TLOMA Today

Thank you to our Sponsor - Thomson Reuters

We are rounding third and about to slide into home, it is the last month of 2019, hooray!

It is time to reflect on the past year and to look ahead to our goals for the new one. As part of your reflection; what went well, what surprised you, what did you learn, what do you need to leave behind? As you look ahead; where do you need to go, how do you want to grow, what goals would you like to set, who would you like to connect with?

A few easy questions to answer that will help you plan for success.

The board and committees have had a lot of successes; it was an incredibly busy and extremely productive year.

In reflection; we underwent a self-audit of our governance structure and operational efficiencies, met all strategic priorities that were set for the year, implemented a much more effective online learning platform, grew our membership and surveyed the needs of our membership. We look forward to implementing member’s suggestions, feedback and needs into new products and services for next year. We strengthened Business Partner relationships and created new ones, we are creating new format for 2020 Conference and looking to engage more of our membership by providing it in Toronto. We strengthened relationships with other Associations and created new partnership opportunities for our members. Please check out the Executive Director’s Year in Review report for a comprehensive list of our successes.

Looking ahead; we are hosting a Human Resources SIG meeting on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 where we will learn about strategic steps from Dana Hurst of People Corporation and hear about impactful journeys from Marva Bethune (Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP) and Georgia Rennick (Aird & Berlis LLP) two of our TLOMA members. Thank you to People Corporation for sponsoring this event.

On Thursday, April 2, 2020 we are hosting a half day Professional Development event on Advanced Communication and Presentation Skills. Commanding Presence will help us substantially improve our day-to-day business discussions, meeting and presentations. Thank you to Facility Plus for sponsoring this event.

The 2020 Conference Committee is already hard at work planning this event. We are pleased to advise that the Conference will focus on Leadership competencies to appeal to all members. The social and networking event planning is also underway, the Toronto location provides for limitless options for us to connect with our network, grow our network and enjoy the Conference. We are pleased to advise that our Business Partner participation has already exceeded our numbers at this time last year.

There are lots of Special Interest Group meetings in the planning stages, please watch the website and your inbox for more details.

I would like to thank the Nominating Committee and many members for their efforts and interest in filling the 2020 and beyond volunteer roles to serve on the board and committees.  If anyone is thinking about or is interested in volunteering for any initiatives next year please send me a message, I would love to hear from you. pharris@oatleyvigmond.com.

I would like to thank our hard-working Board of Directors, all TLOMA volunteers, and TLOMA staff for their dedication and commitment. Finally, and certainly not least, on behalf of all members thank you to all of our Business Partners, our gratitude and appreciation is immeasurable for without you we would not be able to offer the multitude of member benefits we do.

In closing, I would like to wish you all the happiest of holidays, enjoy time with friends, family and of course take time to recharge and reset for next year. Always be safe.

I wanted to extend my sincere thank you to the TLOMA Community for your warm welcome when I first arrived. It is hard to believe that a year has gone by so very quickly. It has been a privilege getting to know our members and working side by side with an extremely talented group of legal management professionals.

The Board of Directors had a very busy but tremendously productive year.  We worked diligently in meeting TLOMA’s strategic priorities and as a result of all the successes, I’m delighted to report that we are going to keep 2019 prices for all of our member products and services for 2020.

We were able to achieve phenomenal successes this year by undergoing a self-audit of our governance practices, internal processes, and assessing our membership needs. Allow me to share some of the highlights and achievements below.

Governance

New best governance practices were created including an orientation process for incoming board members, Code of Conduct for board members, and a self-evaluation tool for returning board members.  We also improved the survey for exiting board members, updated existing manuals, policies and format for board meetings. The new initiatives were carried out with the intention of providing a positive volunteer experience, meeting best governance practices, increasing engagement among our board members and ensuring that TLOMA is positioned to become a high performing Association.

Operations

From the review of our internal processes, we were able to streamline various practices that not only improved the operations of TLOMA but also enabled us to provide better member services.  We enhanced our Human Resource Management practices where various written personnel policies were created and an improved performance review process implemented. We wanted to establish and align performance metrics with the mission and strategic plan as this will ensure that what is being measured is what is intended to be achieved.

Membership

This year a review was undertaken of the type of membership data and communication TLOMA performs. The purpose for this was to ensure that linkage occurs between our strategy development, the use of standards of services and the impact on and measurement of member satisfaction. As a result, a Membership Task Force was created with the intention of assessing members’ needs.  The Task Force drafted a member value survey that was very well received by our membership.  For a summary of results, kindly refer to the Task Force’s article in this Newsletter issue.

We are continuously looking for opportunities for meeting our members’ needs as well as ways to recognize our incredible pool of volunteers.  This year a membership certificate was created with the intention of increasing awareness of TLOMA and its brand in the legal industry.  All 2020 renewing members will receive electronically the new certificate.  Additionally, we wanted to find appropriate opportunities for recognizing our members and as such created Best of TLOMA Award that will be awarded at the end of 2020 for the best article submission in our newsletter.

Year End

The Board worked diligently on accomplishing 2019 Strategic Priorities and I am delighted to report that they were all completed.  As a result, TLOMA was able to grow its membership by 9% this year, increase social media presence, strike various partnerships with other associations in the legal industry, improve membership services, provide a new learning platform for our Special Interest Group events, offer various training opportunities from other providers at a discounted rate,  secure a new Compensation Survey provider, increase member engagement and communication, and strengthen our Business Partner relationships.

TLOMA’s commitment remains to its members. Its focus in the upcoming years will be on identifying and meeting membership needs and continuously improve.

I wanted to thank our very hard-working Board of Directors, Special Interest Group Leaders, Committee Members, all other volunteers, TLOMA team, and our Business Partners, all of whom went beyond and above in ensuring that we have a very successful year.

On a personal note, I wanted to let everyone know that I have some unexpected but exciting news. I will be leaving on parental leave early next year, but I do look forward to seeing everyone at various TLOMA events in 2020.  During my leave, if you have any questions pertaining to invoices please contact Liz Barrington and for any other inquiries please connect with Karen Gerhardt. Kindly also note that TLOMA’s office will be closed starting December 20th and will reopen January 2nd.

I hope to report back next year on different successes with one main strategic priority - mastering the art of sleep training!

I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy and Safe Holiday Season!  May the New Year bring lots of health and happiness!

Sincerely,

Rose Yanco
Executive Director

The Membership Task Force would like to thank everyone that participated in the member value survey.  As this is a member driven organization, we need to hear from you as to our progress, your member needs and structure our long-term goals accordingly.  It was clear from the number of responses that this type of initiative is appreciated by the membership and that we should continue with it for years to come. 

The Task Force was created with the intention of assessing members’ needs and providing to the board appropriate and timely strategic direction.  A new member value survey went out to our membership and we are proud to report that we had 36% of members take the time to respond.  This is above industry standards and we are grateful to be able to receive such high rate of responses.  The survey was strategically timed to ensure that the Membership Task Force had sufficient time to review results and provide appropriate recommendations to the Board prior to our strategic planning session.

What we learned:

• Members appreciate as part of their membership the Professional Development, access to resources, key updates in legal industry, social networking and TLOMA’s annual Conference
• The new webcast learning platform this year received very positive feedback and majority are very interested in future online programming
• Our members are very satisfied with their current member benefits
• Members are divided as to whether our membership criteria should be changed to include student, organizational, web-only or other memberships. Possibilities will be further explored in 2020
• The long-standing members that have been in volunteer positions value their experiences and expressed desire to continue to support TLOMA

Areas for improvement:

• We have significantly increased our social media efforts this year, but it is clear from the survey that we are still not capturing many of our members online
• TLOMA’s career board is widely used but we can do better in advertising it on social media
• Our out of town members are looking for events outside of Toronto
• More communication from the Board regarding its work and what is taking place at Board meetings would be appreciated by some of our members
• TLOMA’s Compensation Surveys are well received but we should look for further participation opportunities (note: it appears that not all of our members are aware that you can participate without purchasing the survey)
• Many of our members are looking for further online links to resources

Thank you again to everyone who participated. The Board of Directors will ensure that 2020 Strategic Priorities not only support the 2018-2020 Strategic Plan but will also directly address the expressed member needs from this survey.

Your Membership Task Force,
Dawn Millar, Leah Halpenny, Joanne Gibson-Davis and Rose Yanco