Did You Know:  Linguistic Duality Day is celebrated on the 2^nd Thursday of September each year across the Public Service of Canada. Canada's two official languages are a fundamental element of our public service and this day provides federal organizations with an opportunity to promote linguistic duality and to celebrate our founding principles and our rich heritage as citizens of a bilingual country. 

Welcome Back!

We hope everyone was able to enjoy the hot weather across the country this summer. As we return, the CPF National Board and office are pleased to provide an update on our activities in preparation for fall 2018. 

The CPF National Board of Directors met the week of August 9-11^th, 2018 in Winnipeg, Manitoba to discuss progress on initiatives underway related to the Official Languages Action Plan and CPF’s role specific to Pillar 3: Promoting a Bilingual Canada, and to prepare for our upcoming CPF National Annual General Meeting on October 21^st.

Members of the CPF-MB Branch Board and Staff joined the National Board for three learning and networking events:

CPF Members Consultation

The half day meeting offered an opportunity to share progress on CPF Network strategic initiatives and to hear directly from members about their priorities, concerns and share in their successes. We reviewed our progress in creating a ‘CPF Network Mindset’ and the current implementation of the Strategic Plan through work underway by the CPF National Board Committees including:

• Branch Bylaws and National Policies Review;
• Network Branding;
• Volunteer Management, Screening and Child Safety Protocols;
• Branch, Chapter and Membership Support Initiatives.

Much conversation centered around the challenges of member retention, volunteer engagement and recruitment, and the need for support to Branches in relation to CPF Network activities.

CPF Stakeholders Reception

The reception, held at the beautiful Canadian Museum of Human Rights, was well attended by individual CPF members, partner organization representatives including French Library and Materials Production Branch / DREF (Department of Education), Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, and the Success Skills Centre. We also welcomed a special guest, the Manitoba Liberal Party leader, Dougald Lamont. It was a great opportunity to renew alliances and build partnerships with champions of FSL education working throughout Manitoba. A thank you to CPF MB staff for their help in communicating the invitation to the many stakeholders. 

Governance Education Session: Media Relations

A media relations workshop was facilitated by Dooley Communications. Lisa Bernstein guided the participants through the important steps in working with various media, provided tips and pitfalls to avoid, as well as an opportunity for volunteers to practice on air interview skills.

The session was well received by all participants and a similar workshop format will be developed and presented at the upcoming Network Conference for all CPF leaders’ participation. The workshop materials have been posted for reference on the CPF National website.

Please see below for important updates and reminders to the Network.

Following the two-year transition period, the CPF Network Key Messages were reviewed by the CPF Network and updates approved by the National Board at the August 2018 Board of Directors Meeting. The finalized messages are posted on the CPF National Website. The next Network review is scheduled for fall 2019.

The Communications Coordinators will be following up with Branches and Chapters to ensure compliance with the agreed messaging, supporting updates on websites and social media accounts as required, while also soliciting input for next steps as we further standardize our CPF Network Brand look in the coming year.

Voting Delegates (Branch Presidents or their Delegate, and National Board of Directors) can expect to receive an electronic package in September with more details for the 42^nd CPF Annual General Meeting, to be held Sunday October 21^st, from 9 am to 10:30 am.

Reminder that CPF National will reimburse the expenses of the Branch President and Vice President, to a maximum of $1,300 to attend the Annual General Meeting. Each Branch assumes their respective Executive Director’s costs.

For further details or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact Cathy Stone, at cstone@cpf.ca who will be pleased to respond.

This years’ Conference in Halifax will be cause for great celebration!

All information is posted and being regularly updated on the CPF National Website: https://cpf.ca/en/actvities/for-parents-members-volunteers/cpf-conference-2018/

Registration is now open online for those attending this year’s CPF Network Conference.  Register Now

To book a flight, visit aircanada.com and enter promotion code: 8N9UR6X1 to benefit from a 10% discount on eligible fares. 

To book accommodations at the Westin Nova Scotia Hotel, Phone: 1-888-627-8553 Central Reservations, the booking code is CJ17AC. Or book online: https://www.starwoodmeeting.com/events/start.action?id=1804117005&key=17973823

To submit a workshop, submit a proposal online. Deadline was originally September 7th, but has been extended to September 10th, 2018. Please encourage all Chapter and Branch delegates to consider sharing their expertise by offering a workshop to their peers.

Every second year, in conjunction with the CPF Network Conference, the organization recognizes individuals who have rendered significant service and who have demonstrated leadership in the advancement of French second language education.

There are three CPF Awards of Recognition:

• CPF Distinguished Life Membership (volunteer)
• CPF National Volunteer Award (volunteer)
• CPF J. Elmer Hynes Excellence in Leadership Award (staff)

To nominate an individual: review the award information and complete the Award Nomination Form posted on the CPF National Website.

Deadline for nominations is September 14th, 2018. Please submit the nomination to Janik Bastide, Network Volunteer Support, jbastide@cpf.ca.

CPF National benefited from the technological skills of David Amoi, Summer Special Projects Assistant, over the month of August. We wish him well as he returns to the University of Toronto.

We welcome and want to introduce you to our new staff members, Janik Bastide and Clémence Charruyer, both begin working 5 days a week in the CPF National office in Ottawa on September 4th, 2018.

As well, we have three individuals continuing or beginning contract work on behalf of CPF National.

Shaunpal Jandu, Public Policy & Government Relations Coordinator - .5
Shaunpal continues CPF public policy committee support as well as offering our linguistic duality partners support to increase our visibility with external stakeholders. You can reach Shaunpal at sjandu@cpf.ca.

Mimi Masson, Research Support Coordinator - .25
Mimi, lead investigator for the State of FSL Education in Canada Report will be offering support with research related data, statistics and reports. You can reach Mimi at mimimasson.work@gmail.com.

Andréanne Simard, QC NU Project Support - .25
Andréanne, formerly working on behalf of CPF NWT, will be offering project support in the Quebec City and surrounding area. You can reach Andréanne at uneandreannesimard@gmail.com.

For CPF, as for many organizations, volunteers make the world go around. Volunteer recruitment is critical and finding the right volunteers can make all the difference. As CPF is also an organization working with the vulnerable sector, including youth, it is important to comply with all legal and insurance obligations to ensure the safety of our volunteers, staff and our clients participating in CPF activities, events and contests.

Beginning this fall, we are requesting that all CPF volunteers complete a profile application form to create a CPF Network Volunteer Registry. In this way, we will better understand who is volunteering for CPF, what they want to do, their availabilities and skills sets, as well as a means to communicate new policies as required by law, provide essential orientation and training, and have a means to assess their satisfaction of their volunteer experiences with CPF.

Branch Action: Inform all volunteers to complete the CPF Volunteer Profile Application Form throughout the 2018-2019 school year to normalize the practice before mandatory implementation.

CPF National will provide each Branch with a list of registered volunteers every two months, starting November 1^st with a goal of standardizing this practice by spring 2019 and enforcing mandatory registration for fall 2019, as per our insurance obligations.

A survey has been created to identify the current situation related to our technology needs as we move forward consolidating tasks and establishing a common baseline across the Network. The baseline data collected will help to establish our technology-related goals, to identify our IT champions, the technology tools and resources that we have currently, and those that we need. This is an identified deliverable within our PCH funding contribution agreements for 2017 to 2020.

The survey will be circulated to Branch staff in September and provide a 60-day response timeframe. Cheri Nixon from the CPF National office will follow up directly with each Branch to provide support to Branch staff in collecting this data.

In the spring, a survey was circulated to staff to obtain information related to satisfaction with our current benefits plan and establish any requests to explore with our provider. 16 of 24 eligible staff responded to the survey. The committee members (Glyn Lewis, Betty Gormley and Cathy Stone) are now reviewing the data collected and will report and provide a recommendation to the CoED in October. We thank everyone for responding and providing their valuable input.

September 20^th is the National I Read Science Day, sponsored by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Families and teachers are invited to select a reading period targeting to read scientific books en français, which could include magazines, textbooks, or stories about science. After reading, students can enter the contest by writing the titles they liked or by sending a photo. Class participantshave the chance to win $ 3,000 worth of scientific books and magazines, as well as $ 100 to apply to purchases on leslibraires.ca. Home based individual participants have the chance to win one of five prizes worth $ 200.

The competition is open to young people from 6 to 17 years old. For details, visit: www.jelislascience.com

A reminder that the CPF National office resumes its regular office hours the week of September 4, 2018.