I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and are ready to begin the New Year with excitement. Let me take this opportunity to wish our members, corporate sponsors, and the CGS National Office staff a Very Happy New Year 2017! I must say that it is personally a great pleasure to write this message as one of my first tasks after assuming the duties of CGS President.
The past two years have been remarkable under the leadership of Mr. Doug VanDine, resulting in many accomplishments. Doug was instrumental in streamlining our society activities, refining administrative protocols, formalizing affiliation agreements, as well as establishing a brand-new website. This was a direct outcome of Doug’s vision and effort, supported by the CGS Executive and Administration. On behalf of the CGS, I would like to thank Doug for these contributions, and wish him all the very best in his future endeavors.
CGS is a very healthy and strong technical organization, clearly, due to the efforts of our dedicated volunteers. It is important to recognize and appreciate our members involved in a wide range of key volunteer roles in the CGS Executive, Sections, Divisions, Committees, external representations and, moreover, the administration team at the CGS National Office – Executive Director Michel Aubertin, Director of Administration and Finance, Wayne Gibson, and Director Communications and Member Services Lisa McJunkin – are always ready to serve our membership with enthusiasm.
We are planning to undertake a number of major initiatives in the coming months and, as a member, you can certainly play a role in this effort. Member engagement and involvement is one of the areas that I will be working on with the CGS team over the next two years. We will be connecting with you further, not only to obtain your feedback but also to find ways to add our Society’s action items to your “things-to-do list”!
It is truly exciting to look forward to the year ahead knowing that the Society will be registering another milestone celebrating our 70th Annual Conference in Ottawa www.geoottawa2017.ca and coinciding with Canada’s 150th anniversary.
I look forward to working together with you over the next two years in my role as CGS President. Thank you for your support.