Dear fellow Vincentians:

This will be my final quarterly report as my term as Ontario Regional president ends on July 1st, 2016. I have issued these quarterly reports as a means to highlight specific issues and to notify our members of what we are doing at the regional level in various areas. I truly hope I have been able to provide a level of communication between the region and our councils and conferences that has created an atmosphere of collaboration between all levels of our Society here in Ontario.

I value my 5 years as John Staley`s vice president and the opportunity to work with John Staley during his term. John demonstrated a truly spiritual dedication to the values of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and I thank him for being both a friend and mentor. I am also very grateful for those members who have been part of my executive committee as well as our voting members, conference presidents, store managers and all Vincentians across Ontario. It is the examples of our Vincentian spirituality that you have demonstrated to me that have inspired me over these years. Whether you give a few hours, or many hours, in the course of a year is irrelevant as long as you can do as much as possible to alleviate poverty in Ontario. I thank every member for your efforts.

I would like to congratulate Linda Dollard as she prepares to begin her term as the next Ontario president. I also look forward to anticipated changes and revisions that Linda and her term may bring to our operations. I pledge my full support and invite all members to do the same.

I shall remain involved with the Society with an emphasis on social justice at both the Ontario and national levels. I ask you to be open to social justice and to support our efforts we try to address the many injustices related to the cycle of poverty. We simply have to do more to help our brothers and sisters to escape this cycle and find some real hope for a better future for their families.

Twinning-All councils are strongly urged to demonstrate the importance of twinning to their member conferences by sponsoring a twin. If we are to expand the twinning program and realize further success, our councils must get involved. Our national Twinning chair, Clermont Fortin, will be contacting all councils this year here in Ontario and across Canada with the same message to become an active twin. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul is a global organization which has a worldwide network of conferences. What better way to demonstrate the power of this global network of peace and caring that to twin with a member conference in a less fortunate part of our world. 
Social Justice-We continue to ask that every council and conference appoint one or more members to act as their social justice reps. Please submit your reps. contact information to me at jpssvp@hotmail.ca. You can also learn more about social justice by going to our website (www.ssvp.on.ca) and then click on social justice.

Renewal-I encourage all presidents to review their term of office and if you are past or near the end of your term, please dedicate your efforts to the election of a new president. All council presidents should be aware of the election date of their conference presidents and contact any that are in need of a replacement. We have resources to assist any president with an effective succession plan.

Stewardship of funds-As you know we ask each council and conference to make an annual pass up of $510.00. ($260.00 for national and $250.00 for Ontario). I would like to thank for your support and we understand not every council or conference is always able to meet this goal. We also have several councils that are able to afford this amount, and in fact, send well above the requested amounts. The Ontario Regional Council in turn is able to meet and even exceed our annual assessment from the national council. In addition, as we continue to develop new programs aimed at helping our friends and neighbours in need to escape the poverty cycle or at the very least, have some hope for a better future for their families. The Ozanam Education fund, the RESP savings plan are examples of such projects. In addition, we have taken on a very active role in working with our newest friends in the far northern region of Nunavut.

These various projects will need further funding as they continue to develop. Therefore, I would ask that each council and conference review their financial needs by developing an annual budget to better estimate what your needs are and then identifying excess funds that you could consider passing up for one or more of these programs. We have no desire to tell you what you should pass up as that is a decision of your council or conference. We can only ask that you conduct such a financial review.

In addition to pass ups, there could be conferences that have to cut back on their current level of local services to those in need. If this is the case, you should appeal to your council for assistance rather than make such cut backs. If needed, the Ontario regional council can also if needed.

Lastly, I would like to invite all of you to our Ontario Regional Meeting which will take place during the National AGA in Vancouver, BC. We will be meeting on Wednesday, June 15th at 7:00 p.m. More details and the agenda will be sent out closer to the date.

Sincerely,

Jim Paddon 
President 
Ontario Regional Council