CWR Annual General Meeting

June 14, 2018 All CWR members are welcome to attend the CWR Annual General Meeting, which will be held as a

virtual meeting.

Date: Thursday, June 14, 2018 Time: 11 a.m. PST RSVP required to cwr-cmns@iabc.com Agenda

1. Call to order 2. Attendance and review of voting privileges 3. Approval of agenda 4. Approval of minutes from CWR AGM held June 22, 2017 5. Presentation of Financial Statements as at June 30, 2017 6. Presentation of updated bylaws for review and vote 7. Director’s reports – summary

Chair Vice Chair Past Chair Board Secretary Communications Finance Leadership Development National Programs Professional Development and Sponsorship

8. Board slate for AGM ratification Outgoing board members:

Jennifer Wah, ABC, MC, Past Chair

Gary Carr, Finance Director Automatic succession and/or continuation of board positions:

Jonathan Tremblay, CMP, succeeds to Chair

Catherine Ducharme, succeeds to Past Chair

Jackie Sargent, CMP, continues as Director of Professional Development & Sponsorship

Ivan Muzychka, ABC, MC, as Director, Leadership Development Proposed new board members as put forward by the Nominating Committee

Tracy Fox, SCMP, as Vice Chair

Sue Ridewood, ABC, as National Programs Director

Lydia Tay, as Communications Director

Richard Kies, as Finance Director

Tamara Gale, as Board Secretary

9. Adjourn

Members present:

Board Executive and Directors Chapter Representatives

Jennifer Wah, past chair Catherine Ducharme, chair Jonathan Tremblay, vice chair Sue Ridewood, communications director Gary Carr, finance director Jackie Sargent, director of professional development & sponsorship Ivan Muzychka, ABC, MC, director, Leadership Development Regrets: Tracy Fox, national programs director

Gemma Lawrence, IABC/British Columbia Mekala Wickramasinghe, IABC/Manitoba

Guests

Tamara Gale, incoming board secretary Dan Gold, IABC/Saskatoon

Megan Thorburn, IABC/Edmonton Krystal Rudyk, IABC/Saskatoon Natasha Qereskniku, IABC/Calgary Adam Brayford, IABC/British Columbia

1. Call to order

Catherine called the meeting to order at 12:04 p.m.

2. Attendance and review of voting privileges

Catherine confirmed quorum and reviewed the voting process.

3. Approval of agenda

Motion: to approve the agenda after making the following two adjustments:

Move Leadership Development items to the top of the agenda.

Remove item six as we needed to provide 30 days written notice to make changes to the bylaws at the AGM.

M/S Ridewood/Muzychka. Carried.

4. Approval of minutes from last year’s AGM

Motion: to approve the minutes from the June 22, 2017 AGM. M/S Tremblay/Fox. Carried.

5. Presentation of Financial Statements as at June 30, 2017

Gary Carr presented the financial statements for discussion.

Motion: to accept the unaudited Canada Western Region financial statements from the 2016-17 fiscal year as presented. M/S Carr/Ridewood. Carried.

As the 2017-2018 financial statements have not yet been reviewed, we present the financial for the 2016-2017 fiscal year. Our financial auditors have approved the 2016-2017 statements.

Highlights include:

We have a deficit for the 2016-2017 year due in part, to the timing of the conference and Silver Leaf revenues and expenses. It is important to look at our income and revenue on a two year cycle, as in 2017 we had a profit due to the cyclical nature of our revenue-earning programs.

We have made an investment in easily-convertible GICs to provide cash flow for our programming, expenses such as Survey Monkey and other business operating costs.

Dan Gold asked if any incentives are being used against the region credit card. The region accrues Avion points which is used to offset costs of travel for the board chair.

Jonathan Tremblay asked for a brief discussion of the state of the 2017-2018 financials. About $8,000-9,000 in revenue is expected from the Silver Leaf awards. If the revenue is not received before June 30, the region will record a deficit. The revenue would then be reflected in the 2018-2019 fiscal year. Board meeting travel expenses for this year will likely be higher than expected. More expense submissions are expected through to the end of June.

Jonathan Tremblay asked if expenditure for in-person meetings and travel have been higher than budgeted. The region budgeted significantly less than was spent in 2016-2017, indicating that this budget line item requires a review. Consider location of meetings carefully to help reduce board travel expenses.

Dan Gold asked if the region centralizes booking to save on travel costs. The region has not explored a centralized booking process.

Jennifer Wah asked about the status of the region’s operating reserves. A two-year average indicates a total budget of more than $100,000, with $40,000 in reserves.

ACTION: The 2018-2019 Board will review the in-person meeting travel budget line item.

6. Presentation of updated bylaws for review and vote

Item removed from the agenda.

7. Directors’ reports – summary

Chair – Catherine Ducharme

Thank you to Jennifer and Gary for their service on the CWR board. Their leadership and guidance has been invaluable. Catherine also thanked outgoing chapter VPs and wished them the best of luck in their presidency for the coming year.

Overview

Of all the regions across IABC, the Canada West Region remains the strongest. We continue to be the role model for all other regions. Edmonton was the proud winner of Chapter of the Year and the year before that, Calgary. CWR’s strength is the result of strong leadership and strategic thinking from Leader’s past. I’ve been proud to lead CWR for the past year with excellent support from my Past Chair, Incoming Chair and Board members including our chapter representatives, who have been engaged, communicative and supportive. Thank you.

On behalf of Canada West Region, I was the representative at the Council of Regions (CoR) attending monthly meetings and advocating for our region. Jonathan Tremblay attended three CoR meetings this year and will be representing the region for the 2018/2019 year as Chair.

This is my final report as Chair of CWR.

Successes

The Canada West Region has remained stable with respect to new members, and next year we are poised for growth.

As a board we developed a new three-year strategic plan to move some key issues forward for the chapters. We made progress in all four areas and will continue to move forward for the coming year. Our focus areas include:

o Onboarding and Developing Leaders o National Programs o Certification o Corporate Membership

For details on the progress we’ve made in each area see the end of this report.

The Regional Conference 2017 in Kelowna exceeded both attendance and revenue goals. Post conference survey results were exceptional in terms of quality programming, location, organization etc.

Dare to Lead* 2018 in Regina attracted almost 70 leaders. The program focuses on orienting new leaders to the full scope of IABC and providing them with leadership training in key areas. This year we saw an increase (for many record numbers) in leaders being sent by chapters. For many they sent record numbers.

Through Jonathan’s efforts we made progress on connecting with our Members at Large (MALS - members without a designated chapter) and learned we had MALS from other regions who felt they got value from CWR. We’ll progress this program next year.

I served on the International Executive Board nomination committee this year as Chair and was delighted to see the caliber of leadership on a board that includes three Canada West Region Members (Kathleen Bell, Sheila Carruthers and Leanne Nyifra)

CWR has enjoyed a stable board this year with all board members committed to their portfolios.

CWR and all chapters have full-board slates with a good mix of experience.

CWR had the pleasure of hosting Sharon Hunter (IEB Chair) and Ginger Homan (IEB Incoming Chair) at our Regional Conference. They also facilitated our Strategic Plan. We also hosted Stephanie Doute, Executive Director, IABC at Dare to Lead. IABC/IEB continue to support and engage with CWR.

It was a pleasure for me to present on behalf of CWR at Leadership Institute and Dare to Lead.

Vancouver is the location for World Conference 2019. Challenges

The new corporate membership program as it currently stands doesn’t seem to address the 10 – 20 membership group which is a concern for CWR Chapters. IABC assures us they are still looking at this and there is an opportunity through our newly formed Task Force to provide feedback.

The challenge to the SCMP designation in Canada, claiming we could not use, has blown over and is no longer a legal issue for IABC SCMP’s. IABC are now trademarking both designations (CMP, SCMP) to protect the trademark world-wide.

There are only 130 CMPs and SCMPs world-wide. This suggests we have miles to go on this program but there’s lots of opportunity to grow our professionals to reach this global standard.

With Vancouver being the location for world conference, CWR will have to be creative in the way it plans the CWR Regional Conference in 2019.

Conclusion

In general, I am feeling confident about the health and progress of CWR. I will miss the wise counsel of Jennifer and Gary and am delighted to see the continuity of the board with Jonathan, Tracy, Sue, Ivan and Jackie. I am extremely confident our incoming Chair, Jonathan Tremblay will continue the momentum and progress we’ve achieved this year and will take CWR to new heights. It has been a privileged to serve as your Chair. Thank you.

ADDENDUM A Update on Regional Growth Plan We made progress on our four areas of focus as follows:

Onboarding and Developing Leaders (Lead by Jonathan Tremblay and Ivan) o CWR board members continue to be Board Buddies/mentors with incoming Presidents

to prepare them to take the President role. o Started bi-monthly Leadership Call programs where leaders can dial in to discuss

common topics, challenges and successes. We plan to continue the calls and will focus on bringing portfolios together.

o Dare to Lead is a key event to train, orient and immerse new leader volunteers. o CWR provides a grant to chapters to attend LI and Dare to Lead. o Working on an orientation handbook for new leaders – outline in done. o Plan to survey chapter leaders to gauge satisfaction and support requires.

National Programs (Lead by Tracy Fox supported by Gary Carr) o Created alignment with CER on National Programs as a focused priority. o Identified new leaders and volunteers to move the program forward. o In the process of developing a more strategic approach to “up level” the program. o Progressing toward alignment and integration with Canada’s MC Program.

Certification (Lead by Jackie Sargent with support from Sue Ridewood) o Region hosted exam in conjunction with Regional Conference and Dare to Lead. o Supported chapters in hosting exams. o Provided chapters with information linking upkeep of certification with volunteer

opportunities. o Coming year will focus on ambassadorship.

Corporate Membership (led by Jennifer Wah and Catherine Ducharme) o Conducted some research within the region. Corporate membership accounts for 30%

to 40% of membership and most them fall into the 10 – 20-member categories, which we don’t feel has been addressed through the current program (although we recognize with 17+ members the 25-member package can be a solution).

o In process of establishing a regional task force on corporate membership to come up with solutions to leverage the IABC tool kit, initiate conversations with current and new corporate members and fully understand the value proposition to feel comfortable having conversations. Taskforce will also gather feedback/input from CWR corporate members to feedback to IABC so the program can be refined/tweaked accordingly.

ACTION: Catherine will put together the corporate membership task force over the summer months.

Vice Chair – Jonathan Tremblay

Jonathan’s experience on the committee to plan LI was a great opportunity to connect with the incoming board chairs for all regions. CWR did about a third or half of the presentations at LI, which shows the strength of our leaders.

Successes

Getting to know all of the 2017-18-19 CWR board as well as the chapter presidents and vice presidents much better. I’m happy we were able to work together on a new in-person meeting concept that seems to have been very well received.

Challenges

There’s always more to do.

What you’ll move forward/plan over the summer (ongoing programs and initiatives)

I will be championing the creation of a chapter onboarding and best practice handbook that will answer a lot of the challenges we’ve heard from the chapters. This will be a group effort and we

will be able to populate it with pieces that already exist with International. The Southern Region is looking at a similar project. We should be able to collaborate.

Key considerations for next year’s board including things you would change/improve/do differently

I would love to keep our eyes on the three-year plan and report/adjust periodically. There are a lot of lower priority administrative things I’d love to push forward (archiving process, etc.)

Recognition

For Catherine. She has been an amazing Chair and mentor. I often find myself wondering ‘how would Catherine approach this?’

Past Chair – Jennifer Wah

Serving on the international selection committee for committees (reviewing applications for 65 different committee positions) – would like to see increased CWR representation in international committee roles.

Chairing the nomination process for CWR – pleased with the results. Catherine, Jonathan and Gary represented the CWR on the committee.

Working with Bananatag and CER to plan the Canada party at the International conference was fantastic.

Activities in the past month: o Prepared communication regarding announcement of board slate and notification of

AGM. o Prepared presentation on Roberts Rules of Order for CWR board meeting in Regina. o Conducted exit interviews with outgoing chapter reps. o Participated in DTL weekend. o Led strat planning roundtable discussion with IABC/Calgary at DTL as a follow up to

conversations with board buddy Sharon Lee. o Worked with our sponsor, Bananatag, and CER counterpart to finalize Canada Party in

Montreal, and communicate with all members across Canada, as well as special invited guests.

o Attended World Conference in Montreal as a delegate, including serving as Credentials Chair at the association’s AGM.

o Served as point person and co-host for Canada Party at the conference, liaising with venue and volunteers.

o Reviewed bylaws for consistency and updates; highlighted and flagged changes - then discovered 30 days’ notice required for bylaw changes. - Changes postponed to next year.

o Chaired exec call June 11, in Catherine’s absence.

Items for CWR input: o Motions related to MC donation to Foundation and offering memberships to

Bananatag. o File forward bylaws changes to next year’s AGM.

Motion: to purchase one regular membership for an employee of our sponsor, Bananatag, in recognition of their generous support of the 2018 Canada Party at World Conference, and in lieu of additional spending by the two regions for this event. M/S Wah/Carr. Carried

Executive Administration & Communications – Sue Ridewood

Rebranded regional materials, twitter feed plan, 2 conferences, LI, Dare to lead, face to face board meetings, website update, transition from teleconference to zoom.

Volunteer to take on meeting administration and notes has been helpful.

Do not have a social/website strategy in place, which Sue will hand over to Lydia to work on.

Lack some clarity on AGM process, need to make sure we give ourselves enough planning time to incorporate items needing notice (i.e., bylaw changes)

ACTION: Sue to collect Graphically Speaking numbers and transfer the sponsorship relationship to Jackie.

ACTION: The Board to familiarize themselves with the regional bylaws.

Finance – Gary Carr

Reviewed existing payment/expense claim process with new bookkeeping firm and incoming Finance Director and identified potential options for streamlining the process.

Continued onboarding and transition process for new Finance Director

Processed cheque requests and began call for final items for 2017-18 fiscal year (ending June 30, 2018).

Beginning process of revamping signing authorities for CWR

Leadership Development – Ivan Muzychka

Successes - 2017-2018 Leadership Calls and Coaching/Mentoring

The CWR Leadership Calls were a really good initiative and were well-received during 2017-2108. The technology worked well and the calls were an effective strategy to connect with chapter leaders.

Overall, I believe that the service helped a couple of chapters, and some individual leaders derived benefit from attending the calls. The calls had the effect of giving CWR some extra visibility with chapter leaders. Through the Leadership Chair, CWR connected with chapter leaders throughout the year, and these discussions yielded ideas for leadership calls and feedback on where chapters are having problems challenges. These discussions will now be used to schedule a new set of calls and coaching sessions aimed at supporting chapters with their growth plans.

Dare to Lead 2018

Dare to Lead was a success, judged by numbers of leaders attending, and by the smooth flow of the event. We had over 65 people registered, and we know, anecdotally at least, that the conference was well-received by those who attended (survey results are pending at this time). There was a good mixture of fun and learning. The conference did not lose money and may have generated a small profit (final accounts are pending).

The CWR board will evaluate a possible surplus from Dare to Lead and decide how it will be applied to ensure that chapters continue to maximize the benefits from investing in the event.

Challenges

We were late getting the leadership calls started, and only delivered 6-7 calls. Our target needs to be higher, as does attendance. Most calls had 4-5 people, and there was practically no participation from other CWR board members. We should strive for more calls and more board participation. Calls were set up by topic, and this year we need to look at setting them based on chapter portfolios. There is value in bringing together all the PD chairs, membership chairs etc. for general discussion and idea sharing.

Over the summer

I will spend the summer doing Leadership Calls as a way of helping chapters that are undertaking planning activities over July and August. I have number of topics set for June-October, and am looking to have a discussion with the CWR board to set topics/approaches to the calls.

Need to get some of the leadership call content up on the CWR web site for use by chapter leaders who maybe can’t attend the calls. This was an idea from this year that did not get done. A related idea, which also did not get finished, is a the compilation of a “best practices chapter manual.” With some effort, both can be accomplished before the end of August.

Plan Going Forward

I anticipate having a schedule which runs from June 2018 through to June 2019. The schedule looks like this at present:

June 28 - Chapter PD Chairs - Roundtable Discussion July 26 - Chapter Membership Chairs - Roundtable Discussion August 30 - How IABC International and CWR Can Help Chapters Grow September 27 - Dealing with Conflict Around Your Board Table October 25 - Recognizing and Appreciating Chapter Volunteers November 29 - Promoting Awards and Certification in Your Chapter

Coming Year

Need to finalize the schedule of calls and promote them more aggressively to chapter leaders. Need to involve CWR Board members as active participants/resources for those attending the calls.

Dare to Lead 2019 (to take place in Edmonton) planning will commence this month, and we need to be mindful of some issues around how the conference is managed at the chapter level (IABC focus, CWR presence etc.).

Concerns/challenges/areas where you need CWR Exec or CWR full board input

Need input on how the Leadership Chair can better engage with the chapters. I am also looking for feedback on topics for calls or even intelligence on which chapters may need individualized help. Once I know where support is needed, I can start working towards helping. I have come ideas here, but could use more help from the board.

I also want to thank everybody on CWR for their help. I need to also thank the volunteers in Regina who worked so hard to put on Dare to Lead. I appreciate their hard work, dedication and time commitment.

ACTION: Gary and Ivan to discuss speaker gift baskets from Dare to Lead to ensure they are properly reflected in the financials.

National Programs – Tracy Fox Successes

Set up and implemented a new awards management platform: Award Force.

Successfully rolled out the Silver Leaf Awards Program, garnering over 150 entries and engaging

72 evaluators.

Created a new volunteer position to coordinate Silver Leaf Award activities and recruited for the

position.

Developed in collaboration with Gary Carr, the National Programs priority strategies for the

Regional Growth Plan.

By the time my term is completed, I will have a procedures document in place for the National

Programs portfolio.

I feel like we’ve made strides in bringing the two regions into closer alignment.

Challenges

While it was CER’s year to lead the awards, the National Programs Director ended her term and the new director was not successfully on boarded and therefore not able to manage the program. The responsibility largely ended up with CWR again. This, coupled with the amount of work required to set up the new awards tool, was a challenge in terms of workload.

The new tool also proved to be challenging as Silver Leaf was one of the first programs to use the system. We had difficulty with the judging piece of the system and as a result many of our judges did not have a great experience.

Plans for the summer

As I’m transitioning out of the National Programs portfolio, I will focus on transitioning to the incoming director and finish up the procedures document.

I will continue to support the portfolio as needed. Key considerations for next year

Now that volunteer roles are created for the portfolio, I’d encourage future directors to recruit for the roles beginning in March of each year in order to be prepared to roll out the program in May.

I recommend ongoing conversations with CER to continue to foster a positive and productive relationship.

There is a great opportunity to up-level National Programs with the implementation of the Regional Growth Plan. I recommend recruiting volunteers to assist with the implementation as well as further discussion with CER.

I also recommend a National Programs 101 PD offering or D2L opportunity to engage and help chapters to leverage the program as a value-add to members.

It’s been a pleasure serving on the CWR board for the past two years, and I look forward to continuing to

serve in a new capacity. Thank you to all fellow board members for all you do and in particular for those

who are rolling off the board for their leadership and guidance.

Motion: to make a donation in the amount of ($50) to the IABC Foundation on the occasion of a new Master Communicator being selected in the Canada West Region. (If no new MC is named in a year, a donation will not be made.) This approach replaces the former procedure in which region dues were waived for Master Communicators. M/S Fox/Sargent. Carried.

Professional Development & Sponsorship – Jackie Sargent

Progress to date

Confirmed information regarding end of CISION Sponsorship

Shared IABC Minnesota info with Board re: some of their best practices for sponsorship and engaging members

Connected briefly with Kellie Garrett at D2L – she will be sending me an email in response to my query about her doing a speakers tour – need to confirm costs, logistics, coordinate with Chapters

Board Buddy update

Phone call scheduled with Krystal (Saskatoon) June 19

Concerns/challenges/areas where you need CWR Exec or CWR full board input

What to do with unspent CISION Sponsorship funds

IABC World Conference is in Vancouver 2019 – where do we hold IABC CWR Conference in 2019?

Budget for speakers tour

Year-end Progress Report 2017-2018:

Successes

Webinar sponsored and hosted by Bananatag

Hosted certification exam at CWR conference October 2017

Verified and distributed certification maintenance and CWR/Chapter events

Challenges

Difficult year personally – didn’t get as much done as I would have liked

Prefer more clarity around expectations/deliverables

Moving forward

Develop and initiate action plan to support Strategic Plan for certification, including connected with Nancy from Calgary re: their successes in certification

Complete position handbook

Key considerations for Board

Role clarity, deliverables expected, particularly with respect to CWR conference, sponsorship

Motion: That the IABC CWR Board approve the following recommendations regarding the unused CISION grant funds:

The unused CISION grant funds in the amount of $1,500 be carried over into the 2018-2019 budget.

The unused CISION grant funds in the amount of $1,500 be put towards costs for the Speakers Tour.

M/S Sargent/Ridewood. Carried.

Background: In 2017, CISION provided grant funding to IABC Canada East and Canada West regions in the

amount of $750 per chapter to help offset costs for hosting local professional development events. There were specific requirements as to how the funds were to be used, which was shared with the Chapters, and all funds were to be used by December 31, 2017.

At the end of the year, all but two of the IABC Canada West Regions were able to utilize the grant funds, leaving $1,500 unspent. In recent discussions with the IABC Canada East Region Sponsorship Director, we learned that CISION did not renew the grant funding for IABC in 2018. CISION also provided direction that the funds are not to be returned and used as the Regions deem appropriate without having to provide a recognition to CISION.

During the June 11 Executive Meeting, some options as to how the funds could be used were discussed, with the most favoured option to use the $1500 to help fund the Speakers Tour.

8. Board slate for AGM ratification

Motion: to ratify the CWR board for the 2018-2019 year as approved by the nomination board. M/S Wah/Carr. Carried.

Outgoing board members o Jennifer Wah, ABC, MC, IABC Fellow, Past Chair o Gary Carr, Finance

Automatic succession and/or continuation of board positions o Jonathan Tremblay, CMP, succeeds to Chair o Catherine Ducharme succeeds to Past Chair o Jackie Sargent, SCMP, continues as Director of Sponsorship & PD o Ivan Muzychka, ABC, MC, continues as Director of Leadership Development

New board members as put forward by the Nominating Committee and approved by the CWR Board o Tracy Fox, ABC, SCMP, as Vice Chair o Richard Kies, ABC, as Finance Director/Treasurer o Lydia Tay as Director of Communications o Tamara Gale as Board Secretary o Sue Ridewood, ABC, as Director of National Programs

9. Adjourn

Motion: to adjourn. M/S Sargent/Carr to adjourn at 1:02 p.m. Carried.