Our 2010 Annual General Meeting

In less than a week, the National Council of YMCAs will be in session.  This annual general meeting of representatives from 53 Associations is always a time to reconnect, renew friendships and make new ones, and conduct the business of our federation.  This year, it will be this and more. A record number of delegates [...]

The Facts are In. Now What?

We woke up this morning to more bad news about the health of Canada’s children and youth.  Every major paper across the country carried one message:  88% of school-aged kids are failing to meet the recommended minimum of 90 minutes of physical activity each day.  The problem begins with pre-schoolers, we’re told.  The headline in [...]

The View from the Road

I’ve been on the road for much of the past two weeks — Tijuana for a Prairies MRC-Mexico partnership meeting, Victoria for YMCA Canada’s Board of Directors meeting, Montréal for an MRC CEOs meeting before heading home to Toronto for an Ontario MRC meeting.  In these gatherings, I had the chance to see the change [...]

The YMCA for Canada

              YMCA Chief Executive Officers took a bold step in the direction of a shared vision on Monday.  We endorsed the case for change which calls on YMCA volunteer and staff leaders to strengthen our federation for greater social impact.  We began to discuss implications of the case for how we work within our respective [...]

Just Too Young to be Old

My thanks to those who commented on my first post by e-mail and on this blog.  I appreciate your encouragement, observations and ideas.  You’ve given all of us a lot to think about.  Your responses and our inaugural poll results confirm that many of us want to connect and are ready to try new tools. Another opportunity [...]