Since this is a group in its early, early stage of infancy I'd love to learn what skills everyone has that they feel could impact the organization and if anyone would be interested participating in the first Board of Directors?

I was going to start investigating what's required to get an organization registered as a non-profit because that's what I'd like to see. Makes it easier to solicit money as well <grin>....

Join in the conversation.....

OK, I can start. I am a Project Manager/Business Analyst by profession and have 20 years of experience in IT field.

My goal is to spend as much time as I can to help social causes and non-profit organizations. More specificaly, I will give my best to help out any activity this group decides to undertake.
For more insight into what I am up to see my blog:
http://azra-pmp.blogspot.com/

I have a hunch that we have an interesting complementary mix of people in this group and that is exactly what we need.

I am first and foremost a mother of 2 girls - 11 and 18. I also own my own business, as well as work in healthcare infrastructure in a Project capacity somewhere between Project Assistant through Project Management, have worked for a large ISP here in BC, transportation, customer services, sales, have access to contacts in government, education, health care, and political circles in the LM and in a few places in the US. I have personal contacts across Canada and through the US, as well as with folks who are from England, Australia, South Africa, and Peru who would be able to either connect us through the 6 degrees of separation to people who would be able to assist us in growing in those areas, or help us do so through their own interest. I have strong research and written communication skills, and am not afraid to ask for help, items, donations, information or connections, and my husband has many years of experience in education, business development, non-profit, is a past president of the Chamber of Commerce, a business owner, father, grandfather and entrepreneur and enjoys public speaking. We are both skilled computer software users.

Husband Rob stated that while it is very easy to form a registered society, but a couple of points to consider are:
Is this a Provincial or Federal society?
There is a Directors' liability that needs to be addressed as it requires the society to provide insurance to protect the Directors.
He suggested that you may want to confirm whether or not the society is required to be registered Provincially as well as Federally. Here is the BC Society registry website incase you don't have that yet:
http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/registries/corppg/crsocieties.htm

Over to you... :)

Also, we should check into charitable societies, which can give receipts to people for donations. There are also other societies that may have same type of philosophy that you do, which you could work under....just some thoughts.

I'm so excited to see everyone jumping in and participating in the conversation. A little about me. I'm a former administrative professional and am now building a business as a personal life coach working with busy women to find balance and clarity in their lives. My strengths lie with strategic planning, administrative policy development, event management, budget development. I'm really liking the diverse set of skills being presented and I'm thinking we will in the near future need to have a brain storming session to start developing some early direction and determine some actions for those who want to get on board in build the organization from the ground up.

I've been checking out the various contacts here on Idealist and think it might be a great idea to see if we can find one to invite to a teleconference to assist in the early development, what does the group think?

Anyone else, would love to hear more about the others.....

Nice to hear everyone's accomplishments and goals for our group. I feel that i can contribute greatly in building the foundation of our mission and sustaining it through diligent and committed work. I am a graduate of Florida International University where i attained my B.A in International Relations/Business. Over the years, i have gained abundant experience in Business management, working closely with my family in our business. I am currently working as an Executive Marketing Assistant for a very successful painting company here in Florida. I am originally from Hungary, and lived many years in Canada before moving down to the States to fulfill my Bachelor's Degree in International Relations. I speak fluent Hungarian and English and am bilingual in French and Spanish. My passion lies in education and i am currently working towards completing my TEFL Certification (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) in order to diminish the language barriers across the globe.
I think the more communication we have in the group the better we can develop our goal.. so whether by teleconference or internet, consider me in.