2020 – That Was the Year That Was!
Dec 17, 2020
C/C Message 2020
I’ve just been reading my 2019 Christmas message. Never, ever, at this time last year would any of us have foreseen what was awaiting us as 2020 started. I talked about changing direction but did not imagine that it would happen like it has.
What did we see ahead of us? The New IT System was launched late November and promised to integrate all our educational and financial needs. Well we have now been using it and improving it for a year and it is getting better. It is still not perfect. There have been a spectrum of problems with data transferred from our old WBAS system with system problems and with users but our team of IT volunteers and our provider have worked steadfastly to fix things and are getting there.
Our National Executive Director Mimma Spagnolo joined us in mid-January and has worked hard to bring the National Office into ship-shape, introduced bi-weekly update eblasts from the National Office and conducted Town Hall meetings to hear directly from the squadrons what their needs are. Mimma has made a huge difference this year.
The pandemic hit in the Spring and we as an organization have stopped face to face meetings but like many other organizations have started to overcome this and learned to communicate electronically using Zoom, GoToMeeting and now Teams. The rollout of Teams licenses is, not surprisingly, taking longer than hoped but it is well on the way. Help us to speed this up by letting Liudmila have the names of your up-to-date squadron executive if you haven’t already done so. We still need to communicate better.
The National Office has been mainly closed most of the year with some of the Staff working from home and some coming in a few days a week to work on non-electronic files. Keeping our staff, their families and our members safe and well is of paramount importance.
Bert terHart completed his amazing solo voyage around the world in July; he was almost certainly the most isolated person in the world when he arrived back in Victoria. He thoroughly earned his Chief Commander’s Citation and the Board of Directors changed his grade to Senior Navigator. He is an outstanding example of what can be achieved with knowledge, skill, determination, a good boat and a great support team. He is an example to us all.
We went ahead with our 2020 Vision National AGM in Windsor but unfortunately it was by electronics. We were looking forward to the visit but had to content ourselves with sitting in front of a computer screen. So we held the first ever virtual AGM – no substitute for the real thing but travelling sure was easier. It went very well, a few small glitches, but due to a lot of hard work it was a great success. We will in future be incorporating a parallel program of online seminars and physical meetings and the AGM even when the pandemic is over. That way we will be able to reach a far larger attendance – the district council meetings I have attended have all been better attended than the face to face meetings.
We came into 2020 with a solid outreach program so when the pandemic hit we encouraged squadrons to move out of the classroom into online instruction. Whilst many squadrons have done so there are many sitting out the pandemic. Our future survival depends on training, selling and running classes and our membership base, so while we cannot meet physically we need to continue our mission electronically.
Your Board of Directors is at the moment debating a comprehensive update on the way CPS-ECP operates, a new business model. We have all noted that this organization is great at talking and not so good at acting, so we will be changing that early in the New Year.
I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and look forward to a safe, healthy and busy 2021.
Peter Bolton
C/C
