Trillium Chapter Shines At CSAE National Conference & Showcase In Calgary
By Stephen Carroll, CAE, President, CSAE Trillium Chapter
One of the strategic priorities identified in the soon to be issued Trillium Chapter Strategic plan, 2016-2018, is to “proactively position the Trillium Chapter as a leading contributor to CSAE direction, establishing a collaborative and synergistic relationship to advance the member experience”. Indeed, the Trillium Chapter views itself as a vital local experience provider organization for CSAE, the “arms” of CSAE that hug the member in a professional and personal way. Judging by the Trillium Chapter presence and performance at CSAE’s recently held National Conference & Showcase in Calgary, Trillium Chapter is well down the road in delivering against this strategic goal.
Trillium Chapter was very proud to sponsor and support the CSAE Growth Conference Experience (GCX15), a series of sessions held before, during and after the conference designed to assist a group of professionals who work in growth-oriented associations to address growth as an essential part of building an association that can thrive in the years ahead. Led by association thought leader Jeff De Cagna of Principled Innovation LLC, the GCX15 series of sessions were all thought-provoking, generative and groundbreaking sessions that challenged conventional thinking. Trillium Chapter Board members were invited to introduce the very talented speakers for each GCX15 presentation, providing a wonderful opportunity for Trillium Chapter leaders to describe and demonstrate Trillium Chapter’s contribution to the most popular sessions at the Conference!
Among the many Trillium Chapter members who made significant and memorable contributions to the Conference program were Alan Ward from The Portage Group speaking on “Succeeding at Succession”, Erin Roberts of Zzeem presenting “The Consumer Culture Invasion: The New Member Value Proposition?”, Christine Charnock who was part of CAE Case Studies, Victoria Prince who led an “Exploration of Members Legal Rights” and Julie King of Biz-Zone who spoke about “Increasing Engagement using Gamification”.
At the Honours and Awards Luncheon, CSAE honoured Trillium Chapter’s own Robert (Bob) Ramsay, CAE, President & Chief Staff Officer of the Motorcycle and Moped Industry Council and the Canadian Off-Highway Vehicle Distributors Council, with its Honorary Award of Excellence that recognizes a member’s sustained commitment and outstanding contribution to CSAE for a minimum of 10 years at either the national or local level. “Bob has been incredibly supportive of CSAE and the entire association community. He understands the role of associations in our society and eagerly accepts every opportunity to be engaged. He continues to generously help individual members who are fortunate to be able to benefit from his senior leadership knowledge,” said Michael Anderson, CSAE President & CEO. Ramsay served as the CSAE Trillium (Toronto) Chapter President in 1997/1998 and was awarded the Chapter’s Service Excellence Award in 2001 for his exemplary Board leadership. He served on CSAE’s National Board of Directors from 2006 – 2012, including a two-year term as Chair in 2009/2010 and 2010/2011, and has chaired various other CSAE Board, Task Force and leadership committees.
Sincere congratulations to an impressive group of Trillium Chapter award winners in Calgary including The Ontario Bar Association for Professional Development and Education, Ready Mixed Concrete Association of Ontario for Ethical, Professional or Technical Standards, Ontario School Library Association for Best Publication and Rosemary Chapman of Managing Matters who created a very engaging and interesting video submission to win the F10 Video Contest.
CSAE’s Annual General Meeting was held in conjunction with the National Conference & Showcase and while it was a wonderful celebration of CSAE’s achievements and progress over the past year it also marked the end of Trillium Chapter’s Maura McLaren’s incredibly successful term as CSAE Chair. Among the many accomplishments that have taken place under Maura’s inspiring leadership:
- Design and development of a new business model for CSAE involving many contributors — both from within and outside CSAE. Maura and Michael Anderson have worked hard to consistently and frequently update members and stakeholders on progress, including a visit to our Trillium Chapter Summer Summit to brief us on all features of the Business Model design work;
- Implementation of member value creation experiments designed to continue the learning process and build CSAE’s capacity to take additional steps. Trillium Chapter is a leading contributor to the local experience experiments;
- Launch of the most visible experiment to date — the CSAE Business Model Transition site. If you haven’t done so already, please visit www.csaebizmodel.com to learn more about the work and the many ways you can become involved in it;
- The Board of Directors presented CSAE’s 2014/2015 audited financial statements at the AGM, illustrating that CSAE had a very successful financial year. Maura has been a driving force to ensure a healthy and positive financial status for CSAE.
On behalf of the Trillium Chapter Board of Directors and members of Trillium Chapter I want to express our heartfelt thanks and deep appreciation to Maura McLaren for contributing her boundless energy, infectious enthusiasm and never ending positive spirit and charisma to leading and building a CSAE that is member-centred and focused. Congratulations Maura, we are so proud of you and can’t thank you enough for everything you have done over many years to help make CSAE and Trillium Chapter an organization that delivers so much meaningful value for its members!
