A message from the CPRS-Vancouver Island Board of Directors:
On behalf of the 2020-2021 Board, I invite you to read our 2020-2021 Annual Report.
As current and prospective members of our CPRS chapter, your professional and personal spirit was our priority this past year. We felt strongly that you needed community more than ever (because we sure did!) and we wanted to be both a leader and your biggest supporter. That meant offering events and connection points that focused on emotional wellness, our collective desire for a better world, acknowledgment of the exhaustion required to adapt to change, and the need for a safe space where we could all allow ourselves to be real. And all this sprinkled with a dose of laughter.
In a year of pandemic-induced unknowns and general struggle, there has also been opportunity. Our chapter has collaborated with CPRS chapters across Canada in a way that we never have before. Virtual events meant that members could access professional development offered in any province, and gave each of us the chance to build and foster relationships with our peers.
In the summer, the CPRS National Board of Directors made a commitment to supporting anti-racism through diversity, equity, and inclusion, saying that CPRS has not done a good enough job in reflecting the diversity of our nation or our profession. At the local level, we at CPRS-VI echo the sentiment that we must do better.
We’ve taken some steps - through conversations, learning at the Board level, and by hosting an impactful event in the fall entitled Thoughts on reconciliation and decolonization: a conversation with Kamala Todd. There is still much to be done and we will continue to do the work required to influence change and foster an inclusive and representative association and profession.
With a volunteer organization, anything really great happens because of great people. I’m so grateful to have the chance to work on the Board with such a competent, reliable, creative, and loving team. I reluctantly say goodbye to Catherine Dooner, our past president, Celia Sollows APR, our treasurer, and Michelle Collyer, our secretary, as they move on towards new adventures. I wish them everything wonderful - because they deserve it, and I take comfort in knowing that they will look back fondly at their time on our Board and will speak highly of their experience with us. This is how we will bring new talent and forge ahead in new ways as a chapter.
We truly have been in this together this year and I thank each of you for being part of what makes CPRS-VI the warm and generous community that it is.
Sincerely,
Tatiana Chabeaux-Smith
President, CPRS-Vancouver Island
