CanWIT Chair Farewell

August 2014...As I complete my two year term as Chair and interim CEO, I look back and I'm amazed how far we have come. In July 2012 when I took the helm, CanWIT was facing declining paid memberships, lack of governance, losing focus and some chapters were looking at operating independently.

CanWIT's mandate is to provide knowledge and support through a number of different programs to women in technology and technology related roles, as well as support to those interested in entering the sector. To do this we needed a strong national presence with focused programs created through the CanWIT leadership team (of Emily, Nicole, Cathi, Alice, John and I) and through the work of the CanWIT Advisory Council of 15 incredible women who helped in the restructuring of the organization.

The CAC established three goals in the fall of 2012: to create a governance framework and board manual; grow from 38 paid members to 500 and increase the participation in our Ementorship program to 500. These were achieved by the fall of 2013. At our 2013 AGM, Nicole Whittle was elected as vice-chair.

We had another transition when Emily Boucher, the CanWIT Executive Director transitioned to another job outside of CanWIT. With the help of Nicole, Emily and the CAC, we started to look for a part-time volunteer CEO who could share the leadership of the organization. In April of 2014, Sandra Wear joined CanWIT as the CEO. She played an important part at the CanWIT's first day-long planning session and is actively involved in the day-to-day work of CanWIT. At the planning session we agreed to the following Strategic Priorities:

• Influence: build influence in the private, public & academic sector to drive policy associated with mission.
• Knowledge: domain expertise and thought leadership on women in technology.
• Relationships: provide the means for CanWIT members across the country to connect, learn and help each other.

We were hard at work supporting chapter events and helping with establishing new chapters. There were 38 different chapter events with over 700 attendees in the past two years. The Vancouver chapter has mentored the first CanWIT student chapter that already had 3 events! In addition, we gained new sponsors which gives us the financial resources to accelerate our activities. CanWIT also provided an OSC Consultation Paper Submission, to advocate to have more women on boards. Our partnership with WXN also gave our members access to their events. The CanWIT newsletter and video messaging increased our communications with our members.

We have come a long way in the past two years, with the help of the CAC, the Executive Committee, the chapters, all the CanWIT members and especially CATA leadership. As I hand the role of Chair over to Nicole, I won't be disappearing, but here to help Nicole, Sandra and all as Past Chair. Thank you all for your help and support during the past two years, you have been great!

Catherine

_____________________
Dr. Catherine Aczel Boivie, ICD.D
Chair, Canadian Women in Technology (CanWIT)