Chairman's update

It is fundamentally important to maintain the channels of communication between the Society's Board and members. To this end, the print version of Vaahteranlehti contains a membership survey that I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes to fill out and kindly return. More information and the survey itself can be found in the "pullout" section of the bulletin. Also, I would like to take this opportunity to briefly introduce the Board and outline our goals and plans for the rest of the year.

At our Annual General Meeting in March, two new board members were appointed: Maryna Siemenski will take on the Communications portfolio, and Antti Vanhanen – who has been working with the Society for the past year as our Administrative Assistant – will take on the task of Treasurer.

Continuing on the Board is Heikki Kokkonen, who is responsible for membership issues (like our membership survey); Carmen Boudreau-Kiviaho, editor of the Vaahteranlehti and in charge of special projects; and André Nöel Chaker, who will be presiding over Public Relations.

And I have the distinct pleasure and privilege of working with such a talented team! Together we will fulfill our main goals: to be even more responsive to members and attractive to potential members, and to leverage our position as one of the leading friendship and culture societies in Finland.

For events, the Society will try and organise two social events during the year: Canada Day and pikkujoulu. We will also continue to cooperate with the Canadian Embassy in its calendar and any other potential cultural, educational, or work mobility event where it is important to have a Finnish-Canadian Society presence.

I hope you enjoy the articles in this, the first installment of the Vaahteranlehti for 2003. In May, we completed a small update of the Society website and will continue to update throughout the year. Finally, we plan to publish a handy informational brochure about the Society for distribution at key points all over Finland. What we say "about us" will attract new interest to the Society and will convey our message to the community at large.

To make this all happen, it is vitally important to enhance membership support and collect membership fees. To date, our campaign has been rather successful, so thank you for your contribution! Additionally, grants from the Ministry of Education permit us to continue building the Society in the way that we collectively aspire!

By Dwayne Weleschuk

June 03

• What an atmosphere!
• CECN explores
the Nordics
• Hayley Wickenheiser
makes history on ice

• Finland revisited
• The rules of innovation
• Educating Women for Global Management
• Finland finishes second in case competition