3 minute read
President’s message
See you on the ‘Rock’
ell here we all are – I am half way through my term as President and you are all by now well into 2012 and working hard to burn off the excesses of the 2011 Festive Season. I hope it is not too late to wish you all Season’s Greetings.
As I write this message what comes immediately to mind is the time and hard work put in by my colleagues on the National Council. We are in the midst of great change at National Council and deeply involved in the rebranding of the Institute. So much is affected by this and we have to be careful our deliberations are ever mindful of the consequences of our decisions. Taking the December Council Meeting in Toronto as an example, Council arrived on Thursday evening (most in the late afternoon/ early evening); manned our booth at Construct Canada on Friday morning; attended the Ontario Colleges ceremony in the afternoon and took part in a last minute ad-hoc Council Meeting in the evening. Saturday was an 8:00am to 6:00pm session and Sunday an 8:00am to 1:00pm session where Council worked through almost 120 pages of documents, reports and papers – all related to matters which directly affect you, our Members. Between our quarterly meetings, Council operates on a continuing basis through email dialogue and the preparation and review of working discussion papers. These are not small tasks and everything is undertaken and delivered in a professional manner. Along with this volunteer effort we have the engine room of the Institute – Lois and Ishrat, who keep everything going and are ever present to provide help and guidance. Add to this the replicated tasks at the Affiliates and Chapters and we have accumulated a sizeable piece of real effort. October and November are the months of Thanksgiving in North America and I take this time to congratulate and thank all who work tirelessly for the Institute both at the National and Affiliate levels. I am proud to be associated with you.
I mentioned the Ontario Colleges ceremony earlier in my message and once again I was privileged to represent our Institute at the presentation of the official accreditation certificates to each of our associated colleges. I was proud of our continuing high academic standards and of our connections with college academia - and at the same time I was humbled by the memories of those certified professionals who took the time to mentor me during my early days as a Building Management Trainee. I asked myself the question – what am I doing to mentor a student or recent graduate? Am I doing enough? I am not satisfied personally with my own answer - are you? Let us all take the time in 2012 to reach out to a student; a new graduate or a newly arrived Canadian - we will be a better Institute; better professionals and better people as a result.
To conclude, there is just one more Council meeting (in Markham) before our AGM in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. I encourage as many of you as possible to take time out of your busy schedules to come and enjoy all that the ‘Rock’ has to offer. If you want to present a paper at one of our seminars – then all the better. If you just want to come and have some fun that would be just peachy.
See you there!
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email: dwallis@walcon.ca | website: www.walcon.ca | Head office: 519-836-4351 | toronto: 647-932-9500 | Calgary: 403-800-1946 royston P. lewis, Pqs(f)
