This New Year is well underway and signs of yet another new season are all around us. Here on my Island home, my garden abounds with snowdrops and crocuses, forming patchwork quilts below an army of advancing daffodils. In nature, changes are visible, and so it is in our BCAHA family; 2016 will be a year that brings many changes.
The BCAHA Executive Director, Helen Carkner, is completing her three-year term in June and the BCAHA Executive is conducting a search and interview process to find a replacement. Helen will be greatly missed as she has gone above and beyond her specific role and duties to serve our member auxiliaries and to support BCAHA’s board and executive. Her passion for auxiliaries, her service-oriented work philosophy and her excellent communication skills have been a great asset to our Association. Helen’s outstanding performance as ED has been instrumental in raising the profile of the BCAHA throughout our province. As a result, the ED search committee has received many quality applications for the role and has now short-listed candidates who possess the requisite skill-set and work experience. I hope to announce the new BCAHA Executive Director the first week in March.
The new B.C. Societies Act, which comes into law this autumn, will necessitate a review and updating of the Constitution and By-Laws of all non-profit organizations, including auxiliaries, in order to comply with the changes outlined in the new Act. The BCAHA Vice-President and Director of Education, Vicky Forest, has prepared an informational document to aid our member auxiliaries as they move through this process. This document is posted on our website and will also be sent to our membership by the Director of Communications. It should be noted that the BCAHA Executive and the Area Representatives are also most willing to help our member auxiliaries with any additional information or questions.
In April, the BCAHA will begin a new approach to our provincial conferences, with our traditional conference model followed in odd-numbered years, and a more compact ‘forum’ model in even-numbered years. Thus, this year the annual provincial conference in Penticton will be a smaller gathering, shorter in duration and less expensive to attend. The 2016 Leadership Forum program will begin with the BCAHA Annual General Meeting and a Winery Reception. On the following day, exceptional speakers and seminar facilitators will explore the many facets of leadership in today’s world. Leadership and succession planning are two of the most crucial challenges facing auxiliaries, and during this forum we hope to provide methodology, motivation and inspiration to those who are currently leading and to those who are leaders-in-the-making.
Yes, change is all around us. Several famous philosophers have described change and what it means far better than I: ”The times change and we change with them” . . . ”All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is part of ourselves” . . . “If nothing changed, there would be no butterflies” . . . and then there was Bob Dylan who sang, ”The times, they are a-changing”!
Until next time,
Lynda Avis, President, British Columbia Association of Healthcare Auxiliaries
