Key Messages from the Board of Directors Meeting held February 8
As part of the Board of Directors’ ongoing commitment to regular communication with our members, we are pleased to provide you with the following update from our board meeting held on February 8.
Safe Sport
An educational session was held during the meeting with Ilan Yampolsky from ITPSport, a third-party company that has been secured for the PGA of Canada’s Safe Sport implementation.
Over the next six months, there will be a review of the PGA of Canada’s Code of Professional Practice and some changes will be made to the disciplinary procedures and policies to ensure any Safe Sport issues are automatically run through a third-party investigator.
Training Academy Booklet
Significant changes have been made to the Training Academy Booklet to make it more membership focused. The booklet is currently in the graphic design phase and target launch is late February. Because this booklet is going to be mailed out to the membership, we ask all members to ensure that their mailing address is up to date on the PGA of Canada website. To make sure your address is up to date, view the ‘change your address’ section of your profile.
Job Posting Proposal
A proposal to increase the visibility of PGA of Canada job postings was supported by the Board and will be implemented in early 2021. There will be more opportunities for hiring managers to have job postings disseminated to the membership. Ideas about expanding sponsored job postings and emails were explored as well as adding a section in the bi-weekly Insider Newsletter.
D&I Taskforce Update
The Diversity and Inclusion Task Force’s working groups have completed their governance reviews and will be focused on the operations of the PGA of Canada for February and March. At the most recent meeting, six working groups reported findings after reviewing recent PGA of Canada operations. The working groups, focusing on; New Canadians, Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC), LGBTQI2S+, People of Different Abilities, Women, and Socio-Economic Status, presented findings and recommendations on February 22.
ED Summit Review
An Executive Director Summit was held December 8 and 9, 2020, with the main focus being the membership pathway. Operational items discussed included policy development around industry hours and new processes to be added to the Apprentice professional & applicant processes. Policies are being created and will be added to the website once completed.
Honorary Life Member and Honorary Directors
There have been a few changes made to the criteria for both the honorary director and honorary life member distinctions. This included the addition of granting honorary director status to the PGA of America and We Are Golf association presidents for the duration of their terms as president.
A motion was approved to make Bob Weeks the newest Honorary Director of the association. Bob is a senior reporter and analyst for TSN, covering golf and curling, and was previously the editorial director of SCOREGolf Magazine. In 2013, Weeks was named the recipient of the Golf Journalists Association of Canada’s Dick Grimm Award for his lifetime contributions to the game of golf. In 2014 he became the 67th person inducted into the Ontario Golf Hall of Fame. In addition, he was inducted into both the Canadian Curling and Golf Hall of Fames as a builder in 2016, becoming the only person to be inducted into each. The current honorary director list was reviewed and approved by the national Board of Directors.
Next Board of Directors Meeting
The next board of directors meeting will be in early April.