President's Message

Gael Blackhall, President, SLA Western Canada Chapter

An honour and a pleasure. That's how I sum up my experiences in meeting and collaborating with the 20 people who hold positions in the Western Canada Chapter of SLA. In my final Wired West column I would like to pay tribute to the outstanding individuals who make up the Chapter executive, directors and portfolio chairpersons.

In warm appreciation to....

Since I am writing this for publication in Wired West I'll start with Susannah Tredwell, an inventive organizer and conscientious editor. (Besides, she gives perfectly timed, diplomatic reminders to recalcitrant writers such as yours truly.)

Patricia Cia, for sharing her deep understanding of the practices of both SLA and the Chapter matched by a passion for association networking.

Claudette Cloutier, for her desire to accomplish and her association smarts while she dandles a bouncing baby boy on her lap.

Christina Zeller, for her sincere affection for technology and delight in experimenting with ways "to get the word out".

Darren Hamilton, for his precise and thoughtful approach to paying bills, planning budgets and extracting needed management information.

Diane Walker, for scintillating effectiveness in coordinating board meetings, votes and documents.

Shu Huang, for her dedication in bringing SLA professional development resources to her region and speaking with clarity to represent member needs.

Debbie Hunter, for the adventurous spirit she shows hosting events and her constancy in participating at the board level.

Lorraine Bedet, for creative brainstorming with her program team and being open to the Chapter President's off-the-wall ideas.

Carol Shepstone, for always insightful comments married to the common sense of running successful Chapter events.

Carol Saxon, for gymnastic flexibility in assessing situations and a willingness to juggle a lot of responsibilities with a positive attitude.

Susanne Barker, for stalwart devotion to bringing virtual seminars to the Island and inspiring patience in editing numerous Bylaws sections.

Amber Lannon, for supportively counseling Chapter members looking for employment and for being steadfast in sleuthing and posting employment opportunities on the discussion list.

Maria Swarbrick, for fearlessly tackling, systematizing and inventing new processes to effectively implement the virtual seminars and v-pack products to benefit Chapter members.

Marissa Poratto-Cleghorn, for her ability to mobilize a chapter-wide survey and then powerthink the results into service improvements for members.

Tracey Carmichael, for wisely and enthusiastically finessing action steps to benefit our student SLA Chapter colleagues.

Debbie Millward, for nimbly coordinating, clarifying and leading our Bylaws Committee through a circuitous journey on the road to effective governing documents.

Kim Nayyer, for expertly engineering the transition to the new discussion list and managing it so capably that it was seamless to our members.

Debbie Schachter, for revitalizing a dormant portfolio with results-oriented flair and strategic action.

Joleen Wright, for an openness to dream new ideas and creatively examine the ways to implement them.

Cheri Rauser, for astute observations communicated to Chapter leaders in order to nudge us subtly in the right digital direction.

You all have my undying admiration. Thank you for a great year of progress.

Gael Blackhall
President, SLA Western Canada Chapter