September marks the beginning of the new “Board year” for Toronto CFA Society. We have an exceptional Board of Directors that I am proud and privileged to lead for the 2009-2010 year. We welcome three new Board members this year–Fred Pinto, CFA, as programs vice-chair; Peter Rusheleau, CFA, as external relations and advocacy chair; and Rossa O’Reilly, CFA, (his name may ring familiar to many of you–he has been here before) to the member communications portfolio. At the same time I want to personally thank the “retiring” Board members for their sterling efforts and dedication over the past few years. Tom Trainor, CFA, past president, who led our continued drive to becoming a leading-edge governance and oversight Board as well as the process for hiring our new executive director; Irene Goryn, CFA, whose enthusiasm and creativity significantly improved member communications–in particular, to make this publication excellent. Last, but not least, Dino Bourdos, programs chair–programming is the cornerstone of Toronto CFA Society–and under Dino’s guidance our programming has been remarkable in both its breadth and quality.

The first sentence of our Mission Statement is “to provide a forum for education, information, and communication centred on the needs of investment professionals.” Being the second largest CFA society in the world in terms of membership, with over 7,000 members, Toronto CFA Society has a staffed office of seven professionals. Working with the many volunteers across numerous committees, a large proportion of employee resources are focused on programming and education, including the continued development of the Toronto CFA Learning Centre–a cohesive professional development platform.

We host, on average, two events per week including topical lunchtime speakers, focused educational courses, and more extensive seminars. We have also introduced a number of eLearn self-study courses. Examples of programs that we offered over the past year include a two-day advanced oil and gas analysis course developed and presented by Sproule Associates; an all-day private wealth conference; numerous financial modelling courses; luncheon presentations covering topics such as the Canadian securities regulatory landscape, international financial reporting standards, and investing in gold. eLearn self study courses cover subjects such as corporate treasury management and value at risk.

If you are on our e-mail list, we encourage you to review the numerous and varied professional development opportunities that we offer. If you are not on our e-mail list, you should be. I encourage you to look out for programs and events that may be of interest to you–come and learn with us!