Summer is here and time for everyone to enjoy some well deserved vacation time.  There used to be an urban myth that summertime brings down-time to the non-profit sector, but that has not been my experience.  At this time, we welcome students into our agencies, new volunteers and plan programs for the fall.  Not to mention juggling staff vacations. Sounds busy to me!  I wish everyone a fun and safe vacation this summer.

FOCO’s calendar is filling up for this fall with the return of Executive Director Circle meetings on September 17th, followed by a new Board Governance program for agency board members on September 20th and 29th.  This two-part series will be customized for the registrants in the program.  Don’t forget to mark your calendars for October 25th – a provincial conference on the Voluntary/Non-Profit Sector labour force in NS.  This ground-breaking study will provide final data that can support strategic developments in the management of our human resources over the next several years.

Still in the planning stages are a workshop on sharing services and sharing staff and a one-day forum highlighting innovations in the non-profit sector.  Finally, I am excited about the re-design of FOCO’s website. The goal is to make the website a regular place for members to share and access cool and practical information, useful resources, exciting news as well as to link with what’s going on around the province and country.  I’ll be touching base with all our members to ask for your ideas on the re-design of the website.

Happy Summer!

Veronica McNeil,
 Executive Director
Federation of Community Organizations