Last year, the BCPhA Leadership team retained external legal counsel to undertake a complete review of the Association’s bylaws. This project was planned prior to the pandemic but was deferred until 2023. Changes to the BC Societies Act and governance requirements over recent years meant it was time to modernize the Association’s bylaws to comply with recent legislative amendments and current best practices in association governance.
The updating and modernization is not intended to, and has not, altered the overall governance structure of the BCPhA reflected in the current bylaws. The intent of the project is to modernize the bylaws by improving clarity and organization. For ease of implementation the previous bylaws will be replaced with a new set of bylaws; however, this does not signal substantive changes in how the Association functions or to the rights of members.
At its January 2024 meeting, the Board of Directors approved the new bylaws and passed a motion to recommend that the modernized bylaws be brought forward to the membership for review prior to being presented for approval at this year’s Annual General Meeting, which is planned for May 31, 2024.
Join legal experts Sara Levine and Michael Blatchford of Norton Rose Fulbright and the BCPhA’s President Mike Huitema and CEO Geraldine Vance in our second and final session as they share the Association’s bylaw modernization project and answer any questions members may have before the AGM.
About the Speakers:
Sara A. Levine, K.C.
Counsel
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Sara Levine will be familiar to many of you, as she has been advising the Association for more than ten years on a wide range of issues. Sara has broad experience as a trusted advisor to clients in the public and private side of the health sector including regulators, research entities, charities, not-for-profit organizations, clinics, retailers, manufacturers, and others. She has extensive experience as a strategic advisor and advocate for clients in respect of health regulatory matters and professional regulation, privacy law and access to information law.
In addition to her law practice, she has spoken widely and made many written and oral submissions to legislative committees on privacy and health legislation, co-authored a leading privacy law textbook, and created a public education website on health information privacy rights. Sara’s knowledge of governance matters is professional as well as personal: she has served on numerous volunteer boards and committees throughout her career, including having recently completed a three year term as Chair of the Metro Vancouver Transit Police Board.
Michael Blatchford
Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP
Michael Blatchford is the national practice group leader, charities, and tax-exempt organizations at Norton Rose Fulbright. He works with charities, not-for-profit organizations, associations, clubs, social enterprises, and other entities in the voluntary sector and advises on all aspects of their operations and governance, helping them to effectively carry out their programs while complying with regulatory obligations.
His clients include a wide variety of professional associations and professional regulators, as well as registered charities and non-profit organizations in every area, from health care, education and social services to arts and culture, environmental and recreation and athletics. Michael advises these clients on governance, meetings, fundraising and tax matters, as well as legal compliance.
Registration Information
This event is only open to BCPhA members and is complimentary. A BCPhA account is required to register for this event. If you do not have a login account or if you are unsure if you have a login, please fill out the Account Creation Form and a member of the BCPhA team will contact you.
Registration closes an hour prior to the start of the webinar, at 5:00 PM. On the day of the webinar, you will receive a link to the webinar by email. The email will come from noreply@zoom.us and could be in your junk folder.