National Volunteer Week 2021
Apr 8, 2021
April 18-24, 2021
This 20th year that the National Volunteer Week campaign is being delivered by Volunteer Canada. Of the 12.7 million volunteers in Canada CPS-ECP has nearly two thousand of them helping in local communities and our national community.
Our volunteers give many hours of their precious time helping to run our Squadrons, Districts and at National level. We are grateful to all of you for giving CPS-ECP your time and your expertise and your wisdom. We cannot do without you.
Our mission is to teach safe boating practices, to not just new boaters but all boaters because we are never too old to learn new tricks. We help to keep the RCAF Search and Rescue, Canadian Coast Guard, Coast Guard Auxiliary and RCM-SAR out of business, or at least cut down their workload. Knowledge helps to make you safe and we provide that knowledge. One of the important lessons that I learned during the Boating Course – way back – is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Our squadrons provide this knowledge and they also provide practical experience, Vessel Safety Checks (“Do you have the required, up to date safety equipment as required by law ?”) and Safety and Flare Return days. Squadrons also provide a social environment for boaters to meet other boaters and many hold monthly online social gatherings with an educational component. We invite speakers who have a story to tell or just have a discussion over a meal. One of the best presentations that I can remember in the old face-to-face days was a Past Squadron Commander standing up in front of a chart of the local area and pointing out and describing all the local anchorages, their approaches and the hazards nearby. Or members joined in the discussion and added to the presentation.
As we all know this has been a very difficult year for many organisations, not just ours. We came into the pandemic with a good suite of online courses and, over the year they have been improved. We are not able to hold indoor face-to-face meetings or classes yet for the safety of our instructors or members. This is under constant review, especially as the number of infections has been rising recently, however the end of this particularly long and dark tunnel is gradually coming into sight as the vaccination program is starting. Most of us have now got used to online meetings and although they are not as good as face-to-face meetings the travel time to meetings has certainly been cut Many squadrons have embraced the online world and I am delighted to see that – your Education Department has provided the tools and you are using them and yet there are still squadrons that are sitting on their hands. We have to be flexible and develop and use new ideas and improve old ones to deal with the new world we now live in because whatever happens the “new Normal” will be vastly different from the “old Normal”.
Please stay safe and healthy.
Peter
Peter Bolton, SN
Chief Commander – Commandant en chef
Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons
Escadrilles canadiennes de plaisance
