Introducing INTA's Past Leaders Project Team

Tish Berard of Hearts On Fire (right), who was on the Board for three years until last December and has also chaired the In-House Practitioners Committee, is one of the Co-Project Team Leaders, which includes former members of the Board of Directors, past Committee chairs and past Committee Vice-Chairs as well as current members of the Leadership Development Committee. “We have a wealth of knowledge and skill-sets and we are pairing that with a great group of Committee members,” she says.

Berard says the Project Team’s first goal is to identify what opportunities there are for former leaders to help in the work of INTA through its Committees. This could include speaking at conferences or webinars, mentoring or working with young practitioners. “If there are past leaders that have ideas about things they would like to see, or opportunities they could fit into, we’d love to hear from them,” says Berard.

Fellow Project Team member Marina Stipanac of Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall (right), who has served on various INTA Committees, adds: “We’re going to be working with a large list of past leaders. Hopefully we will be able to create a large pool that will be a resource in the future, beyond the current Committee term.” To start with, the Team will be reaching out to some former leaders following the Annual Meeting.

At its meeting this week, the Project Team will identify particular Committees and Subcommittees who might benefit from past leaders’ experience and may also see if there are lessons to be learned from other organizations. But Stipanac says the Project Team also looks forward to hearing from Committee members with particular needs: “We hope other Committees will think of us, for example when they need a speaker for a conference or a webinar. It might promote new ideas if they know this resource is available.”

The Project Team has 12 members at present, and held its first conference call in February. It was inspired by Rudy Gaines of Marksmen, Chair of the Leadership Development Committee, who recognised a need to capture and build on the experience of past leaders. “We have a lot of talent to draw upon,” said Berard. “We want to make the best use of that in whatever way we can – whether that is speaking, mentoring or just sharing ideas.”