GBA - Summer 2019

12 ≥ www.georgianbay.ca GBA UPDATE Summer 2019 Taking the Wheel of the GBA Ship By John Carson, GBA President PRESIDENT’S REPORT I became GBA President at the annual general meeting of our 19 member associations on April 6. The full slate of GBA Directors and Officers elected at the AGM is printed in the box at the end of my column. Firstly, I want to thank our outgoing President, John McMullen of Bayfield-Nares Islanders’ Association (BNIA), on behalf of the Board and all members of the GBA. Simply put, John has gone above and beyond the call of duty on behalf of GBA. John is a ten-year veteran on our Board, including serving two years as EVP and two years as President. When GBA selected Rupert Kindersley as our new Executive Director last year, Rupert stepped down as President of GBA, and John kindly agreed to fill the breach by completing Rupert’s term in office, and became President for another year. When Bob Duncanson retired as the ED, John chaired the Search Committee to find a new ED. Having served on that Committee, I can say that John almost single-handedly did all of the organizational and administrative work for the Committee, which was considerable given the number of applicants. John also spent a huge amount of time working with the Northern Georgian Bay Association (NGBA), our member association in the Killarney area, on the Wiikwemkoong First Nation’s land claim and land use arrangements in the area. He continues to cover that file for GBA, and we are grateful for the good working relationship that John has developed with the Wiiky First Nation leadership. John has been a consistent voice of calm and reason on the Board. As President he put a steady hand on the wheel of the GBA ship, even in the face of adversity on certain issues. His approach to the position is one that I hope to emulate. So I’m grateful that John has kindly agreed to stay on the Board and on our Executive Committee for another year, despite having considerable other volunteer work with BNIA and the Canadian Safe Boating Council. I’ll be grateful for his advice and support. To briefly introduce myself , we’re in the Wah Wah Taysee Association community, a small association located north of Go Home Bay and south of the Manitou / Twelve Mile Bay area. When my father built the outer-island cottage over fifty years ago, there was no one for miles around because most of the land in the vicinity had been owned by a single family since the 19th century. There was no power, no phone, no contact. A wireless signal could only be seen on TV’s The Jetsons (dating myself there). It felt like you were on the edge of the earth; you could barely pick up AM radio. It was a big event when the odd boat cruised by on the Channel, or a canoe from Camp Hurontario quietly paddled by. Things have changed of course, and with cellphone signals you feel closer to civilization and can even stay abreast of current events without recourse to days-old newspapers. Many more cottages are in the area, and boat traffic has increased greatly, at least when huge waves aren’t crashing straight down the very exposed part of the Channel south of O’Donnell Point, across the full expanse of the Bay. In certain areas the development pressures creeping from south to north are quite evident, as they are on the municipal planning front in several of our municipalities. The GBA is becoming more active on planning and development issues in response, and hopes to align communities along the eastern and northern coast of the Bay on a consistent set of planning principles. Our goal at GBA, working with all our members, is to preserve as much of that remote Georgian Bay landscape and feel as we can, including its still-thriving ecosystems. That was a motivation for me to join the GBA Board six years ago. Very soon I became Editor of GBA UPDATE , which is a ton of work (a big shout-out to Rolfe Jones of Cognashene for taking on that role, bringing his lengthy experience in the magazine business to UPDATE ). But it’s all gratifying work and important work. And working with our large group of very capable, friendly and committed Directors makes it fun work too. Those are all reasons why I’m very pleased to take on the role of President of GBA. I feel like those motivations are shared by all of our Directors on the Board, who contribute significant amounts of their time to all the activities that keep the GBA working