Nova Scotia Chapter
History
The Nova Scotia Chapter (originally the Halifax-Dartmouth Chapter) inaugural meeting was held on December 7th 1989. The first Annual Meeting was held in 1990 with the Constitution being adopted, and a Bank balance of $1600.The initial fees were set at $35, and remained at that level for some time.
| The following were the elected officers for 1990-1991: | |
| President | Peter Etsey |
| Vice-President | Bryn Weadon |
| Secretary | Debi McDonald |
| Treasurer | Doreen Campbell |
| Program Coordinator | Earl Milbury |
| Membership Coordinator | Dave Smart (later to be President) |
| Directors | Ron Myers Francis (Frank) Fleet Frederick Donaldson (later to be President) |
Frederick Donaldson, Chair of PSFMW 1998 Halifax welcomes delegates to the event’s evening gala. At the time, Major Donaldson was ending a 4-year term as the President of the Halifax Chapter, and some fourteen years later is back at the helm.
As many of the initial executives were Federal (Armed Forces) it was some time before Provincial members joined in numbers. Our meeting place was the Halifax Armories, which had a lot of parking and no rent. Later parking became a problem. In 1992-1993, new locations were explored with a variety of different speakers and venues. Our frequency of meetings, attendance and interest all started to decline in 1995. This situation continued to exist until after we hosted the 1998 PSMW where we had 312 attendees, and when we were able to attract the attention and interest of the province. Our financial base improved as well.
In 1998/99 we had a membership of 59 members. This was very encouraging as we had sought regular Provincial input from our inception. Under the leadership of Dave Smart we performed a comprehensive review of all the Chapter activities resulting in a direction to obtain a standard meeting place and time and attempt to attract a more varied attendance. ln April 2000, Richard Neville spoke to a joint meeting of FMl and Nova Scotia federal Council.
From 2000 a new executive emerged with a strong Provincial presence, Kevin Malloy, the Controller for the Province emerged as the new President. He was determined to keep the Chapter financially sound and plan a more focused and less frequent delivery of topic that would be of interest to our members. We have carried on from this point with increasing efforts to now entice the Federal members to attend on a more regular basis. We have developed a Memo of Understanding with Health Canada to use the Learning Centre Plus and have attempted to meet with the Federal Council and similar agencies to develop interest and commitment.
PSMW 2010 Conference Chairs, Mark Huard (National) and, Kathryn Burlton (Local), welcomed delegates on the first day of the conference.
The 23rd Annual Public Sector Management Workshop was held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from June 13th to 15th, 2010. Over 300 participants enjoyed an additional 15 breakout sessions with 25 speakers on the themes of Innovations in Accounting, The Economy, The Environment and The Human Connection. The Honourable Pierre Pettigrew, former federal cabinet minister and now an International Relations Advisor with Deloitte gave a fascinating speech following Tuesday’s lunch. The final event was a plenary session featuring economist Jeff Rubin, best-selling author of “Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller“.
Along with lots of superb local food and entertainment, Maritime hospitality, the beautiful warm weather, and the efforts of a committed group of volunteers, the event was deemed a great success. Our speakers have always been of high caliber and we are continuing to increase our efforts in publicity and feedback from the public sector in the Halifax Metro Area.