In his most recent letter to members, Association CEO Anthony Pizzino looks ahead to what the future holds.
At the end of June, at the Hilton Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Que., a successful and productive annual meeting of members took place, and it gave me and my colleagues at national headquarters some new action items.
There was a lot of support from delegates for the Association to increase our visibility and influence. Part of that will be achieved by developing and implementing a digital communication and marketing plan, including revamping our website as a critical communications vehicle. That work is now underway and I look forward to its completion and to sharing it with our members.
Something that‘s become repeatedly evident to me in the two years that I have been with Federal Retirees is that we have a tremendous association, and this was once again made clear in the 60th anniversary travel contest we ran. I‘ve been heartened by the success of the contest. As of the end of July, it had generated 2,000 prospective member leads, many of whom decided to join the Association. I encourage all members to keep up that momentum with the 2023 Mega Recruitment Drive launching on Sept. 1. The more members we have, the more our voices will resonate with policy-makers on Parliament Hill and beyond.
After all, our members are what make the Association great. We are brought together by each of your talents, interests and experiences, and I have no doubt you‘re also involved in building and fostering your own communities.
Take our cover story in this issue of Sage: As a spousal member of the Association, Renate Sutherland is an advocacy policy officer in British Columbia. But that‘s not all she is. As a lifelong professional social services advocate, she now works hard as a boarder for service dogs. The service dog charitable movement touches some of our Canadian Armed Forces and RCMP members who can really benefit from the love and devotion of a service dog to help them stay well.
In our fall issue, we always like to salute Veterans‘ Week and this story — which details the work of service dog organizations across the country and tells the story of two men who are directly benefitting from these dogs — highlights some of the challenges our veterans experience.
On the ageism file, Sage talked to members about the greetings they receive and the words they hear to describe older people when they‘re in public, going about their business. There‘s definitely ageism at play in a lot of society, but it occurs to me that it works both ways. Obviously, there is a bias against older people, and systemic ageism is often built into ads, comedy routines, movies and TV. As we work to change that, I realized that the ageism bias goes both ways when someone recently made a disparaging comment about younger people. It‘s just something to be mindful of as well, and ageism as a whole will continue to be on our agendas.
I wish you a safe and productive autumn. And for the many veterans among our members, I hope you have a meaningful Veterans Week in November. Lest we forget.