An enthusiastic group of over 50 members gathered at the Worker's Compensation Board offices in Edmonton on October 2, 2002 to hear Susan Flaherty, Diane MacDonald and Julia Melnyk speak about facilitating change in a variety of environments.

All three speakers brought a great deal of credibility to the session. Ms. Flaherty is a management consultant and facilitator who specializes in the maximization of individual and organizational competencies through responsive ad effective strategies and processes. She has run her own consulting firm since 1995.

Ms. MacDonald consults on issues of organizational strategy and change and is also a leadership coach. She has consulted in both Canada and Australia, running her own consulting firm since 1997.

Ms. Melnyk opened her firm, Springboard Consulting, in 1987. She consults on workplace diversity and organizational change and has written a series of handbooks to aid in the employment of persons with disabilities.

The goal of the evening was to provide an interactive session that would help chapter members understand the impact of organizational change on employees, and share best practices regarding retention, recognition and respect in a changing environment.

The format of the session was highly interactive. The room was set up in three small groups to facilitate discussion, with each group covering one of the "R's." Each speaker spoke to their group about how their topic related to the subject of organizational change. At the end of each mini-session, a question was posed to the audience at large and in each group, participants were invited to discuss what their organizations were doing in each of the areas. Questions included "How does your organization understand and meet employees' needs?" and "What recognition strategies are you aware of that have been successful in supporting change?"

The speakers also took time out to address some of the questions that had come up during the networking portion of the evening. Overall the session was well received by participants who found it to be very relevant to our ever-changing world of business today.

Many thanks to Mary Kykosz and Alex Viera of the Edmonton Chapter for providing the details and feedback on this Chapter Meeting.