EPAC 2013 Year-in-Review

One of the benefits of EPAC membership is the ability to share information and learn from other ethics practitioners across the country.  This year continued to see tried and true EPAC efforts, but we have added some new initiatives.

We launched a LinkedIn Group in January. It has grown, and several recent topics have led to lively, very interesting exchanges. I urge you to join the group; you may follow and add to ongoing conversations, and you may start your own and see what others have to say in return.

We continued our workshop series in Ottawa and had two great sessions: “Tone at the Top: Essential Principles and Practices of Ethics Leadership”, a three-speaker panel in May; and “Giving Voice to Values” with Dr. Mary Gentile in October.  (The website contains documents and information about these events.)

EPAC lent support to a joint event at Ryerson U in Toronto: Jane Garthson’s October 30 talk on “Board Decision-Making in Small Organizations”.

We now have an agreement with Globethics.net and CBERN (the Canadian Business Ethics Research Network) to put EPAC documents into this worldwide ethics library.

At our AGM in May, we welcomed four new Directors, and we expressed special thanks to departing Director (and past-president) Jane Garthson, one of the founding EPAC members who had returned to the Board to help re-energize the organization.

Since late summer, Directors have had telephone conversations with more than 60 current and former members. This time-consuming but rewarding effort has helped your Board to understand the membership better. We heard of your interests and priorities for EPAC. And we were especially pleased with offers of help to carry out existing and new initiatives.  We definitely need more than the Directors’ volunteer hours to have a worthwhile organization for all of us.

For example, a new initiative in December – suggested by quite a few members – is the launch of a working group to update the website. We have identified the Director who will lead this process, and three members offered to assist in various ways, but we need more of you to help, so please let us know how you can contribute to this working group to build a better website.

We will provide more feedback from these conversations in the near future: a summary of the findings for everyone, and individual contacts with members who have volunteered to get engaged in some manner.

One important finding from many of you is that it is important to have an organization like EPAC and you want to be part of it for that sole reason.  We are convinced of the need for EPAC to exist and to become more vigorous. Canada needs EPAC.

Robert Czerny, chair, EPAC Board of Directors