The 2007 National AGM was productive, with a spirit of co-operation we hadn’t seen before. Maybe it was due to the First Nation’s Elder’s blessing that started off the official meetings. Whatever the case, it was a heartening development, and made for some great results.

BC sent a strong contingent again to keep our fingers on the pulse and get some good succession planning in the works. Marga Lopez, Mark Busse, Carolina Beccarra, Steve Mynett and I were there to represent (and I talked too much).

We did all the basic stuff like pass the budget and hear what all the chapters were doing. But in getting things done we took some novel approaches and set out some great policy direction. So here’s what happened, apart from getting kicked out of hotel rooms:

1. NEW FELLOWS
Fritz Gottschalk – Gottschalk+Ash International (Toronto, Calgary, Zurich)
Stuart Ash – Gottschalk+Ash International (Toronto, Calgary, Zurich)
Hélène L’Heureux – Dawson College (Montreal)
Cynthia Hoffos – Concepts 3 Public Relations + Design (Ottawa)

2. NEW EXECUTIVES
Rod Roodenburg, BC – President,
Matt Warburton, BC – VP Membership
Patrice Snopski, BCVI – VP Membership

Kudos to the outgoing Judy Snaydon and Peggy Cady for rocking (seriously) National. Congrats to the new slate.

3. FULL TIME NATIONAL ADMINISTRATOR
We finally found the money for National to have Melanie in the office four days a week. BC stepped up to make it a full time position. She’ll be able to serve the membership everyday now, and continue to help BC with our admin and member processing. Great news.

4. ERRORS AND OMISSIONS INSURANCE
Just an announcement, but an important one. Like errors and omissions insurance. Critical for our business, cheaper for members than most private providers. Check into it.

5. MEMBERSHIP CATEGORIES
Polling was done on where our membership categories should go. The path to MGDC still needs some finessing. Particularly with our new website’s anytime join capabilities, the landscape is changing. Judy Snaydon took the pulse. Expect to see changes 2009 or 2010.

6. STRONGER MEMBERSHIP STANDARDS
We adopted a national policy on number of pieces in a portfolio, which was previously decided chapter-by-chapter. 5 for LGDC. 7 for MGDC. Only client driven published work or self-promos.

A working group prioritized Membership issues and as a result new application forms, portfolio review forms, and standards officer guidelines are in the works. Manitoba’s successful portfolio preparatory program will also become national this year.

6. DUES
The National Council has been fastidious at keeping dues to inflation and did so again this year. Rather than distribute the increase equally as is standard, we looked more closely.

Firstly, National admin spends a lot of time on managing Student memberships, but received no revenue as a result. Secondly, we want to pay particular attention to our core audience, professional members.

So Professional (MGDC/LGDC) membership dues are unchanged, with greater Student, Graduate and Associate increases to keep us in budget, with National now taking a portion of Student dues.

7. NEW BRAND STATEGY
Rod Roodenburg presented an 80 page document on the brand. A working group set to work on where to take it.

Most importantly, agreement, more or less, was made that the term Member is more confusing than useful. A proposal for renaming is in the works, with focus on communicating that we are certified (it’s true!, we are!). As it’s a one shot deal, the ‘what do we call our professional selves’ conversation will be dealt with as part of the process. We know its a contentious issue, and member input will be sought. Stay tuned.

8. SUSTAINABILITY POLICY
A motion was passed that we would move to a formal sustainability policy both for GDC activities and as an addition to ethical guidelines for our members, and a working group was formed to finalize the draft documents and proposals for next year’s AGM.

9. NEW WEBSITE
Although still teething, the new website was introduced and functionality will continue to be added. Over time it will become a revenue generator, streamline executive tasks and create a more cohesive brand presence.

10. REVENUE SHARING
Although it was kind of a misnomer to add financial viability to the sustainability working group, the Council acknowledged the annual budgets of around $1000 that the smallest chapters have to work with keep them in the cycle of not having resources to generate revenue and hold events which might generate membership. There was agreement to pursue new distribution of funds to allow all chapters to function better. It will take some clever thinking, but I think we’ll create something smart.

11. GDC FOUNDATION
The GDC Foundation is growing steadily but slowly. As an organization we should support it ourselves, but as a non-profit society there are complications. We agreed to put 10% of any surplus at the end of the year into the fund. The amount unfortunately won’t be that much in any year, but it’s a good start.

And that, phew, was all. More or less.

Special thanks from all of us in the BC crew to Colin MacFadyen and his Saskatchewan North team for a fabulous, and more importantly, successful weekend.

Cameron Jantzen
National Representative
BC Mainland Chapter