January 2010

We came together last weekend from various places across Canada and the United States to meet and discuss the various issues facing World Accord. It was my first board meeting as the executive director and I have to admit that I have gained new insight into the role these women and men play and the dedication they have to the cause of World Accord. 

From left to right is: Doug MacArthur from Lethbridge, Alberta; myself, Rosilyn Coulson from New Westminster, BC; Steve Capling - our board President - from Williams Lake, BC; and Lew Shepherdson - board Treasurer - from Ottawa, ON.  Seated are Carley Cole from Olds, AB, on the left with Mary Jacks-Dynes from Independence, Missouri. 

Missing are Diana Hill  - soon to be off the board and into the sailing adventure of a lifetime - and Tiona Taylor of Woodbridge, Ontario. Sadly, Tiona wasn't feeling well on the weekend and was unable to attend. 

I had been involved to some degree with the people on the board and have done my financial presentations at board meetings since starting with World Accord but this was the first time I got to see the inner workings of the board.  Riveting.  Well as you may expect that is not entirely true but there is more to board meetings than mere governance of the charity. 

We did our share of discussing the challenges faced by World Accord and our partners in the past year but perhaps more importantly we talked about a vision for where World Accord will be in the future.  There was a lot of brainstorming and sharing of ideas and concepts that might be used to help propel World Accord into that future place where we can work to help even more people than ever before.  I know I was inspired by the way the board was there to enable me and empower me to lead World Accord into the next phase of our organizational evolution. 

In short I would like to thank these board members and all World Accord "board-members-past" for their dedication to the cause; laying the foundations that got us here and helping pave the way into tomorrow.  If you run across one of these people, feel free to thank them for the role they play in keeping World Accord a vital and relevant organization. 

Peace and Blessings

David Barth,  Executive Director

PS  On another note, we were visited by Betsy Wall, Executive Director of FIDA, who talked to us at length about her understanding and involvement in Haiti.  That is the only country they work in and have a long history of successful projects and some lessons learned from less successful ones.  Thank you Betsy. We learned a lot and of course developed still more questions we will be investigating in the future.