A long post, but here is what happened at our Annual General Meeting Last week. There is also a YouTube playlist with some of the presentations... The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre (OCCSC) held its Annual General Meeting on September 17, 2013 at the Ottawa Chinese Alliance Church, 22 Eccles St. in Chinatown. The reception and registration began at 5:30 pm, with community members arriving to register and enjoy the delicious complimentary food provided by Kowloon Market. The AGM began at 6:30 pm with Board President Jonas Ma welcoming everyone. Ottawa-Centre Member of Parliament, Paul Dewar, got up to express his appreciation for the long-term service to the community of the OCCSC in helping to make newcomers welcome to the city and of course for our excellent programs and services which smooth the transition to economic and social integration. Although Yasir Naqvi, the Ottawa-Centre MPP could not be in attendance because of his duties in the Ontario legislature in Toronto – he sent a letter of appreciation and acknowledgement read by our President Jonas Ma. This wonderful letter praised the OCCSC for playing a key role helping newcomers to the city and congratulated us for our very successful Employment Program which has been re-branded as In-TAC. In-TAC has opened an Accounting Co-op Business Centre at 725 Somerset St. W. in the heart of Chinatown that helps internationally educated professionals (IEPs) with an accounting background acquire Canadian work experience – helping them overcome one of the typical immigrant roadblocks to getting a job. Mr. Frank Dyson, Ontario Trillium Foundation Representative, came to the podium next to make a formal announcement of the Foundation’s multi-year funding to the Accounting Co-op Business Centre. Mr. Dyson also acknowledged the success of our employment programs and the vision of Mr. Ying Xie, Senior Program Manager, in establishing the means for IEPs to gain their first Canadian work experience in their chosen profession. Sharon Kan, OCCSC Executive Director, delivered an excellent presentation with an overview of the previous year’s accomplishments and challenges. Sharon was delighted to announce that the OCCSC will participate in the upcoming Mayor’s Trade Mission to China (thanks to BMO sponsorship) in October and expressed her satisfaction that the agency is recognized as a key partner in the city’s pursuit of talent and investment and of course immigrant settlement services. Ms. Kan highlighted as well, the upcoming book launch of internationally renowned author and recent Order of Canada recipient Denise Chong, who has produced a book entitled “Lives of the Family, Stories of Fate and Circumstance” published by Random House, which grew out of the agency’s participation in a government research project focusing on the experiences of early Chinese settlers to Canada. The book is available for purchase from the OCCSC offices. Sharon thanked the Board, the staff, volunteers and donors for their contributions to the success of the agency. She reserved special thanks however to departing Board members Vice-President and Governance Chair, Hazel Wong and Board Secretary Connie Tang, who served two consecutive three-year terms. Connie established Group Health Benefits and the RRSP package for the OCCSC staff during her tenure. Finance Committee Member Luise Czernenko-Reid, delivered the Treasury Report for Vivian Chan who was on vacation, and once again the report demonstrated the high degree of competency of the accounting office as overseen by the Finance Committee. Vice-President and Governance Committee Chair Hazel Wong, put forward three motions for the approval of the membership. The first motion was to amend the Constitution and By-Laws to include the Executive Director and Vice-President as co-signing authorities on contracts, deeds, transfers, licences and agreements (along with the President and Treasurer). The next motions were to approve the re-election of Board Member Odette Rwigamba to a second three year term and to elect nominee Eric Cheung to the Board of Directors. All three motions were passed by majority voting with no dissenting votes. Undoubtedly, the most poignant moments of the AGM were the client testimonials. First up was Lucia Burgess, who was a client of both the Language program (LINC) and Employment Services. Lucia is an immigrant from Romania who was a stay at home mom for 4 years until she found her way to the OCCSC LINC program to improve her English. She expressed her gratitude to Snezana Minic the program manager and to teacher Susan Shapiro for their helpfulness and diligence. After completing her LINC studies Lucia joined Employment Service’s Enhanced Language Training (ELT) class for accounting (her profession) whereby she learned to master the new terminologies and procedures offered by this program and successfully passed the program’s final exam. Thanks to the job readiness coaching and job-matching skills of of Juliette Smith – one of the program managers, Lucia landed a job with a local accounting firm and is very grateful for the assistance offered by the agency – it has literally changed her life. The next touching testimonial came from Ms. Qiai Xie, who desperately needed assistance from our Client Services division. Her daughter came to Ottawa in 2008 and two years later was diagnosed with cancer. Ms. Xie came to Ottawa Canada to spend time with her daughter while she was fighting for her life but had limited resources and was referred to our agency. Our workers helped her find a temporary place to stay. Unfortunately her daughter passed away in 2011 leaving behind a nine year old son. Because Qiai’s grandson did not want to return to China with her our workers got the Children’s Aid Society involved to find him a temporary foster home and eventually a loving family to adopt him. There were also legal issues concerning her daughter’s will and properties in Canada as well as in China. Altogether, three workers from Client Services assisted Mrs. Xie and her grandson. Now that everything is settled satisfactorily, Mrs. Xie is ready to return to China. She is very grateful to OCCSC for what the caring staff in this division, managed by long-time employee Rupert Yeung, were able to do for her and her grandson. This was a fitting way to conclude the AGM – listening to the appreciative testimonies of our clients. It provided inspiration to Board members, staff and volunteers to keep up the good work of the OCCSC for the coming year. https://youtube/watch?v=CytrbNYUBKQ&list=PLvFl0Y0A4KwsEIVGmyTpR4K-T8xwVRmOw
Posted on: Wed, 25 Sep 2013 19:15:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015