From the CRA to Federal Retirees, Bruce Challis has always volunteered.
Even when Bruce Challis was on the job at the Canada Revenue Agency, he was volunteering.
Such is the life of a man who completed a 41-year career, with 25 of them in the public service, and has hardly slowed down since retirement in 2014. Much of what has kept him busy has been his work with Federal Retirees.
The chartered accountant joined the federal public service as a G1 auditor and then worked his way up to computer auditor, maybe thanks to a student work term with IBM, and then he became the team leader of that group and headed up its office services.
“At one time, I had 30 people reporting to me,” he says. Eventually, he became the electronic commerce team leader.
While he was managing those staff members, he also volunteered on a number of committees and initiated communications channels to improve things in the workplace. With two co-workers, he organized team leader forums for all sections of the department. He also sat on the employee equity committee and was a member of the fire safety team.
On retirement, he joined Federal Retirees and became a volunteer after helping a former co-worker with his branch duties.
“I helped him and then he brought me to an executive meeting in September,” Challis remembers. “He said, ‘This is Bruce, he knows how to do these things. I’m done.’ So, I was 'voluntold' for that position and became director of projects for the London branch.”
Challis also volunteered to help a long-time treasurer when the association adopted customer relationship management (CRM) software.
“Our treasurer wasn’t familiar with computers,” he says. “I walked him through it and made him comfortable, but he passed [away] not too long after that so I did the treasury until we got someone else. Then I taught that person.”
Today, he is the branch services co-ordinator (BSC) for Western Ontario. Six branches — Niagara, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Bluewater and Windsor — work with him. That job means attending the annual members’ meeting, doing branch office visits and co-ordinating the electronics so people can register for district meetings.
“It’s interesting how I stepped into the BSC role,” Challis says. “The London branch organized an offsite meeting and the district director came to the meeting. He mentioned he was looking for a BSC for the Western Ontario region and I asked what [it entailed] and said I was willing to give it a try. I was interviewed for the position and because the association was going heavily into computers at the time, they thought my background would really tie in.” That was seven years ago and he’s been in the role ever since. He also continues to volunteer for the London branch.
The association isn’t his only volunteering. He does the computer work for the Optimist Club of Arva, Ont., and has served as president. He is also Santa Claus for the annual food and toy drive and he volunteers with his church.
Asked why he’s compelled to volunteer, he says: “I guess I’ve always done that.” He confessed he doesn’t have a lot of time to himself and he usually fills it by helping friends, “fixing cars, tearing down barns, fixing houses. I like to keep busy.”
Challis is a married father of three. His wife, Betty, has also volunteered for several organization over their years together.