board members — you know who you are!  It is a very worthwhile experience and I strongly encourage you to step forward and help make a positive difference to the Canadian Progress Club.

Because of this anomaly this year, nominations for the Education, Communication and Public Relations Directors’ positions will be accepted until 9:00 am, September 17th, at the AGM in Saskatoon.  If any of the positions remain open, the National Board will make arrangements to appoint members to serve in these roles, as provided for in the National By-laws.  I truly hope that we will not have to resort to this.

. . . nominations for the Education, Communication and Public Relations Directors’ positions will be accepted until 9:00 am, September 17th, at the AGM in Saskatoon . . .

The situation we are in certainly highlights the importance of making sure that we all have a proper succession plan in place, whether it’s on a National, Regional, or Club level.  I know that the Great Plains Region has also had difficulty in finding someone to take on the role of Zone Governor to help support the Region. And, all too often, the same members continue to serve in the same roles in their Clubs.  We need your help to find out why members are reluctant to take on these positions and address the issues to remove whatever barriers — perceived or real — there are, and to provide the guidance, support and training needed to help our members feel comfortable and confident to serve on the various Boards.  We have created special templates to help all of us identify and groom members for the various roles available on each of the organizational levels.  You can find these templates in Section 7 of the Blue Book.

This has been a challenging but very rewarding year and your National Board has accomplished the goals we set for ourselves last fall.  Among these are: securing new premises for our National Office; making preparations to finish the new National promotional video; successfully completing our first full year with the new Member Communication System (MCS) and the implementation of the 8 Standards of Success; creating a “President’s Package”, an easy-to-use tool to effectively run a club, which will be presented to all Club Presidents at the Convention; and the revisions to the Blue Book, our Club Management Manual, have now been completed, bringing it up to date to better serve the needs of our organization now and in the future.

I have truly enjoyed serving as your National President this year.  This experience has allowed me to learn so much more about our wonderful club, meet a lot of our members, the people we support in our communities, and celebrities and outstanding members of the public, and to help promote our organization across Canada.  I wouldn’t have traded this past year for anything in the world.

I would like to thank Carmel, our National Club Administrator, the members of the Board for their hard work, commitment, vision, and dedication this past year, and all of you, for your hospitality, kind words, feedback, and encouragement.  I also extend my best wishes and support to Bob Lockhart, your Incoming National President and the rest of the Board.  I know that they’ll have a productive year.  Thank you again for this amazing opportunity.  I look forward to seeing you all in Saskatoon!

Juanita