By Isabelle Privé
On Wednesday, April 27, we held our 3rd team meeting to review our activities, establish a few ground rules and announce SCD's support for the Kilimanjaro project.
(SCD = Desjardins Card Services)
Starting with an idea tossed out in December, the project has grown beyond all recognition. We are now 33 ready to embark on this adventure. Of these, 25 work for SCD.
We must mention Desjardins because the idea for this adventure grew from its values and initiatives regarding health and well-being. Values like team-work, excellence, innovation, pleasure and self-confidence have been adopted by SCD and are at the heart of both our project and our professional lives. Of course we want to get to the top of Africa's highest summit but we also want to make the most of the journey there. We want to live these values at each step of the way between now and "Day K". The most important value of all - do it TOGETHER.
Obviously we wanted Desjardins' blessing and collaboration and the presentation of the project, the team and our values was met with enthusiastic support. The administration decided to join the adventure by giving us access to all Desjardins' channels of communication, by giving us an internet site, together with technical support for communication, blog and internet uses. They also contributed financially to start us off - something we hadn't even dreamt of. In other words, our employers pledge to follow and support us every step of the way.
So we say THANK YOU to Desjardins Card Services for daring to set out on this adventure with us.
At our last meeting, a brainstorming session had thrown up some ideas for raising the $240 000 we'll need. Since then, we've carried out our first financing activity which was crowned with success. The Easter sale of chocolate - handmade by some of our members - and sold at the office, far surpassed our expectations. SCD employees have a sweet tooth and showed their support by buying our whole stock in just a few days. It was also the first time that we'd gone public as future Kilimanjaro climbers. We had a lot of fun producing the chocolates at Sylvain and Janie's. A real production line. Except when the Canadians scored!!! Chocolate's all very well but no question of missing the series!
With support from Desjardins and our first activity over, we now have to get down to the next step which is ORGANISATION. How do you organise 33 people so that everything works, the activities take place, information circulates and everyone is involved?
First of all, we must lay down some ground rules - a sort of contract that everyone accepts and which ensures that all members pull their weight equally, that there are no hangers-on in the team. It was decided at the outset that all funds raised by the team would belong to all the members and go towards financing the expedition. We also decided to get in shape and organise everything together. To become a real team, you have to find the means to nurture it.
Right from the beginning, it was essential for each member to get involved in the planning and execution of fund-raising activities; to be serious about getting fit, participating in walks, climbs and other physical activities; and, finally, to be assiduous in attending meetings, keeping informed and taking part in team decisions.
We've all accepted these principles. André and Manon will be charged with recording everyone's presence and participation.
We have agreed as well about who does what: Mélanie will keep a calendar of the fund-raising activities; André and Manon will keep everyone in line, be in charge of communications and act as treasurer; Martine will supervise communications outside the team. We've also volunteered individually to lead certain events.
There'll be one-off events like a Bowl-a-thon, a wine and cheese party, and so on. There'll be on-going activities like the production and sale of home-made confectionary and muffins. And there'll be recurrent events like check-out grocery packing.
We also hope to illustrate our future web-site with photos of all these events and to post interesting articles on our blog and keep our readers up to date with our progress.
.......That was some meeting.......!
Translated by Pamela Gauvin
Home-made confectionary: trail-mix nuts, chocolate pretzels, pop-corn, sugared pea-nuts, chocolates and so on. These are all stylishly packed, presented and sold at the office.
