July 15, 2021 | Annual General Meeting - IPAC Victoria
IPAC Victoria Chair’s Report 2020
|
What a year! In 2020 IPAC Victoria incorporated under the Societies Act after lapsing several years before. Unfortunately, this was in March of 2020 and COVID-19 impacted our plans going forward. As a result of COVID 19 and other fiscal pressures, the board worked through an executive budget and aligned spending with the current fiscal climate, cutting costs where possible to maintain long term financial solvency.
When COVID-19 sent everyone home and necessitated canceling events, IPAC National stepped in to fill the gaps and delivered a number of high quality and well attended webinars that were available to IPAC members and those interested. This allowed IPAC Victoria to regroup and focus on the fundamentals. We had been planning a follow up to our successful event on digging deeper on Climate Change that we cohosted with the School of Public Administration at UVic, but those plans have been deferred. In addition to discussion on Climate Change, IPAC Victoria hosted the annual Policy Pitch and in partnership with IPAC Vancouver hosted the LG Award as well as an event with Genome BC. All events we well attended and speak to the good reputation and strong base of support for IPAC Victoria and the IPAC brand. IPAC Victoria has not been idle! As Chair, I have been very active in combined strategic planning with IPAC National and the other regional IPAC groups, IPAC Vancouver, and the First Nations Public Service Secretariat. This is a very exciting time for IPAC as an organization and a community of regional chapters. David Fulford, the new IPAC National CEO has brought forward an ambitious renewal plan for the organization and is strongly supported by the Executive Board and the Regional Group Council. Stay tuned in 2021 for some changes to branding and the look and feel of IPAC National communications. The board is excited to welcome new members at the AGM in July, and much of the momentum that we currently have is thanks to some dedicated volunteers who are currently supporting our board; Venus, Amy, and Layla. It is a privilege to lead such a dedicated board and I want to thank Clint our Secretary, Sarah our Director of Finance, Kira our Director of Membership, and Evert member at large for their dedication and excellent work this year. I also want to thank the board members who have stepped down this year; Gozde our former Director of Communications and Pop our former Director of the New Professionals group. Your efforts were critical in the hard behind the scenes work we did as a board. I often say that this is the best board that I have ever been on, and it’s true! Looking ahead to 2021/22, I am excited by the events and partnerships that we are building. We continue to co-deliver events with IPAC Vancouver, including an upcoming event The Evolving Public Sector: Discovering Talent and Forming Purpose. In partnership with the UVic School of Public Administration we are planning an event and follow up engagements on the exciting new book Indigenomics. We value our connections with the other regional IPAC groups and look forward to continuing to support alignment and emerging opportunities at the National level. In particular, the board is exploring opportunities to bring forward the excellent work that the IPAC Journal does and continue to strengthen our ties with the academy. One of my top priorities is to make IPAC Victoria more relevant for Indigenous public servants and leaders. We currently do not have Indigenous representation on our board, which is a gap that I will focus on addressing in 2021. We are also seeking to strengthen ties with the private sector in Victoria as many private sector employees are de facto public servants and equally dedicated to serving the public interest. After the events of 2020, excellence in public administration seems more vital than ever. IPAC Victoria seeks to convene conversations that will advance our discipline and create community and networking opportunities here in Victoria to support the leaders of today and the leaders of tomorrow. 
| |||
We are dedicated to promoting excellence in public administration.