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I would like to start this message with a warm welcome to our two elected members to Council: Alexander Tetoff and Adam Swendsen. I wish you all the best and look forward to what is in store for you both during your terms. I would also like to welcome our newest public member: Oluwayemisi (Tosin) Osiberu.
As many of you might be aware, the structure of Council was mandated last year to have at least 50% public members. These changes demonstrate that the composition continues to change and evolve. It is important that this continues, because it creates a nimble governing body that is ensuring new perspectives are brought to the governance of the profession.
Those that tuned into the AMM this year would have heard that I spoke about the Council election format in my presentation.
As the College adapts to new legislation requiring us to focus solely on regulatory functions, this has sparked discussions of whether the government will soon mandate colleges to transition away from elections. This encouraged Council to start evaluating the merits of recruitment-based appointments. Throughout this year, Council has conducted a thorough evaluation of the elections process. We consulted with other regulatory colleges, evaluated past nomination patterns, voting patterns, and election turnout, as well as asked for feedback from members regarding elections in a survey in January.
The findings in our evaluation provided confirmation that over the past several years the College has witnessed a steep decline in voter participation and nominations. We heard from members during the survey that the election and campaigning process was daunting and they would be more inclined to join Council if there was no election or campaigning process. Furthermore, recruitment-based appointments are not new to the College structure as all committee members are selected through applications. The College receives more applications for Committee work than for Council positions and many with competencies that would benefit our governance structure and support the work of Council.
I’m happy to announce that after our comprehensive evaluation process, Council voted to move to recruitment-based appointments for 2023. Changing to recruitment-based appointments will open up a whole new group of devoted members great for the job and would not have put their name forward because of the previous campaign and election format.
I firmly believe this change will make a positive impact to the Council composition and I encourage everyone that is interested in making a difference to put their name forward next year. I speak from experience when I say that being on Council is an eye-opening and important contribution to our profession. You deserve Council members that are going to step up and make the tough decisions. You deserve to have people at the table that are there for the right reasons and that are going to put in the work to push the profession forward.
I will close by saying thank you to my fellow Council members. That past six years we have collectively made some great progress for this profession that I’m incredibly proud of. I’m grateful to have shared a seat at the table with all of you. I look forward to seeing where Council takes us next.
Melissa Manion
President