Hello all you CAPPERS out there. It is Beverly Beuermann-King, your CAPS National President for 2024. I am here in lovely Calgary. It’s the end of the month, so it’s time for our Keynotes. It’s time to update you on all of the wonderful things that are happening at our CAPS National Board and in our chapters.
I must say I’m very sad. I just wrapped up my last presentation with one of the chapters, one of the last events, which was with CAPS Atlantic. And it was a great event, such energy. And for me, the highlight was being able to go across the country and to meet with everybody at these chapter events. So I’m actually sad that it was my last one. I wanted to do them at the first part of the year, but, I’m not so sure that was such a great idea because they were so much fun to be involved in.
We are doing so much great work at our CAPS National Office and I want to highlight a couple of things that are going on right now. We are having our first face-to-face Chapter Leadership Summit since 2019, which I think is amazing. This is the first time that we’re getting our chapter leaders together to be able to network, to be able to ask questions, to be able to set up their initiatives through the strategic plan, and to bring such value to all of our members. So I’m quite excited. Thanks to David Guthro and to Ron Tsang, who are championing this. I’m not even sure if that’s the right word. You know what I mean, they’re putting this together and they really wanted us to be able to get face-to-face. And so I’m happy to say that it is coming to fruition in the next couple of weeks.
We’re also getting together face-to-face at our National Board to really dig deep into our strategic plan and come up with the initiatives that are going to shape the way we see CAPS over the next year and up to three years from now. So I’m excited about that too.
Let’s see what else is happening. E1R1, we have been bringing in such great members. Everybody has been stepping up and talking about CAPS bringing new people in. So E1R1 is really is about who else needs to be part of these conversations. These are all of the great new members that have joined CAPS since I think I mentioned them in February. So this is since February:
- Miriam Kirmayer,
- Catherine Clark,
- Laura Hambley,
- Al Parsai,
- Ingrid Palmer,
- Shaun Haney,
- Nancy Regan,
- Marcelo Hahn,
- Philip Edgell,
- Martina Kelades,
- Erez Avramov
I know I’m butchering these names. I’m really sorry, but I am excited that all of these people have joined. - Alyssa Pilkington,
- Matt Pahandra,
- Natalie Bureau,
- Jorj Helou,
- and Hughie Batherson,
That was 16 people! 16 people that have joined our CAPS family. And so welcome them. If you see new members at our chapter events, go up and say hi, find out a little bit about them. I know it’s hard as a new member to step into these great conversations that people are having. So help them. Help them to step in, help them to get to know somebody, help them to feel connected and be part of our learn, share, grow, and belong.
I want to highlight two of our volunteers right now that are on the national board, Tyler Hayden and Roxanne Derhodge, who are part of our national programming, the Chairs of our National Programming Committee and a couple of things that you may not know about these people. So Tyler has been a chicken farmer, a duck farmer, a turkey farmer. Tyler is a retired elected official and he is Canada’s answer to alternative energy. He puts like the Energizer Bunny to shame. And then we have Roxanne who has joined the programming committee. Roxanne, a couple of things you need to know about her. She can play the steel drums. I love the steel drums. I think that is so awesome. Roxanne is a diver and she lives in the Niagara Region and is part of our Toronto chapter. And so these two people together are bringing great programming together. They’re overseeing the Communities. They’re overseeing our Behind the Mic. They’re putting together a podcast that’ll be launched in January of 2025. They’re looking at what great events can we bring at a national level and help to support all of the chapters at their programming of their events as well.
We have really great volunteers. If you’re listening to this and you are not part of volunteering, I would really encourage you to step up, take on a small role, take on a large role. Help because we are FOR the members, BY the members and that’s the only way that we get things done. So if you’ve just joined us, step in right away. If you’ve been a long-term member and it’s been a while, step up again. See where you can fill a need, whether it’s within the communities, whether it’s at convention, if it’s with our programming or if it’s within our chapters, we’re absolutely wanting and loving our volunteers to come and join us.
A couple other things. We have a website that is being launched. I know I’ve said this a couple of times, but the website is coming. And so I am so grateful for Michelle Cederberg and her committee for all of the work that they’re doing to bring this. They’re bringing the digital strategy and the Academy learning platforms and all of these things together. And so it’s like any renovation that we go through, it takes a little bit of time. It never goes on schedule and it’s not always quite the way you thought it was going to be. But I’m so glad that Michelle has stepped into this. So thank you to Michelle, Azadeh, Lauren Pibworth, Denis Boudreau, Nathalie Plamondon-Thomas, Lorne Kelton, and also to our national Bond office for Anthony and Shari for all of the hard work that they have put into this.
That is all that I have, I think for this go-around. Thank you for indulging me on these videos. And if there’s anything that I can ever do to support you or questions that you have, please reach out either to myself, to our national board or to Bond, who is our association management company because they can answer. I mean, they have history, they can answer all of our questions. Till next time, wishing you the very best as we Learn, Share, Grow and Belong together.
