From Our Vantage Point

Vantage Point’s own Engagement Manager, Dana Osiowy, joins me to share her tips in designing high impact volunteer engagements for, who we call, knowledge philanthropists. Dana remembers her first time learning about the concept of knowledge philanthropy, during her time as ED of Big Brothers, Big Sisters in Cranbrook, as a “game changer”. Find out why! Presented by Humanity Financial Management F...

Mark Friesen, experienced not-for-profit strategic planner and Consulting Manager with Vantage Point, walks us through key practices to impactfully engage stakeholders during strategic planning. Mark explains the value of surveys, interviews, and focus groups while sharing different tactical approaches, including having board members participate in stakeholder outreach. Presented by Humanity Finan...

In this month’s podcast, find out how single malt Scotch can teach us a thing or two about designing successful employee engagement surveys. Maureen Simons, Principal with Verita HR Services, brings to the topic over 30 years’ professional HR experience and specific knowledge designing and administering employee engagement surveys, from the very customized to “off-the-shelf” solutions. She shares...

Brad Beattie, founder of POP The People Agency, invites us to imagine achieving all of our aspirational community goals without “mission fatigue” through innovative workforce models that enable teams to thrive as people and project leaders. Brad’s expertise in bringing ALL the available talent together to make change happen is built on previous experience as Greater Vancouver Regional Director, Ca...

This month we consider ways to deepen our learning from formal professional development through social connections. Gayle Farrell, our guest, is the President of Siena Consulting, providing multi-stakeholder facilitation, strategic and operational planning, and cross-sectoral partnership development. Gayle describes the unique benefits of “social learning” in the workplace and encourages us to int...

Juliana Laing, one of our local governance experts, brings the Board Chair and ED Partnership to life in this month’s podcast. She emphasizes the importance of treating this partnership like many other key relationships in life, beginning with a strong foundation of trust with a willingness to tackle tough issues in a timely and open way. Juliana shares, in closing, that the best Board Chair – ED...

With the drive towards increasing transparency in the governance realm, the use of in-camera board meetings is a hot topic. Shawn Mitchell, expert in not-for-profit governance and leadership, joins me to share his thoughts on how to employ in-camera board meetings to strengthen organizational governance. Shawn is the Executive Director for the Vancouver Botanical Gardens Association, and a three-t...

In this month’s podcast we consider the topic: Making the “To-Get-Done” List: Operational Plans That Work with Catarina Moreno, Program Director at QMUNITY - B.C.'s Queer Resource Centre. After a few years of observing a disconnect between strategic plans and work plans, Catarina led QMUNITY's operational planning process that translated the organization's strategic plan into one succinct operatio...

We are often asked by boards that we work with: do we really need Director and Officers (D&O) Liability Insurance? We’ve finally had a chance to go to the experts on this one for this one: Director and Officers Liability Insurance: A Necessary Cost? Kawkab Jamal, agency owner of The Co-operators office at 5564 Cambie Street, Vancouver, leads us through the key benefits of D&O insurance, th...

For our virtual interview, Kelly Allder, Vice President for Human Resource Programs at Ceridian, joins me to share her HR expertise on the topic: Show Me the Money! Getting Clarity on Compensation. Kelly is familiar with the not-for-profit context through her role as Executive Director of Ceridian Cares, Ceridian’s philanthropic foundation (www.ceridiancares.ca). Kelly emphasises the importance of...

As we launch our Year of Abundance, I invited Stacy Ashton, Executive Director of Community Volunteer Connections, to explore the topic: Abundance in the Not-for-Profit Sector: A Powerful Paradox. Together we explore what “abundance” looks like in the context of the not-for-profit sector – and what it makes possible to nurture a culture of abundance over scarcity. Stacy shares how she brings abund...

This month’s podcast guest, Kathi Irvine, gets out her dance shoes to walk us through the steps of Mastering the Governance Foxtrot: Effective Board/ED Relations. Kathi is a long-time knowledge philanthropist here at Vantage Point and a skilled consultant and facilitator. She is Co-Founding Partner of Watershed Organizational Development Group Inc., where she supports for-profit and not-for-profit...

Gordon Holley, CEO of Humanity Financial Management, joins me this month to contribute to Imagine Canada’s national efforts to put the “overhead myth” to rest. Gordon highlights recent studies that indicate strong investment in overhead will drive greater positive change in our communities. These studies directly contradict the perspective that many funders and donors continue to have that organiz...

Carol Neuman, Vantage Point’s Director of Learning, shares her insights on the topic: Board Committee Structure: Going Lean. From Carol’s vantage point, “going lean” on committees means paring back to the key essentials and taking intentional care to regularly review terms of reference, while reserving task forces for project specific work, as needed. From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Hu...

This month we finally get to the topic that inspired the idea for this podcast: What's the deal with Robert's Rules of Order? I’ve personally worked with not-for-profit boards for over a decade and I’ve never opened the 700+ page Robert’s Rules of Order. I’ve dismissed the whole idea as being overly complex and simply too overwhelming for the typical board member to digest and, ultimately, a deter...

Maria is in highly skilled company for this podcast, focused on best practices in volunteer engagement in a unionized workforce. Jill Wurflinger has built her knowledge in volunteer engagement through her current role as National Director of Volunteer Engagement at the Canadian Diabetes Association, as well as past roles as Manager, Volunteer Engagement, BC-Yukon Division of the Canadian Cancer So...

Chilwin Cheng, Managing Partner of Ascendion Law, invites board chairs and executive directors to consider how they can nurture a culture that supports every board member to show up to board meetings – in body and in mind (i.e., having prepared for the meeting and ready to engage in conversations that govern!). From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered...

In the fifth episode of From Our Vantage Point, Michael McKnight, President & CEO of United Way of the Lower Mainland, joins Maria to talk metrics: ones that speak to mission impact. From Michael’s vantage point, it’s tough to determine the metrics that truly reveal mission impact and he acknowledges the imperative in figuring it out. When we are successful, the governance conversations at our...

In this month’s podcast, Carol Dixon, Director, Mission Services & Volunteer Resources at Providence Health Care, joins Vantage Point to share tips and perspective on the topic: Volunteer Recognition: Just say No to Years of Service Awards. Drawing on over 35 years in volunteer engagement (and a healthy sense-of-humour!), Carol provides us with a number of examples of high-impact volunteer rec...

Consent agenda are a potentially powerful tool to carve our space and energy for board members to have the most engaging and relevant conversations, allowing the board to spend more time governing, rather than managing, the organization. From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial Management, a Chartered Accounting firm dedicated to helping Canadian not-for-profit, charitable an...

Join guest speaker, Gordon Holley, President & CEO with Humanity Financial Management, to dive into the topic - Walking the Tight-rope: Employees vs. Independent Contractors. Gordon provides insights on the perceived benefit to individuals and organizations to engage in a contractor relationship, rather than as employer-employee. From our Vantage Point is brought to you by Humanity Financial M...

Join guest speaker, Michael Blatchford, lawyer with Bull Housser, to dive into the topic: Board Term Limits: Friend or Foe? When I approached Michael about the possibility of bringing his expertise to this podcast, and provided him with a list of potential topics, Michael looked at today’s topic, Term Limits: Friend or Foe, and said…I’ve got a lot to say about that one! From our Vantage Point is b...