www.ecao.org 24 I Being Part of a Community Means Getting Involved and Giving Back By Cathy Frederickson OH&S policy and program based on the new CORTM standards email info@groundprogram.ca web www.groundprogram.ca In a recent article our current President, Mark Lloyd, stated that his involvement with ECAO has extended for a very long time and he wrote, “…we need to be involved if we want to encourage and influence change. It’s far too easy to just sit back and complain, but to make a difference you have to be at the table.” Anthony Capkun, editor of Electrical Business magazine, wrote in his June 2017 article, "Standing in solidarity with the Family," something quite similar to Mark Lloyd. “If I’ve learned anything over the years from our sector and the people it comprises, our electrical industry is a community … a family, and families demand respect and skin in the game.They also expect support from each other…” While Anthony recognizes that having skin in the game requires both time and money, being in the game means being active in your association, donating to other electrical industry events and functions, and being seen as part of the bigger family or community. The ECAO Member Services Committee is the group that provides guidance and advice on programs that provide value to our Electrical Contractor Employers and their employees.The Mission Statement for Member Services is to provide tangible services to our membership that can be accessed at discount rates on a group basis. ECAO’s Affiliate Partners also play a huge role in being part of our association and providing services and products to our members.The Affiliate Partner Program was established long ago with the objective of enlarging our partnerships with the various sectors of the electrical contracting industry, such as manufacturers, distributors, providers of services and discount offerings to our members. In return, the Affiliate Partners would like for our ECAO members to look to them for their future purchases of products and services. Buying from another supporter of ECAO, our Affiliate Partners, enlarges our family and gives them more skin in the game. For this reason I would like to urge our members to review the list of offerings from our Affiliate Partners Directory, posted on the ECAO website and included in this issue of the magazine. Under the direction of our new Executive Director, Graeme Aitken, ECAO will work toward increasing our Affiliate Partner Program with the help of our members, and we will continue to provide events and activities that our Partners can support and sponsor to make them more visible to our members, an integral member of our family. As you are aware, ECAO is in a state of transition, and Graeme and his team are continuing to seek best practices and inventing them where they don’t already exist – building and executing initiatives based on the needs of our membership as seen through the member lens. Our next generation coming into the workplace is very different from their predecessors, in that “giving back” may not be on their immediate agenda, but we have to change that and instill in them that by giving back to their community they gain valuable networking experiences and professional development.This will be their “skin in the game” and their opportunity to have a seat at the table. ...being in the game means being active in your association, donating to other electrical industry events and functions, and being seen as part of the bigger family or community.