Project Name: Joint Governance Training and team building session

Project summary and highlights:

Waterloo Wellington and Dufferin Federations met together for joint governance training, moderated and presented by Murray Short of RLB.

Directors had one hour for lunch to mingle, share experiences.

The afternoon session involved focus groups and discussing successes, failures, solutions and how we could all work together better—both as a single Federation, but also as 3 Counties with common goals, and with OFA overall.

How were funds used, any partner contributions besides the Federation?

Funds were used to bring in a professional in not-for-profit governance training, and for the venue which includes the food, venue, and AV needs. The meeting was conducted via hybrid with the facility OWL as one Director was in Florida, and one home sick. This also enabled recording for future use for new Directors or as a refresher.

Describe lasting and relevant impact to the OFA membership.

With stronger County Federation Boards, the Boards will be better able to serve the membership both short and long term and better equipped to tackle emerging issues as one voice.

Well trained Boards are more likely to inspire trust a credibility among donors, partners, members, politicians, and the community at large and more likely to recruit vibrant new Directors wanting to be part of a ‘winning team’ By showcasing the expertise and dedication of our Boards, we can further establish these Federations as reliable and reputable organizations.

Bonus – any lessons learned, or surprises?

I think it was surprising how engaged that the Directors were. Murray Short (that led the governance session) was surprised at the number of questions from the floor and the depth of substance.

Regarding the team building afternoon session, the Directors all stated that they crave these types of events to share their experiences, successes, failures and as a conduit to new ideas. They have requested that a similar team building event for the 3 Federations be held at least once per year. All came home with new ideas—some that were not scripted or expected.