We followed government and public health recommendations and closed our Calgary and Edmonton offices on March 19. Our core business operations quickly pivoted. Within a day, staff members were working remotely, connecting with stakeholders—and each other—through phone, email, and our existing digital platforms. APEGA Council met virtually throughout the year to provide governance oversight and direction. Our statutory boards and committees also moved online—like our Board of Examiners, which continued reviewing and approving Canadian and international licensing applications. Staff and volunteers conducted other key regulatory activities digitally, including investigative interviews, discipline hearings, practice reviews, practice standard consultations, and Permit to Practice seminars. We also had great success offering web-based events and activities for professional development and outreach. In compliance with public health measures, we cancelled our annual APEGA Professional Development Conference and Summit Awards Gala in April. For the first time in our history, we were unable to gather for our annual general meeting, also in April. We were still able to confirm our Council election results following authentication by our third-party election vendor and approval by APEGA’s Ballot Counting Committee. COVID-19 tested our systems like never before. But it also provided us with an unmatched opportunity to revisit why and how we do what we do. A willingness to adapt—by staff, volunteers, and all our stakeholders—ensured that our various regulatory, operational, and governance functions were not negatively affected by the unexpected shift.
Supporting Our Membership
Through the Pandemic APEGA’s Crisis Management Team, executive leadership, and Council worked together to find feasible ways to support our membership while still being able to function the way we need to. Several initiatives were undertaken to address challenges facing our membership and ensure continuity of APEGA services: • we enabled registrants facing financial hardships to apply for a reduction in their dues, and permit-holding companies to defer 75 per cent of their dues • we lowered our continuing professional development requirement for all registrants to 30 hours for the year • we put a hold on all cancellations of licences and permits from April 2020 to March 2021 • we offered extensions to members-in- training who were under- or unemployed and unable to gain the four years of experience necessary to receive their professional licence • we waived our job board and mentoring fees until March 2021
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