Hello!
Welcome back after a beautiful summer across the province. I hope everyone had some time off and used it well to reconnect with family and friends and to rejuvenate before returning to work. At TRO, we are busy continuing to work for you – our members – to keep TR at the forefront.
For those who missed our AGM this year in Niagara Falls, I would like to once again share with you our new vision and mission for our organization.
“Therapeutic Recreation for All” is our updated vision and, of course, inherent in that vision is uniting and advancing the Therapeutic Recreation profession, and more. The board realized that if we want a big, bold future for the profession, we need to move beyond talking to just the profession, that we need to be talking and influencing other stakeholders such as employers, government, allied professions, as well as directly to clients and patients of our services and their families.
To accomplish our vision, we were compelled to redefine our mission statement to a statement that clarified our purpose and focused our energy; one that is concise, informative, compelling, rolls off the tongue and is memorable. It is: “Leading the TR profession through growth, advocacy and innovation.” Our mission will drive our focus on four new pillars: technology, engagement, advocacy and sustainable growth.
Our committees are in the process of updating their work plans to align with our new vision and mission and are moving forward with their work. I would like to highlight a few projects that are on the go:
- Governance & Nominations continue to review and update TRO’s By-laws. Given the changing external environment, it was time for the by-laws to be reviewed with a critical eye to ensure they aligned with the present practice of the Board of Directors and vision of TRO. We plan to meet with our lawyer this fall with our proposed updates so she can start rewriting our by-laws. We hope to present the new by-laws to you at next year’s AGM.
- We have received the report from the Registration Designation Review Project Team and presented it to the membership at the conference in Niagara Falls this year. We have now formed a steering committee that has reviewed all 21 recommendations and made a work plan to look at them and make some decisions around changes to the Registration Designation. The first working group formed is looking at recommendation #2 and will discuss the pros and cons of either having two designations (R/TRO and R/TRO DIP) or moving to one designation. Their recommendation will be brought to the board through the steering committee and then we will bring the decision to the membership.
- Education has always been a high priority for us and we continue to work on education opportunities for our membership this year. We are pleased to announce that this year’s annual conference will be held at Nottawasaga Inn Resort and Conference Centre in Alliston, Ontario. We have restructured the organizing committee this year to include more involvement from the board to better support the host committee. We look forward to an exciting conference at this beautiful resort. Mark your calendars for a new date this year later in June – June 24, 25 and 26, 2020!
- The Education Committee is also working on one-day education events for the coming year. Please watch your emails for dates and places!
All in all, it will be another exciting and busy year for TRO. As always, we look forward to your feedback and participation. Please feel free to contact me at any time at president@trontario.org.
Sincerely,
Sue Verrilli, R/TRO
President