Ah, but this time it’s not about casting a vote in a federal, provincial or municipal campaign.  We here in Ontario will exercise our democratic right in early October, the pre-set date for the Provincial election in Ontario, the election I’m referring to is the upcoming CAAMP Board election. As someone who has campaigned twice I can assure you the process of getting elected is as political as any other election.  It takes organization and a commitment of time and resources to get elected.  To all the individuals that have put their names forward to run this year, I commend them for their courage and willingness to volunteer their time for the greater good.

When I was first elected to the CAAMP Board, I decided that I would try to  correct a flaw in the by-laws.  Simply stated I thought there was risk to our association if we did not address the issue of how many seats one firm could represent on the board.  Based on the current by-laws, one firm could theoretically occupy all the board seats, as well as all the executive positions. The reality is that would probably never happen but the possibility did exist. Realistically what could happen is that one firm could occupy five, six or seven seats on the board.  The optics alone of that happening would pose a risk to the association by calling into question the separation of an individual firm’s interest versus the associations interest.  Furthermore, I believed it was imperative that we find the means to make representation on the board more inclusive.  For individuals who decide they would like to serve they shouldn’t be precluded from doing so because they are not affiliated with a national firm.  To be abundantly clear, this is not a repudiation of the national firms that organized and campaigned to have as many of their employees elected to the board.  The national firms adhered to existing by-laws, and acted accordingly.  They did nothing wrong.  What was wrong was the by-law itself.  I’m happy to say that the CAAMP Board has addressed this issue, and the by-law will be changed at the upcoming CAAMP AGM.  In short, the by-law will read that no one entity, or it’s affiliated firms, can occupy more than 20% of the board seats.  I would personally like to thank my fellow board members, which includes board members that are employed by national firms, for their wisdom and vision. The board’s responsibility is to deal with not only issues of the day, but to anticipate and reflect on what’s best for the association and the future of the industry.  In this regard, kudos to the CAAMP Board.

As for the upcoming CAAMP Board elections, well, this is your chance to have a say on who represents you. The nominees are making great efforts to get elected, and they do so for the privilege of representing your interests.  The least we can do is take 30 seconds out of our busy schedules to cast a vote.

Until next time.

Cheers,