I cannot believe that this is my last letter as President.

As I reflect back on the goals we set for the year, they included:

• providing a broader range of programming
• increasing awareness of the CFA designation amongst employers
• improving the visibility of our advocacy efforts
• leveraging the use of technology, and
• helping our members in their career development

Toronto CFA Society has done an outstanding job at meeting most of these objectives, which were guided by the results of our membership survey and focus groups. We tried to balance our members’ requests for courses covering both “hard and soft skills” as well as mixing up the timing of our events. Some of the programming highlights for this and the upcoming quarter include the annual Wealth Management Conference, the annual Pension Conference, and the two-day oil sands course. In addition, we are very proud to be the host of the annual Global Fixed Income Conference, which was quite the coup, as this event is typically held in Boston.

As mentioned in my last letter, we hosted several employer outreach events with many of our top employers. We also carried out our promise to make this year, the Year of the Volunteer, and hosted our first annual volunteer leadership day.

In terms of advocacy, we provided several programming events such as an OTC derivatives event, a Dodd-Frank webinar and a session on banking capital, on the heels of the release of the Basel Three requirements. The Canadian Advocacy Council tackled issues such as the new IIROC requirements under the new Client Relationship Model, the Registration Reform Requirements and Exemptions for fund managers, and commented on regulations on credit rating agencies. The CAC also launched its quarterly advocacy update to our members, entitled Dialog.

An area that we are still working on is the use of technology. We recently installed cameras in our classroom that will allow more of our members to participate in our programming through webinars. We are also working on the implementation of our social media strategy.

As we look forward to 2011 and 2012, we will be looking towards setting a new five-year vision for Toronto CFA Society that will “not go where the path may lead, [but will] go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson