 
About Us > President & Dean's Message
1. Welcome
I extend a warm welcome to the members who are attending this meeting. There are a number of initiatives the National Board has taken on over the past year, which I will discuss with you now.
2. Introduction of the Board
3. National Director Criteria
The role of the National Director is to represent the National Board to their Chapter. They are the communication conduit from National to the Chapter for education, membership and marketing programs and decisions impacting the CIC as a whole.
Each National Director representing a specific chapter is elected by the chapter executive and has voting rights on the National Board. A National Director is elected to the National Board for six consecutive one year terms.
We also have National Directors who do not represent a specific chapter but are on the National Board because they chair a strategic committee or project for the CIC. These directors do not have voting rights, however, their contributions are vital to the on-going progress of the CIC.
4. Governance & By-Laws
From the feed back and instructions we received from the membership at the 2009 AGM in Winnipeg, the By-laws committee has worked very hard to update and standardize our by-laws and terms of reference. Co-chaired by Bill Schmidt CCP (Emeritus) and Joseph Di Giacomo CCP (Emeritus) and with a committee consisting of Rodger Noel ACI and Reggie Delovitch GM, the following has been accomplished:
- Guidelines have been developed to standardize the job descriptions of all chapter executive positions. Our goal is to provide chapters with common operating processes that assist them in their operations throughout the year.
- Guidelines have been developed to standardize updates/changes to by-laws at both the national and chapter levels
- Several national by-laws have been reviewed in order to:
- Test their continued validity for the CIC
- Update and re-draft as required
- Introduce new by-laws that have direct benefit to the operations of the CIC
The updates and changes will be introduced fully at the national AGM in Ottawa, 2011 where we will ask our membership to vote on and ratify the changes.
5. Audit Committee
Further to the 2009 AGM in Winnipeg, the audit recommendations which were developed to avoid the possibility of fraud, have been implemented. Successful audits have been performed on chapters throughout the past year and we can advise you that the chapters are also complying to the audit processes.
6. Membership
In October 2009, we undertook a review of the Professional Development Program. Led by Jim Jordan CCP and Nawshad Khadaroo CCP, we asked our members to comment on all the different aspects of the PDP and its administration. Recently you will have received an open letter from Jim Jordan CCP, our Membership Chair, informing you of our findings and recommendations. The majority of our members indicate to us that the PDP is a valuable program that encourages our members to keep up with their professional development ensuring the credit profession remains strong. From your feedback, we will be updating the program and announcing the new point system to you.
The Membership Committee is also working on our membership strategies. This includes working with the Membership Committees at the Chapters to discuss new ideas and best practices as well as developing new types of membership going forward.
7. Education
The Education Committee has been working on several projects to expand and improve the course and seminar offerings to our students. Our courses are now on the calendars of twelve universities and colleges and we continue to develop relationships with other schools to include the CIC as part of their curriculum.
We have sold 27 of our short modules internationally and are working with the Ontario Construction Industry offering our Construction Credit Risk module to them for their members.
An understanding has been reached with Centennial College in Toronto in which we will offer one day collection workshops to students this fall – we will be formalizing the agreement and finalizing the content of the program this summer.
8. Marketing
The Marketing Committee has been working closely with the Chapter Marketing Committees to develop best practices in Marketing the CIC. A free seminar was conducted in May providing a frame work and guidelines for the Marketing Committees to use when they are developing programs.
Our biggest challenge is how we can increase the presence of the CIC to the business world. The Marketing Committee is looking at developing target marketing programs aimed at specific sectors and industries to build awareness and new membership.
Web site – Our web site is our key marketing tool. As you have already heard from Reggie, we are making great strides in promoting the CIC through the web site and via links from other web sites. We are gathering the expertise of senior credit people to develop "How-to" sections on the web site. Examples may include – How to sue in small claims court, Repossession processes under the Bankruptcy Act, etc. Our goal is to provide a "one stop shop" website that addresses the needs of credit people and business owners.
As Reggie has stated in the General Manager’s report, we developed the CC Index to assist business by providing industry information to measure progress by. To date, we have received credit measurement information from a select number of businesses and industries. Unfortunately, the response to the CC Index has not been as broad as we had hoped and the numbers are not as encompassing as we had expected. Please go into the website if you have not already done so and enter your numbers into the CC Index. The information you provide is essential and the feedback in terms of industry trends will help you measure the success of your credit processes against the industry averages.
9. Closing
With the longer range impacts of the 2009 recession, corporate funding for memberships and sponsorships has been difficult to obtain. Despite this however, your National Board has made significant progress in our efforts for our members and I am very pleased with our achievements to date.
Everyone sitting on the National and Chapter boards are volunteers. They have taken on the tasks of providing and improving the programs offered to the CIC membership and I recognize their efforts and thank them for continuing to develop the professionalism of the credit role in business.
I also recognize the roles and work completed by the personnel in our National Office. Reggie’s team has made working on this board that much easier through the administration, operations and tremendous organization they have done for us.
This is our profession and we control how we are seen in the business community. If you have not volunteered your time to help your chapter, I urge you to do so. The relationships you develop with your credit peers and the programs you assist in implementing on behalf of the profession are incredibly rewarding. You will not regret your decision.
Peter Finlay, CCP |
