AEE Southern Ontario Chapter 2019 Spring Update

2019 has seen a new and refreshing governance structure for the Southern Ontario Chapter. The new board positions are designed to both spread the workload more evenly among board members, and to get more member support for what is now a much larger chapter. Each board member now has committed to chairing one of the standing committees, and to be the organizer/owner of one chapter event each cycle. In the past the events were the responsibility of a single board member who only had the other board members to draw on for support. The new approach allows for members and non-members to support the committees in fulfilling their duties and creating a Chapter that everyone wants to be a part of. The last event nearly doubled attendance, so the new approach looks like it is working well.

Sponsors
We have a total of six sponsors in 2019, Belimo, Union Gas, IESO, Kilmer, Star Energy and CLEAResult. Four out of six sponsors continued sponsorship from 2018 which demonstrates the value in our chapter. These sponsors are Belimo, Union Gas, IESO, Kilmer.  We were able to secure two new sponsors in 2019 which are Star Energy & CLEAResult.

Speed Presenting
For our last spring event we will be trying a special format to encourage networking and information sharing; something like “Speed Dating”; without the dating. The basic format is summarized below. The first step is to solicit presenters/table hosts for the 8 spots available. Each participant of this event will be sending their name, a brief bio, and a one paragraph description of what they would like to present to the chapter’s president a few weeks before the event date.

Further chapter activity plans:

• Look into hosting an evening student event downtown
• Look at cross referencing survey with the number of meeting attended to make sure the direction is not influenced by people who do not actually attend
• Social event. Look into hosting on a rooftop patio downtown Toronto in summer 2019
• For social event, look into partnering with other organisations / events, e.g. green drinks, or CIET
• Establishing Chapter Award Committee including criteria, managing nomination process, etc.