Dear members
The holiday is upon us and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a safe and restful holiday season. As a way of keeping you posted on the events of our chapter, I thought it would be useful for you to hear the highlights of this year. However, first, let me introduce the executives for 2018-2019.
My name is Louela Manankil-Rankin, and I am serving the second year of my presidency. Next year, we will be searching for a president-elect so stay tuned for announcements on this regard. The executives for 2018-2019 are as follows:
Vice president: Tanja Simeunovic
Finance Executive Network Officer (ENO): Marta Sadkowski
Policy and Political Action ENO: Sue Faber
Communications and Social Media ENO: Raman Chahal
Workplace Liaison ENO: Abigail Carbonell
Membership ENO: Barb Loeprich
Student Liaison ENO: Justine Lewis
New Grad Liaison ENO: Derek Martin
Members at Large: Jenny Na, Ola Lunyk-Child, and Opal Robinson
The elections for new positions for the Halton Chapter will take place in June 2019 upon the direction of RNAO.
January is the time to plan for the events of the year. Your executives were hard at work since January 2018 and ensured that activities were in place to draw members into the RNAO community. The February activity was Queen’s Park Day and was attended by several of your executives. At this event, your executives sat in conversation with members of the provincial parliament from the Halton region to discuss issues relevant and significant to RNAO members. In March, several of our executives attended the fundraising gala sponsored by the Canadian Nurses for Africa (CNFA). We were acknowledged by this group as their friend. They continue to support our activities and events as we do theirs. Our new graduates from Halton have been intrigued by the work of CNFA and this group has encouraged our new graduate members to find out more about their association’s mission work.
April was a very busy and successful month for our chapter. We submitted a resolution on Lyme disease entitled: Patient First Treatment for Ontarians with Lyme Disease that was accepted and passed at the RNAO Annual General Meeting (AGM) of 2018. The Halton Chapter advocated for the rights of patients with symptoms consistent with Lyme disease to be considered for differential diagnosis and that those who are diagnosed with the disease be supported both in the acute and chronic stages of their illness. Our resolution also asked for a more comprehensive health-care provider education on the disease. May of course was Nursing Week and this year, we honoured two nurses for their exemplary practice. Bahar Karimi, a Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) leader spoke about evidence-informed nursing. Our June event, Cakes and Convos was postponed to November 2018 due to the provincial elections. Cakes and Convos was an event specifically geared for new graduates. The November event included a presentation on financial planning with an opportunity to network with each other and with our chapter’s seasoned nurses. This year we did not administer the Pauline Roach/RNAO Halton Chapter Education Fund. Instead, the executives decided to allocate the funds in recognition of two exemplary nurses during Nursing Week and a nursing student during the Cakes and Convos event. The monetary awards were appreciated by the recipients.
The executives took the summer off and reconvened in September to begin planning the Chapter’s AGM in November. This year the membership drive took place in October and was sponsored by RNAO. To date, 1,047 RNs and 37 students are members of the Halton Chapter. As you can see with the limited number of students in our chapter, recruitment of nursing students to our chapter is a challenge. I encourage and call on you to please share your interest about the RNAO Halton Chapter with the nursing students you encounter. This will help build the future of our chapter.
As of Nov. 1, 2018, our current balance is $3,578.10. Nov. 7, 2018 was our AGM. This year’s AGM was not as well attended as it had been in previous years. We are hoping that we can enhance the enthusiasm in the upcoming year. Please stay tuned for more information about chapter business in February 2019. I will once again be sending you a letter as we enter into the Valentine’s celebration. We are on Facebook and this is another way for you to learn about what is going on in our chapter.
As the year comes to an end and the new year enters in our midst, your executives will once again participate in a planning meeting in January 2019. At this meeting, the executives will create a calendar of events. I will include this calendar in my February email to you.
I wish you a healthy new year and may the good tidings be upon you and our chapter. You can rest assure that your executives will work hard in 2019 to help you stay connected with RNAO and the chapter activities. Please do not hesitate to email me at louelam@nipissingu.ca for any questions, concerns, or suggestions for future innovative activities.
Sincerely,
Louela
Dr. Louela Manankil-Rankin, RN, PhD
RNAO Halton Chapter President
Nipissing University, Faculty of Applied & Professional Studies
School of Nursing, Scholar Practitioner Program
750 Dundas St. W., Unit 201, Office Room 211
Toronto, On, M6J 3S3
Email: louelam@nipissingu.ca