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IODE Chapters, members, and their good works are in the news. Click on the image to view the most recent stories here. 

Echoes Magazine

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Echoes is the official publication for IODE members across Canada. Published continually sine 1902, it is issued twice each year. View past issues of Echoes. 

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The Joys of Membership

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By joining IODE Canada, you will become part of a growing community of women who play an important role in making a difference in the lives of children, youth, and those in need. Become a Member!
Founded in 1900, IODE Canada is a national women's charitable organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for individuals through education support, community service, and citizenship programs.

An Invitation....
Christian Corbet Art Sale November 2013

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Welcome

IODE Canada is a national women's charitable organization. Women of all ages, from all walks of life and educational backgrounds, meet in local chapters for fun, friendship and community volunteerism.

Members volunteer with and for people, focusing on Children, Education and Community Services. Each IODE chapter has the independence to choose and support projects in their own neighbourhood. If you have just a few hours to spare monthly, you can make a difference and form lifelong friendships.

IODE membership is many things to many people. It is this diversification that holds the interest of the members and attracts others to it. What other organization has so much to offer to so many and in such different age groups?

The main benefit of belonging to IODE is being part of a like-minded group of women who work together to improve the quality of life for those in need. 

 

A Year of Change for IODE Canada
Keynote Address at NAM 2013 by Ann Dyer, National President

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Momentum for Change within IODE Canada
Embracing change is a challenge for many of us, but with the ebb and flow, that is the Momentum of daily life on planet Earth, change is inevitable. 2012 was certainly a year of many changes for IODE. These changes and the benefits they provided are the subject of my remarks this morning.

I recently obtained a beautifully illustrated book, The Song of Life, Native American Wisdom, in which I found a quote that describes change, beautifully and eloquently:

“If the Great Spirit wanted men to stay in one place, he would make the world stand still; but he made it to always change, so birds and animals can move and always have green grass and ripe berries, sunlight to work and play, and night to sleep; summer for flowers to bloom, and winter for them to sleep; always changing.”

Momentum, the theme of this year’s annual meeting, can be described as impetus, or in other words, stimulation or encouragement resulting in increased activity, thus change. Change can take many forms, both in nature, as just mentioned, and in major life events, such as personal development, celebrations, opportunities, strategically planned events and those external events forced upon us where we have no choice.

Another quote, this time from beloved children’s author, C.S. Lewis, explains change in a fun way! Before I quote it, I am going to ask you to think of a robin’s egg, a small perfect oval of soft blue. The robin’s egg is my metaphor for our organization, IODE.

Lewis stated: “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

We must have change to evolve, both as individuals and as an organization. Referring back to my quote from C.S. Lewis, I have never felt in my 24 years as a member of IODE that our organization was an ordinary ‘egg’. However, I strongly felt the desire to see IODE hatch into further greatness and soar into the future with a new Momentum, with the need to grow our membership and with changes to how we operate as a business.

Personal Change
As individuals, personal change is important and desired. IODE Canada’s Office/Administrator and Bookkeeper, Kathy Moffat, embraced an opportunity for change in her life by accepting a new position with another charitable organization. Kathy is dearly missed by those who have worked with her over many years, but I understand that she is very happy with her decision to make a change, and we wish her well in her new position. Many of you in this room have experienced personal changes within IODE such as a change of officer position within your primary chapter, or perhaps at other jurisdictional levels.  

Celebratory Change
From an organization’s perspective, celebratory change is important. Several prominent changes for IODE were initiated by a once in a lifetime event surrounding Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. A special one-time IODE War Memorial Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarship of $25,000 was awarded. Other new IODE projects were developed and celebratory parties took place across Canada. 60,000 Canadians were honoured with Diamond Jubilee medals, 30 of them IODE members. Members with 60 years of service to IODE were recognized with a new 60 year pin. Special pages flowed across Canada gathering Momentum into a lovely book of congratulatory messages sent to our beloved Patron. All these, most memorable developments, came about from this one celebratory event!

Opportunistic Change
Embracing opportunities that present themselves is a great venue for change. There was one such incident that happened last year that will create a wonderful Momentum for IODE. It came about through a suggestion from Canadian artist Christian Corbet, a great supporter of IODE, to apply for armorial bearings, which we did. IODE received notification that the Crown of Canada had recognized IODE with the establishment of a Coat of Arms. This great honour, this new change, recognizes IODE’s historical significance and continuing commitment to Canada.

Another opportunistic event began following notification of the granting of armorial bearings when Christian Corbet offered to hold a sale of his original art in financial support of the granting of armorial bearings. Momentum is being created for IODE with numerous possibilities of promotion for the event to be held in November in Ottawa. A beautiful invitation card was created by Laurel Mayne for distribution, and letters of invitation have already been sent to dignitaries, building Momentum for promotional possibilities.

Strategic Change
Strategic change took place when I declared in 2011 that my mission as National President would be to grow our membership. With the encouragement of the National Officers, I presented Making Connections, a PowerPoint message for the first time at the Officers Retreat that year. I developed this presentation to make members aware of the reasons why our membership must grow, and suggestions for how to do this. The Officers approved the development of a membership campaign, which led to a visit to St. Martins, New Brunswick, where I presented Making Connections … The Key to the Future of IODE for the first time at the chapter’s semi-annual meeting, which was dedicated to membership.

I brought home from that event two of the New Brunswick chapter’s ideas, colourful maple leaf paper cutouts and brick shaped papers. These two items became an integral part of the membership campaign: the bricks representing complacency, where members wrote down why they felt they could not encourage women to join IODE, and the maple leaves expressing what they loved about IODE.

Powerful Momentum developed from that visit to New Brunswick. The membership campaign went national due to a generous grant from the Edith and Gordon Benson Foundation for the President to travel, which I did with great joy. Maple leaves and bricks were brought back to Head Office from every province and the Yukon. The message was out! Develop Momentum within your chapters to grow IODE’s membership!

Strategically planned events bring change, challenges, and require dedicated commitment by those involved. A decision was made to review National awards and projects, which resulted in the names of some IODE awards changed for clarification and easier promotion of IODE. The monetary gift for some awards was increased for more promotional prominence.


Another such strategic change was initiated last year with the development of a new national website by Public Relations Officer Laurel Mayne and Website Committee Chair Renate Schuetz. The newly developed website, launched earlier this month, embraces endless possibilities for the promotion of IODE to the public and clearer assistance for our members in the newly developed For Members Only section. The Momentum that grew from this strategic event was a most successful pilot project with support for ten chapters where they developed and launched their own new websites on the platform. Many other chapters want in on this project and will be creating new websites, expected in the months to come. The word is out about this fantastic, strategic project which ensures the consistent branding of IODE, while allowing for individuality of the chapter.

Forced Change
Fifth, and lastly, forced change is upon all charitable organizations due to the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, which requires changes to modify our organizational structure and fiscal reporting. IODE is no exception. At the Constitution plenary tomorrow afternoon, you will hear more about the Act, and the results of the balloted vote by members. The Momentum that will be created by the required changes is significant at the National level, and the new Board of Directors will have many challenges ahead.  

In summary, I have suggested that five different types of change face IODE: personal, celebratory, opportunistic, strategic and forced, all of which create Momentum.  If these changes are embraced in a positive fashion, think of the opportunities for growth in our organization! If we resist these changes, we will stifle Momentum and languish into mediocrity …. an egg, unhatched!

We need to crack the egg that is IODE, and let it fly to new heights – creating Momentum everywhere it goes. Your National Chapter cannot create Momentum on its own.  It needs the support of all members to embrace the changes ahead, and support the development of Momentum in ordinary, everyday aspects of our IODE lives.

I wish the next National Board of Directors, as well as all officers of every chapter, much success as they positively adapt to the changes to come.

I leave you this morning with one clear message: I urge all members of IODE to embrace the changes upon us:

“If the Great Spirit wanted men to stay in one place, he would make the world stand still; but he made it to always change, so birds and animals can move and always have green grass and ripe berries, sunlight to work and play, and night to sleep; summer for flowers to bloom, and winter for them to sleep; always changing.”



Ann Dyer
National President
31 May 2013


Heritage and Traditions

IODE is proud of its heritage and traditions. In 1900, Margaret Polson Murray of Montreal encouraged the formation of a federation of women to promote patriotism, loyalty and service to others. 

The first chapter, Federation of the Daughters of the Empire, was formed in Fredericton, New Brunswick on 05 January 1900. Primary chapters were formed in quick succession across Canada as were junior chapters.

In 1901, the Federation was incorporated as Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire and Children of the Junior Branch. IODE was incorporated as a Canadian women's organization by a special act of the Parliament of Canada in 1917. 


IODE Today

Under the jurisdiction of the National Chapter of Canada IODE are Provincial, Municipal and Primary chapters across Canada. With approximately 4,000 members across Canada in more than 200 chapters, the IODE tradition of serving children, youth and those in need continues. The name IODE was officially adopted in the 1970's. We are a federally chartered charitable organization. 

IODE Canada and our members across Canada undertake an extensive variety of charitable and philanthropic projects every year. These include financial assistance and contributions of time and effort to students, educational institutions, hospitals, the under-privileged and those in need.