QM Institute

We must encourage citizens to understand the importance of civic leadership and provide those who are interested with learning opportunities.

QM Institute offers a Semester of learning opportunities designed to fit into busy schedules.

This Semester will be different from the previous one in that it will make use of Zoom video technology and feature four elements:

1. Three Friday afternoon Seminar/Receptions with several Guest Speakers.
2.  Four hours of video instruction that explores shared narratives of BC history and provides insights into how economics can inform governance issues.
3. Five hours of live Tuesday evening instruction on governance issues with guest instructors using Zoom.
4. Individual visits and interviews.

Are you considering serving in non-profit leadership or municipal elected office? Do you have an interest in public service? Do you wish to expand your leadership skills? Or do you want to understand our governance system better from those who have lived it?  If so then the Public Office Seminars are for you.

QM Institute recognizes that formal classroom learning has important but limited value in understanding the politics of elected governance. This is a subject that is best learned from the experiences of practitioners. For this reason the Seminars will have some formal teaching but will be mostly insights and case studies from those who have experienced elected governance first hand.

Each semester of QM Institute seminars will have ten weekly sessions designed as flexible opportunities appropriate for prospective candidates who are already fully engaged in work or community service.

The first hour will feature Guest Lecturers who are former elected officials. They will share their insights and experiences, successes and failures and lessons learned. The lecturers will be mostly former public officials, but will also include campaign professionals and engaged academics.

Videos and Notes from Previous Seminars

Session One: March-April 2019

https://qminstitute.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/POP-Session-One-Notes.pdf

Class Notes from Session One

Session Two: September-November, 2019

Videos from Session Two

Organizations that encourage or help people to volunteer for non-profit groups:

Volunteer BC

Volunteer BC helps coordinate and educate volunteers across BC. They have a number of volunteer centres, including several in Vancouver and the surrounding municipalities, which offer resources to volunteers, such as up-to-date listings of local volunteer opportunities.

Pan-Canadian Youth Opportunities Platform

This is a Canada-wide website funded by the federal government that helps youth to determine what kind of volunteer opportunities are a good fit for them, as well as providing a searchable database of volunteer opportunities by community and cause.

GoVolunteer.ca

This has a geocoded map of volunteer opportunities for interested parties to search through.

List of agencies, boards, and commissions that are appointed by the provincial government:

The Crown Agencies and Board Resourcing Office

keeps a directory of agencies that might be of interest. They don’t explicitly state that all of these organizations are appointed by the provincial government, but I believe that it is the case. It’s also worth noting that some of these agencies require applicants to have significant experience in the area the agency focuses on, so some of these agencies may not be a good fit for youth volunteers.

For provincially appointed agencies, the above-mentioned Crown Agencies and Board Resourcing Office has a searchable database of open positions, which can be limited to just postings in Vancouver. There is also some additional information on serving on provincial boards available here.

Civic agencies in Metro Vancouver municipalities that need appointments:

A number of Metro Vancouver municipalities post vacancy lists for their committees and advisory boards, although some just list all the agencies that exist, and make applications available without specifying about existing vacancies.

District of North Vancouver: Committee Vacancies 

West Vancouver: Various volunteer opportunities

Vancouver: Green volunteer opportunities; General volunteer positions; Advisory committee vacancies.

Burnaby: List of boards and committees; Application page.

Richmond: Volunteer opportunities for advisory groups and community service; Vacancies for advisory bodies; Database of volunteer openings (allows you to limit results to board or leadership positions).

Surrey: Committees, Commissions & Boards (general information); Current vacancies and application information (applications open until November 29th).

QMI is the Qanqamli McLoughlin Institute for Civic Leadership

Our Institute is named after the relationship between Chief Qanqamli of the Chinook Nation and John McLoughlin, Governor of the Columbia District for the Hudson’s Bay Company.

It is because of their leadership that the Province of British Columbia exists today. Their relationship was respectful and mutually beneficial. Their two children married. The Chief and the Governor both led their people with wisdom and humanity. The trade language Chinook Jargon developed within the environment they created.

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Do you live in British Columbia and are you interested in civic leadership?

If so, we’d like to hear from you.

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