The Volunteer Recognition Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2021 individual and branch volunteer awards. The recipients will be announced in the fall edition of Sage magazine, recognized at the virtual annual meeting of members (AMM) in June of this year. Given the pandemic, we will be honouring our recipients at the next in-person AMM.
Individual awards
The Claude Edwards Leadership Award
Shirley Pierce – Advocacy program officer, Charlottetown Branch
Shirly joined the Association in 2010 and has been a volunteer with the Association for many years, holding several positions over time. Shirley sat as chair of the national advocacy committee for two years and is currently the PEI advocacy program officer. She also represents Federal Retirees on the PEI Seniors Secretariat, giving policy and guidance to government. Within the Seniors Secretariat, she also sits on committees to give assessments on Senior Islanders of the Year, and assessments for providing grants to organizations dealing with seniors.
Shirley provides incredible leadership to both branches in PEI, providing guidance and support in coordinating their advocacy activities.
In 2020, Shirley continued her efforts organizing meetings with key MPs as part of the Association’s Reach 338 program. She also represented the Association at various events, including a women veterans forum hosted by VAC in Charlottetown and she helped organize a large-scale event – the first townhall held in Canada – on retirement income and health, hosted by the Charlottetown Branch with input from the national office. This town hall had representatives from the federal, provincial and municipal levels. Shirley also helped organize another large town hall event on the health accord, as well as provided guidance on scaling down the large national advocacy strategy document to synthesize the information in a more concise format to share amongst the advocacy program officers across the country.
The collaboration award
Jacynthe Trudel – Membership director, Mauricie Branch
Jacynthe became a member in 2014 and has been a volunteer with the Association since then. Currently, she is the membership director with her branch. Among her several duties, she is responsible for coordinating the information sessions for future retirees aged 50 years and over. Jacynthe hosts the sessions, and provides information on the Association and its mandate, to encourage participants to join.
In reviewing the membership list generated by CRM, Jacynthe noted several members who had not renewed their membership and worked collaboratively with Alex Charette from the national office to gather information and develop an approach to follow up with lapsed members. As a result, several members renewed their membership and many changed their membership payment method to the dues deducted at source (DDS) payment method.
In addition, Jacynthe did a similar project concerning the email addresses blocked in CRM following the non delivery of emails via ClickDimensions. Her work brought to light that one of the problems was with the distributor, Cogeco Cable, which was identifying the mailings made via ClickDimensions as spam. On discovery that this situation was widespread throughout the Quebec branches, Jacynthe immediately notified the national office staff who are now working with the distributor to correct the situation.
The volunteerism award
Tim Hoban – Vice-president, Miramichi Branch
Tim joined the Association in 2001 and began volunteering in 2018. He is currently the branch vice-president.
Over his lifetime, Tim has been passionate about volunteering. As a model member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), he made significant contributions to all communities he has served.
He began his volunteer activities early in life. He coached all levels of minor hockey. He was both baseball coach and player when he assisted the Elsipogtog First Nation community baseball team to two regional championships.
Tim has been an energetic member and executive with the Lion’s Club International for over forty-five years as well as past president and governor of the RCMPs Veterans’ Association.
Over the years, Tim has shown particular interest and leadership in helping troubled youths and Indigenous Veterans. He has been relentless in advocating for homeless veterans, to ensure those who proudly served maintain an acceptable standard of living.
Tim’s list of volunteer involvement for his communities and his related accomplishments are many. He is a recipient of both the distinguished Queen Elizabeth II Golden and Diamond Jubilee Medals and he received the New Brunswick Solicitor General Award for work with youth. He has also volunteered for many other associations, winter carnivals and community festivals.
Branch awards
The advocacy award
The Quebec Branch - The branch’s interactions with senior public service officials in Quebec, its correspondence with the 17 MPs in its territory after their election, and its decisive action in Reach 338 are significant successes.
At meetings with several key government officials, the branch addressed Bill C27 and its challenges, discriminatory approaches by Veterans Affairs regarding the slow processing of female veterans’ files as well as francophone veterans’ files.
Reach 338 is the Quebec Branch’s “bread and butter” and they lobbied the five MP’s within the branch jurisdiction to champion the priorities presented by the Branch.
The Quebec Branch provided supporting information and documentation that outlined the branch’s promotion in local media outlets.