I’m writing from Hong Kong where the World Council of YMCAs met last week and where the YMCA World Urban Network is now underway. We’ve made the transition from a 1,100-person conversation about global citizenship to a much smaller one on the health of children and youth with chief executives of large urban Associations. In between [...]
Thursday, July 22, 2010
I grew up in southern Alberta in the ’50s where I learned that a brand distinguishes one herd of cattle from another. All ranches took great pride in their unique markings. Each mark sent a clear message to potential consumers about quality and value. Today, I live in Vancouver where branding still means this and a whole lot more. [...]
Monday, July 12, 2010
Our American YMCA colleagues made a big decision yesterday at their 2010 General Assembly in Utah. After an intensive two-year process, they decided to pursue a new brand strategy. It includes simplifying their story, calling themselves the “Y”, and changing their logo. The strategy also has implications for how they are governed and structured. The New York [...]
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The weeks since the 2010 Annual General Meeting have flown by. Propelled by a strong and clear mandate from the National Council of YMCAs, we’ve been working on: supporting the search for a new President & Chief Executive Officer for the YMCA of Greater Vancouver recruiting a Senior Vice President for Shared Services developing RFPs for consultant support [...]
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The letter to the YMCA of Greater Vancouver’s Board of Governors was explicit. All monies received are to be invested, together with the accumulated interest, and left to grow until such time as there are sufficient funds available to build a Downtown YMCA large enough to meet the needs of the City at the time [...]
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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 [...]
Friday, April 9, 2010
With this question, the YMCA of Greater Vancouver has launched a powerful conversation about community and why it matters. You’ll want to read the article in today’s Globe and Mail that tells the story of this exciting multi-media campaign, and to check out the website that is already engaging people from around the world. But [...]
Friday, March 19, 2010
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 [...]
Monday, January 11, 2010
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 [...]
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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