Honorary Life Membership — 1979

May 28, 2021 

To recognize outstanding service and commitment in the field of electrical distribution, honorary life memberships were created. This type of honorary membership was to be conferred on “those persons who have made an outstanding contribution to the electrical distribution industry and the association through active, meaningful participation in the affairs of the association: who are no longer active on a day-to-day basis within the industry.”

The first honorary life membership recipients were Harry Horsman, Walter Jamieson, Don Hughes, and Bill LeGallais.

The Long Range Planning Committee filed an interesting report about what CEDA members thought about their association. This report was the result of a survey that was sent to 110 voting representatives, of which more than 50% answered. The highlights of the report included:

• 63% felt there would be a greater need for associations in the future
• 42% rated CEDA as providing excellent or good services to members, while 58% said it was fair to poor
• 51% felt CEDA should be doing more in the field of government relations
• 46% felt the membership dues were too high, while 52% thought they were just right

The committee ended their report with recommendations on the dues structure, developing activity, and improving the exchange of statistics. After lengthy discussion, the Board of Directors accepted all the recommendations of the Long Range Planning Committee, and passed the motions accordingly.

The matter of the titles of the association’s officers was back in the spotlight. At the September Board meeting, the Directors on a split vote agreed to change the title of the Chief Elected Office (President) to Chairman of the Board, and that of the Executive Director to President. However, the Board was not finished with the subject: at the November Board meeting President Jim Redmond stated that he felt the matter should be re-examined because, “although unanimous approval was not required ,the matter should be rediscussed to avoid any confusion as to the purpose of the proposed changes.” The reasons for the changes as then outlined were

• the proposed titles more accurately reflect the duties of the persons involved
• the title of “President” is more useful to the senior staff person dealing with outside groups
• Chairman of the Board was the title being used by an increasing number of trade associations

With the reasons for the changes clarified, the Board voted unanimously in favour of the changes. (The discussion became somewhat academic when the Executive Director resigned and the change was not implemented until 1981.)

Source: CEDA: Fifty Years of Service – An Historical Review of the Canadian Electrical Distributors Association, 1934 to 1984, Kerrwil Publications. Please feel free to reach out to us any time if you have great photos, historical anecdotes or perspectives. We would love to hear from you; linegoyette@kerrwil.com. 

Photo courtesy of jarmoluk at Pixabay.