Federation Champions: Supporting each other

As we were getting ready for February’s Social Policy Forum in Victoria, we came up with a simple new idea that we thought might help keep our provincial events affordable and accessible for our small- and medium-sized members. The Federation is constantly striving to support our members, but we wanted to test out a simple, new way that members could support each other.

Our plan was to ask larger member organizations for a contribution toward our conference costs so that a greater number of our smaller and more remote members could participate. We decided to call these supporting organizations ‘Federation Champions’ and we agreed to keep asking until we had 10 organizations signed up.

It only took 10 calls.

To be honest, we questioned whether there would be interest or appetite for this idea. But those questions were answered and we received an inspiring and powerful example of what Altogether better truly means. In fact, the response to this pilot project was so positive that we are already preparing to replicate it in advance of our June meeting in Penticton.

So if your organization wants to take part and would like to be one of the 10 Federation Champions supporting the June conference—or if you simply want more information—please contact me. If it would help, your Federation Champion donations can be made in this fiscal year, with the funds carried forward to the June conference. (There will also be another opportunity in advance of the October conference.)

We are very excited about the potential of this new initiative and would love to hear from even more members who want to get involved and offer their support.

Rick FitzZaland
Federation Executive Director