posted 2024-08-03 14:16 by Gilbert Kai-Ming Tam

Email sent to AGOAC program coordinators from Kerry:

Dear Program Coordinators,
Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Kerry Wakefield, the Community Recreation Manager for the North Area. I have had the pleasure of working with some of you over the years and for those I don’t know, I hope to get to know over the coming months.

Firstly, I wanted to reach out and thank you for your leadership and volunteerism with AGOAC these past 10 years. The club has grown as a result of your efforts and dedication. Your role as program coordinators is instrumental to the success of the organization and ensuring that the programs are running smoothly.

As you are aware, there have recently been some changes in the Board of Directors for AGOAC. Two directors have resigned; the Vice President and the Secretary. Given this recent change and the fact that there is an election in the near future, the City has offered to provide additional support through the last few months of the term. The board has accepted this offer. As such, city staff will manage AGOAC with help from the board for the remainder of the term until the next election. To help with this transition, I would like to set up a meeting with you all to discuss the next steps. I have put the information at the bottom of this email. I look forward to meeting with you at that time and look forward to working together to ensure that AGOAC operates smoothly.

Recently, you received an email from the former Vice President about some of the challenges on the board and his reason for leaving. It is regrettable that he chose to leave and it is a loss for AGOAC. The email centred out another volunteer board member, highlighting a series of situations and their part in them. Please note that that email is reflective of one person’s perception of those situations and may not include all of the information.

It is important to remember that program coordinators and board members are volunteers and you all have the best interest of the club in mind. It is also important to remember that email can be spread very easily and can be damaging to people and reputations. Your opinions are valuable and if you have challenges, you are all welcome to submit them to us. However, I will ask that you be thoughtful as to who is copied on or forwarded these emails. As I mentioned, our goal for the next few months is to ensure that AGOAC runs smoothly, to provide support to the board and membership and to support you as program coordinators. We have to work together to make this work.

To assist in this transition period, we are setting up an email account so that members, coordinators and board can send questions, comments, concerns to one place. Staff will then work with the board to address them. This email account, which will be set up shortly, will be agoac@markham.ca.

Program Coordinator Meeting:

Please complete your availability for a program coordinator meeting through this doodle poll: https://doodle.com/meeting/participate/id/bqMwml0b Please include your name and the program you represent. This meeting will take place either at Angus Glen or one of the satellites, depending on the time of day because as you know, we don’t have a lot of space at Angus during the day. My preference is that we meet in person.

I look forward to working with you in the coming months.

Sincerely,

Kerry Wakefield
Community Recreation Manager – North Area City of Markham