MDRAO President's Message

Fellow members of the MDRAO, 

Welcome to our AGM. We apologize for the tardiness in bringing this to you at such a late date, but it was not without trying to.
 
At our last AGM, we had some serious things that were going on, with the previous president, vice president and past president resigning; a lawsuit and a dismissed association administrator. All of these things combined made it very tough for a brand new small board to sort through. We secured an association management team that fits our association's needs and will allow us to grow. During the immediate months following, we managed to prioritize and, with Gary's tremendous selling skills, put on one of the best annual conferences in recent memory. Following this high, we proceeded to work as a team on various issues, such as our education system, website, etc.

Then we lost Gary to the president-elect position at CAMDR. We congratulate Gary, but we miss his infinite wisdom and drive. Also, COVID-19 raised its ugly head in our country. Things got cancelled. Travel got cancelled, and when you have board members from all corners of the province, this becomes an issue, and the Ontario government issued a list of people to receive COVID pay, and we were not on it. I immediately drafted a letter to The Premier, M of Health, Long Term Care, and Finance plus all union heads about what we do and why. I also encouraged our membership to email a copy of the letter to their respective MPP. This campaign seemed to have worked, as MRD workers were accepted into COVID pay. That is all MDR workers, not just members.

We received three new board members into our group last May, and unfortunately since then have not been able to meet them and ease them into their new roles. I will introduce them to you in a bit.

I have tried numerous times to get moving on an AGM but have failed there because I would prefer to meet face to face rather than via conference call, and I am not too familiar with Zoom, which we are using now. Every time I would try to get something going, someone would go into lockdown. It has been a frustrating time to say the least.

Thankfully, we are all here now to share what we have done to keep this association great and yours.

Regards,
Jeff