2020 WSCRCA AGM Year In Review
Thank you to everyone that was able to attend our 2020 WSCRCA AGM.
We all find ourselves dealing with challenging and unprecedented times for our community and the communities around us. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected many of our community members, businesses, public services, and has made a significant change to the lives of everyone around us.
Amidst all of this, I would like to recognize our board and volunteers who are working hard to find ways to give back and support our local community. As a board, we have adapted our meetings by meeting over video conferencing and have continued to stay in touch with our community through newsletters, emails and social media. We closely monitor government updates on the situation and work to stay as informed as possible to plan for what we can offer the community once the pandemic subsides. We’ve also been working with business sponsors in our community to find more ways to support them during this pandemic. We have also put together a subcommittee to provide a one time donation to several groups in the community who support those most affected by this pandemic.
Over the past year we have also introduced many changes in some of the ways in which we work:
- We are leveraging more online productivity tools such as Google Drive and Cisco WebEx video conferencing
- We have transitioned to using Signup.com to make it easier for volunteers to sign up for opportunities
- We have transitioned to a new membership and event registration system using Member365, making it easier for members to register for events and access their membership profiles
- We have also introduced a new accounting program which provides us with deeper insights into our financial position on an event by event basis
Other updates and improvements include:
- Website layout changes to help members with better navigation of our website
- There has been lots of new content introduced to the newsletter, including profile write-ups on our volunteers, and bringing in student writers
- We are looking at more ways to help local businesses in our community increase business by advertising to the local community
- We also continue to be actively involved in a number of planning and development activities throughout our community with our tremendous planning and development committee
- We are also looking at improving our event offerings like soccer, as well as introduced 3 new events last year which have been extremely well received, including the Dog Pawty event, Summer Power Skating and Meet Santa in the Garden event
Please see the below infographic which attemps to highlight the tremendous work that our volunteers have contributed to this year:
As we continue to plan for next year (bringing back the Soccer program, Charity Stampede Breakfast, Recycling Event and many more), our tremendous Community Garden Committee is also focused on this year with running the Community Garden and putting in provisions to follow the COVID-19 guidelines.
It’s a lot of great work by many talented volunteers who, together, help make this a strong community which is focused on serving and supporting each other. For a list of our Board volunteers, please visit our website at www.wscr.ca.
Thank you and I encourage everyone to stay healthy and be diligent in practicing social distancing as you take care of yourselves, your families and help to support the vulnerable in our community.
Best Regards,
Paul Ghazar
President, West Springs/Cougar Ridge Community Association
Building a Strong Community
