Catching Up With The RIMS Canada Council

Volunteers are the oil that keeps the RIMS Canada Council (RCC) engine running, and this year the council intends to recognize and show its appreciation to those who tirelessly donate their time and expertise.

The council created a volunteer recognition task force, says Kim Hunton, RCC chair. She hopes it will not only give praise where praise is due, but also drum up interest in council activities among new members.

The subcommittees of the RCC — Communications and External Affairs, National Education and National Conference — gathered in February to revisit RCC’s 10-year strategic plan.

COMMUNICATIONS AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS

One of the goals of the communications and external affairs committee is to make RIMS the pre-eminent risk management organization in Canada. By developing relationships with regulators and fellow associations within the industry, it ensures the voice of the risk manager is heard. “We’re trying to make sure that the RIMS and RCC names are known to these entities so that they will come to us if they want to comment on legislation, draft legislation or something that is happening in the industry,” Hunton says. The committee is also looking at and commenting on a draft of ISO Guideline 31000 for risk management, likely to be passed in June 2009.

NATIONAL EDUCATION

The national education committee is working on promoting risk management as a profession, Hunton says. This involves setting up a task force with the William H. McGannon Foundation and furthering the goal of establishing a second risk management program at a Canadian university. Professional development at the chapter level is also on the books, she continues, noting that last November the first ‘Building a Better Chapter’ workshop was held in Montreal. Every Canadian chapter had a representative there.

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

The conference committee is examining the possibility of establishing a national programming committee to “take some of the load off of the local committees who are charged with having to come up with a program during the year,” Hunton says.

The initiative is in keeping with the RCC’s general mandate this year, she says. “It’s really about lifting the load from the volunteers and giving them a hand.”